Return-Path: Received: from MAXWELL.ECE.CMU.EDU by K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU; 11 Dec 88 21:36:25 EST Received: by maxwell.ece.cmu.edu (5.54-ECE2/5.17) id AA06552; Sun, 11 Dec 88 21:36:01 EST Date: Sun, 11 Dec 88 21:36:01 EST From: John Hagerman Message-Id: <8812120236.AA06552@maxwell.ece.cmu.edu> To: bovik@k.gp.cs.cmu.edu Subject: C Compilers for the PC Harry: Here's a summary of responses to the question "What is the best C compiler for PCs (for use by a novice)?" In a nutshell, the answer seems to be Turbo C, even for the non-novice. ----- Date: Sat, 3 Dec 88 20:09:50 EST From: Stephen.Palm@SPEECH1.CS.CMU.EDU BY far, the best C Compilier for the PC is Microsoft C. It has several libraries and has an awsome window oriented debugger. It also comes with Quick C which is an integrated editor/compiler/debugger. Borland's Turbo C is also recommendable... it has gotten good reviews although I haven't personally used it. kiwin ----- Date: Sat, 3 Dec 88 20:53:32 EST From: Steve.Hoffmann@SPICE.CS.CMU.EDU We use Microsoft C at Talisman Software and (at the request of specific) customers) we have used Datalight C. Both are fully functional compilers with full libraries and I haven't found any bugs in either of them. The Microsoft may have an edge in effieciency of final code, the Datalight is a bit quicker to compile. For the novice, however, you might consider Turbo C from Borland. I have never used it but Turbo Pascal, their first compiler product was quick and easy to use for small programs. It didn't have the memory modeling and stuff for large programs so we never used it for anything but testing ideas and stuff like that. I don't have price info on any of them right at hand but I would bet that Programmer's Connection (mail order) would have a good price. I can look it up if you want. We have bought from them and they have very good price and service. ----- Date: Sat, 3 Dec 88 21:09:00 EST From: Paul Glenn McKee For use by a novice, on PCs, I doubt there is anything better than Borland's Turbo C. Its price is eminently reasonable. The quality of the compiler is excellent--some of the (optional) warning messages have saved me hours of debugging time simply by pointing out inconsistencies that some C compilers I have used would have ignored. The version I used (1.5) included the Borland graphics library (pretty impressive, judging from the demo, and it supports the Hercules card) but did not have the new debugger (available in version 2.0). The debugger looks fantastic and should further speed program development. The compiler is unbelievably fast, even though it produces real .OBJ and .EXE files. I used it on an AT-clone with a slow hard disk, and even on that machine it would compile one file and link it with the rest of a large program in about 20 seconds, which is good. Turbo C's documentation (as of version 1.5) was good but not outstanding. Microsoft's Quick C is also inexpensive, includes a debugger, and is fast. I think it is somewhat less flexible than Turbo C--for instance, only one memory model is available in the integrated editor/compiler environment, though all memory models are available in the command-line version of the compiler. My biggest problem with it was that the keyboard commands were more cumbersome than Turbo C's. Some of the restrictions may have been lifted in subsequent versions, and perhaps you could customize the keystrokes, but I liked Turbo C better right out of the box. And consider this: Microsoft can't make Quick C too good, or it will take away too many sales of their big C compiler. Borland has no reason not to make Turbo C the best compiler they can. I have also used, but cannot recommend, Lattice C version 2.1. Hope this helps. Paul McKee ----- Date: Sat, 3 Dec 88 23:50:28 EST From: Christopher.Fedor@H.GP.CS.CMU.EDU The best i have seen - both in documentation and price vs performance is the turbo c compiler by borland. las t i checked it was only about $100 included many support programs, including an editor and make. It could also be used with your own editor. Their intro doc included info for first time c programmers familiar with pascal. enjoy, chris ----- Date: 4 Dec 1988 21:29-EST From: David.Maynard@maxwell I would recommend Turbo C (by Borland) as the best overall. It is fast, full-featured, and has a pretty good environment. Perhaps best of all is the price which is much lower than many products that aren't as good. The CMU computer store sells it a