#Lat C 5.0 vs 5.1
6 messages in this thread
Lattice C Users,
I recently was "forced" into a situation where I had to acquire a C
compiler. A friend who has both Manx and Lattice said Lattice was the way
to go. He only got Manx because of some editor that was very much like his
favorite Unix editor.
Anyway I called Go-Amigo and ordered C 5.1 which I understood was the
latest version. They sent 5.0. They claim that was what they recieved from
the suppliers less that a week ago and was the "latest" version. I have
also read in the forum that some people characterize 5.0 as "useless" due
to large numbers of serious bugs. On discussing this with Go-Amiga, they
refused to take th product back in its unused condition without a
"resotcking fee" (which I feel is not appropriate since they did not send
what ai asked for).
A call to the Lattice folks got me transferred to a SAS folk who said the
upgrade was $40 and that maybe I could get the store to supply it free!
(Yeah, right!!) There where some indications that 5.1 is an upgrade
available only to 5.0 and not avialable as a seperate package. I called
Creative Computer and they said they only had 5.0 at the moment (which is
what Go-Amigo SHOULD have told me when I ordered – guess we know who is
ahead in the honesty test…).
My questions are these: Is it OK to crack the 5.0 and use it or is it
really that buggy? Is the additional $40 for the upgrade worth the bug
fixes/improvements? Should I return the 5.0 un-opened, fight the restocking
fee, and get 5.1 as a complete package (if it is available that way)?
Thanks in advance to all the C-farers that can help.
wmc
Wayne,
If the version is truly 5.0, then it is a pretty buggy product. The
current version (prior to the recent 5.1 upgrade) is 5.05, which I have
found to be reasonably stable. All of the upgrades from 5.0 to 5.05 were
free (from Lattice). I don't know what SAS's policies are concerning 5.05,
or if they are considering them ancient history now that 5.1 has been
released. I haven't received the 5.1 upgrade yet (just ordered it), so I
can't comment on how good or bad it is. I sure hope you're able to work
out this problem — sounds like you've got yourself caught in the middle of
a "sticky wicket" here.
Hope this helps…
…BobR
Bob,
Thanks for the info. The box says 5.0. I haven't cracked it open yet. If I
do, where will the revision number be printed/displayed so that I could
tell if it is bare 5.0 or 5.0.5?
wmc
Wayne,
The revision numbers should (I would hope) be printed on the diskettes,
but I'm not positive of this, as I've received upgrades for the subsequent
versions (after 5.0) via patches, rather than complete sets of diskettes.
However, I do know that if you run the "lc1" and/or "lc2" programs, the
first line of text put out print the version number of 5.05. A small word
of warning here – the 5.05 version of the "lc" program will only report
that it's version 5.04, as it was not changed for the 5.05 upgrade. Many
folks have been confused by this.
Hope this helps…
…BobR
White Wolf Productions
Wayne –
I purchased Lattice C 5.05 direct from Lattice a few months ago. Short of
actually looking at the disk directory, you can't tell which 5.0 version
you have from the disk label. If the compiler includes a "readme.505"
file, you have the 5.05 version. Another way of checking is by invoking
the compiler with an 'lc1' command; it should indicate V5.05 if you have
that version (be advised that invoking using 'lc' will indicate 5.04 even
if you have 5.05.
Jeff Schweiger
Wayne,
If it's v5.05, then it should be ok. If it's less than that, then
Lattice was supplying the patches to fix it for free…no idea on what
SAS's policy is on the patches.
Don