C Compiler for A3010 - recommendation?

[chuck42]

Hi folks,

I did some programming and little benchmarks with the Archimedes BASIC and found it quite performant, e.g. even a tick faster than Basic 10 on the Mega65.

However for me BASIC doesn't real work out for more complex projects.
What recommendation do you have for C Compilers on the Archimedes?

Thanks!

[danielj]

There's the standard:

https://www.4corn.co.uk/articles/acornc5/

[sirbod]

There's also the official C/C++ via DDE which is commercial and then there's GCC which is free. Both are actively maintained.

You might struggle with free memory on a A3010, in which case use a RiscPC emulator as a development environment.

The one Daniel has linked above will be sufficient though if you're only targeting your own machine.

[chuck42]

Thanks guys,

I will try the first choice, since I want to feel programming on the real machine ^^

I briefly scnanned through the three or four official official docs (compiler, asm, desktop tools, and UI). I found the libs function for the GUI etc. but I havent seens anything on bitmap graphics.

Any good reference recommendation on implementation of fast bitmap graphics ?

[IanJeffray]

You might struggle with free memory on a A3010

One of the very best things you can do for an A3010 is a 4MB RAM upgrade.

[paulb]

You might struggle with free memory on a A3010

One of the very best things you can do for an A3010 is a 4MB RAM upgrade.

And probably some kind of fast storage. I used Easy C on a 2MB, floppy-only A3000 back in the day and it was just about bearable. I then upgraded to Easy C++ and found it less than satisfactory, but I admit that it might have been pushing the limits of the machine, although I was quite sure that the compiler wasn't really generating conformant code. By then, the author appeared to have moved to the US to work at DEC, if I recall, but that didn't stop the vendor happily continuing to sell the product despite there being little chance of any fixes or ongoing support: a familiar tale from the Acorn scene at the time, I'm sure.

[chuck42]

You might struggle with free memory on a A3010

One of the very best things you can do for an A3010 is a 4MB RAM upgrade.

Luckily I do have the SimTec 4MB installed

[chuck42]

You might struggle with free memory on a A3010

One of the very best things you can do for an A3010 is a 4MB RAM upgrade.

And probably some kind of fast storage. I used Easy C on a 2MB, floppy-only A3000 back in the day and it was just about bearable. I then upgraded to Easy C++ and found it less than satisfactory, but I admit that it might have been pushing the limits of the machine, although I was quite sure that the compiler wasn't really generating conformant code. By then, the author appeared to have moved to the US to work at DEC, if I recall, but that didn't stop the vendor happily continuing to sell the product despite there being little chance of any fixes or ongoing support: a familiar tale from the Acorn scene at the time, I'm sure.

I have a SimTec IDE with and Compact Flash 512MB installed. Unfortunately the previous owner fixed the 512 CF with hot glue ... Does anyone know how much space the SimTec IDE supports, I still have a 2GB CF floating around...

[IanS]

I have a SimTec IDE with and Compact Flash 512MB installed. Unfortunately the previous owner fixed the 512 CF with hot glue ... Does anyone know how much space the SimTec IDE supports, I still have a 2GB CF floating around...

It should support 8 partitions, of up to 512MB each. https://web.archive.org/web/20150906035 ... ts/AUIDE8/

[SKS1]

I have a SimTec IDE with and Compact Flash 512MB installed. Unfortunately the previous owner fixed the 512 CF with hot glue ... Does anyone know how much space the SimTec IDE supports, I still have a 2GB CF floating around...

512MB is like 25x more than the hard disc size that we developed the system on!

[paulb]

And probably some kind of fast storage. I used Easy C on a 2MB, floppy-only A3000 back in the day and it was just about bearable. I then upgraded to Easy C++ and found it less than satisfactory, but I admit that it might have been pushing the limits of the machine, although I was quite sure that the compiler wasn't really generating conformant code. By then, the author appeared to have moved to the US to work at DEC, if I recall, but that didn't stop the vendor happily continuing to sell the product despite there being little chance of any fixes or ongoing support: a familiar tale from the Acorn scene at the time, I'm sure.

Digging around, I found this relevant discussion from a long time ago:

Is EasyC++ recomended ?

The author was Dave Allison, and it seems that he was working at BT when he wrote Easy C++, subsequently moving to DEC. I'm not sure I would have had the energy to write a C++ compiler in my spare time.