site-license prices which are very low. Turbo C also has the advantage of being the 2nd de-facto standard compiler. Microsoft C is the absolute standard, but it costs ~$200 and doesn't have full ANSI support or graphics libraries included. -David ----- Date: Mon, 5 Dec 88 08:37:40 EST From: Omead Amidi I have used turboC on the pc. I don't know how much it costs but I know that it is not that expensive. It's very very fast and it has an editor that you can reconfigure to look like emacs. Omead ----- Date: Mon, 5 Dec 1988 09:06-EST From: David.Miller@GANDALF.CS.CMU.EDU I have a fair amount of experience with Borland's Turbo C and Microsoft's Quick C and Professional C compilers. Turbo C has by far the best working environment. I only wish it supported use of a mouse. It compiles quite quickly and produces pretty good code. CMU now has a site agreement with Borland so it is dirt cheap at the Computer store (~$33 including documentation). The latest release includes a symbolic debugger. I haven't upgraded yet so I have no experience with the debugger, but it has had very good reviews. Quick C was meant as a competitor for Turbo C and I feel there is no comparison. I find it inflexible and not as nice an environment although it uses a mouse (in fact I wouldn't recommend it at all without a mouse) It generally costs around $50. Microsoft Professional C produces high quality optimized code. It doesn't compile as fast as Turbo C but the executables are faster. It is a command line only compiler. It includes a good symbolic debugger CodeView. It cost around $230 at the computer store which is also and excellent price (most mail order places charge $300+) A relative newcomer on PCs is the WATCOM C compiler. I haven't used it but it has had good reviews for produces code more highly optimized than the Microsoft Professional. It supposedly includes debugger, etc. For a novice the Turbo C is probably the best bet. Low price and nice environment. It is not by any means a toy compiler though. --David ----- Date: Mon, 05 Dec 88 09:19:53 EST From: Marc Dyksterhouse I can't recommend strongly enough the Turbo C compiler from Borland International. I learned C with this compiler. I use version 1.5, but version 2.0 (with integrated debugger) has been out for a couple months. It has a very friendily integrated environment. This includes an editor, compiler, and debugger. This is one of the three leading C compilers in the DOS world. It has by far the most bang for the buck. I think the list price is about $150, but the street price is under $100. Just look in a magazine about PCs in the mail order ads or try a local dealer. As for speed, they don't call it Turbo for nothing! All of Borland's Turbo line is know for its speed of execution. It especially stands out in file I/O. It supports a math coprocessor (it figures out at run-time if one is present). The best thing about it isn't how fast the programs execute, it's how fast you can write something with it. It compiles the source while it is still in the editor at something like 30,000 lines per minute. It's hard to find that kind of speed on a mini computer. The documentation comes in two books - an introduction to C and the Turbo C Integrated Environment, and a reference guide to the language. The intro also has a good training section that compares Pascal to C. The compiler is fully ANSI C compatible. As you can tell, I'm slightly biased to this compiler. I started with Borland's Turbo Pascal compiler and wouldn't think about using anyone elses. Hope this helped. marc dyksterhouse mdd@sei.cmu.edu ----- Date: Tue, 6 Dec 88 13:07:36 EST From: Emil Ochotta The best luck I've had with C compilers for the PC is going with microsoft. I've been using it for about 3 years and have gone through 3 release versions. These are becoming industry standard for examples in PC programs. As well, it is designed to implement the UNIX V5 library (which is provided of course) and is relatively compatible with source from BSD 4.3. I developed a C Compiler and my research (OASYS VM) on my PC AT with this compiler. Both of these were ported to the Vaxes here with a minimum of fuss (just write to be portable). The reason I chose to develop on my PC (besides the fact that I like the editor better) is that my Microsoft C compiler is ANSI standard. This means it can perform argument type checking and a myriad of other wonders which make debugging much easier. If you have specific questions, give me a shout. Emil -----