ITC Modula
2 messages in this thread
ITC has a cultish MS-DOS M2 which uses a context sensitive editor (it keeps
track of your BEGIN … END statements) of which I am quite fond. I like the
company and hope their Amiga product is something they can be proud of.
What I look for in a compiler is ease of access to Amiga features. This aspect
of Benchmark seems rich. How's ITC's?
[BEGIN Selfpity]
Each time I spend $200 on a compiler, I try to learn something from the
experience. From TDI, I learned not to buy compilers that have lots of bug
fixes posted. From Benchmark, I learned not to buy compilers in beta test
stage by lone geniuses. From Infominder, I learned not to buy compilers which
do not have a run-time distribution package, and also not to buy compilers from
publishers who think they are selling me an application program (cheap lesson,
this, only $89). Is there any suggestion that the ITC compiler is 'very
buggy,' a one-person effort, or incapable of producing stand-alone code?
Oh Poor Me Boo Hoo!
[END Selfpity]
The ITC compiler is not "very buggy", not a one-person effort, and IS capable
of producing stand-alone code. It is somewhat similar to Benchmark, but has a
worse (in my opinion anyway) user interface and better runtime execption
handling and termination. It sells for about the same as Benchmark (~$250).
There are some strange limitations and/or bugs, but these ARE documented, and
so far I haven't ran into any of them. Their convention for the support module
stuff is quite a departure from the stuff we are used to in Benchmark and TDI,
so porting over code from the other compilers can be a major pain in the A**!
I'll cover it more thouroughly in a future AC article.
– Steve – /ex