Subject: Re: The guys at SAS
From: [email-masked] (Doug Walker)
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 14:20:15 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Jan Eric Mortensen) writes:
|>   I'm curious, how did SAS get involved with the Amiga and not the PC? AFAIK there is no PC version
|> of the compiler(?)
|>  And do you make anything else for the Amiga?

Way back in the mists of time, Lattice, Inc. wrote a portable C
compiler.  SAS Institute needed a C compiler for the IBM mainframes
(MVS and CMS) and no then-available commercial compiler could do
the job.  We entered into a contract with Lattice to port their
compiler to the mainframe.  A couple of years later, we bought
Lattice, Inc., which DID have a PC compiler marketed under its
own name.

All compiler development (and some of the Lattice developers) was
moved to Cary, NC from the Chicago area.  John Toebes, a SAS 
employee and Amiga aficianado, took over development of the Amiga
compiler in time for version 4.0 of Lattice C.  Lattice continued
to handle development of the non-compiler tools in the package
(debugger, editor, make utility, etc.) and to handle marketing and
technical support.

John and another developer also did Version 5.0 and 5.02 in the 
same manner.  After version 5.02 was released, the responsibility for 
the entire product was moved to Cary and John was given a four-person 
development group.  This group included Steve Krueger from Lattice
and myself.  Steve had worked on the non-compiler parts of the product
at Lattice, and I had been an Amiga developer for years with the 
Software Distillery.  The Institute was now developing all parts of
the product, but technical support and marketing were still done 
by Lattice.  With this configuration, we released 5.04 and 5.05.

After 5.05 was released, the entire responsibility for the Amiga
product was transferred to SAS Institute, including marketing and
technical support.  The name of the product was officially changed
to SAS/C and we came out with Versions 5.10 and 5.10a.

John left the Institute at about this time to pursue other
interests, and I took over the Amiga product.  Our group was
moved into a new division that includes a testing group that
supports our efforts.  With this combination, we have produced
version 5.10b, the V5 ANSI-compliant libraries, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3,
6.50, and 6.51.

The PC Lattice compiler lives on as an in-house cross-compiler,
used to port the SAS system to Intel platforms.  It is probably
still available for purchase, but it's pretty outdated by now.
The Lattice mainframe compiler is now sold as SAS/C for the 
mainframe.

-- 
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Any opinions expressed are mine, not those of SAS Institute, Inc.