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Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 3.8 KB

Path: news.infi.net!usenet
From: [e-mail] (Greg DiGiorgio)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Which C compiler?
Date: 17 Feb 1996 13:48:37 GMT
Organization: Customer of InfiNet
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <4g4mbl$[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]>
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In article <[e-mail]>,
[e-mail] says...
>
>Hi!
>
>I'm a beginner in C programming. Just having learnt the basic concept of
C,
>I found I still couldn't write a *real* program. The ANSI standard
doesn't
>provide the variety of functions that a usual program needs, such as
text
>color, graphics, and that kind of interface stuff.

That is true, very true. And for reasons like that, you must step outside
of the ANSI standard. But the idea of the ANSI std is not to make 'C'
100% portable, but to simply make a good portion of the code
platform-independent. For example, assume you write 'C' programs for
Windows, invoking the Windows API and you want to port to UNIX X-windows.
Much of your "user-interface" code will have to be rewritten to run on
X-windows (or you must have a tool that knows how to xlat Windows API
calls to X-windows). But the brainy part of your code - where you do
calculations and the like - will probably be portable if you stick with
standard 'C' library functions.

>
>So I'm facing a problem. The fact is that I'm using Turbo C++ 3.00 for
>learning purpose. There's lots of libraries helping achieve the desired
>effects, such as BGI. But BGI certainly won't be included in Microsoft
>C/C++ (not mentioning Visual C++ that I *cannot* use!). So I think
>switching from a C implementation to another is rather difficult. But
what
>implementation should I choose? There are so many different versions of
>C/C++, like Borland, Turbo, Microsoft, Symantec, and so on. After I've
>made my choice, I want to stick to it. But the problem is which one I
>should choose.

It depends... First, you must decide which platforms
(DOS/OS2/Windows/UNIX) you want to develop for? Once you've done that,
then pick the compiler that provides for most target systems. Beware that
once you've done that, you are locked into that compiler for the
system-dependent code. The upside is that multi-platform compilers allow
you to have one set of source code that runs on more than one OS.

As for sticking with just one compiler, here's an example of why you
might not want to do that: I wrote a DOS-based 'C' screen painter/code
generator. I wrote all the platform-dependent code in assembler (gotoxy,
kbhit, textcolor, textbackgorund, mouse functions, etc). That allowed me
to have compiler independence, at least in DOS. As such, I compiled my
'C' libraries in Turbo-C, Turbo-C/C++ (all versions), Borland C/C++ (all
versions), and MS-C V6.0. Doing so, allowed me to target the big DOS
compilers (at that time) to have the widest possible audience for my
package. If I had become dependent on say, Turbo-C only, my potential
customer base would have been much smaller.

>
>Can anyone tell me what is more suitable? By the way, I learnt from
books
>that C is famous for its portability. How's the portability differs
among
>the various versions? Thanks a lot!

For DOS only, I'd use Turbo-C/C++. For DOS & Windows, I'd prefer Borland.
For Windows only, I'd use MS-VC/C++ 4.0, For other platforms, there is a
single mfr that makes a C/C++ compiler that goes against most everything,
but I can't remember the name - even though we have it at work. The mfr
name is about as recognizable (or non-recognizable) as Symantec.


>
>Regards,
>Wong Yuk Wah
>
>* Origin: IcoNET <--> Internet/Usenet gateway, 128:1000/1 (128:1000/1)

Hope this helps,
Greg DiGiorgio