CompuServe Messages

>>(Okay, okay, so it's a Mac product. But it's a darned good Mac product… 🙂 Yeah, actually SAS's compiler isn't very good. (sorry). It is really slow compared to similar Mac products RUNNING ON THE SAME PROCESSOR. You'd expect a powerpc compiler to beat it, but I've used a C compiler (don't remember which, Turbo C maybe) on a 68020 Mac and it was lightning compared to SAS. The C code is alright, but the C++ preprocessor is rediculous. I use (and am abused by) Visual C++ on a PC, both 486 and 586, and it compiles most C++ programs about 10 times as fast as SAS on a 40MHz 68030. The 68000 code of most Mac compilers is a lot better thought out and evolved than the SAS. It's nice that they made it, but someone needs to make a really kickass compiler. I've looked at even optimized SAS/C code under assembly, and the whole model the code is built by is in need of improvement. It works, and is more reliable than Microsoft C++ (which has made some of my programs tell me 10^3 is 999) but a fancier C++ compiler would be great. I would jump ship in a minute if something better came along, and who could blame me… it's not like SAS has been loyal to us, why be loyal to them. If a fairly quick and dirty C++ compiler came up, I'd buy it in a minute.