Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!rutgers!psuvax1!psuvm!odx From: ODX@PSUVM.BITNET (Tim Larson) Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula2 Subject: Re: Modula2 compilers for the IBM PS/2 50 Message-ID: <89221.084533ODX@PSUVM> Date: 9 Aug 89 12:45:33 GMT References:Organization: Penn State University - Center for Academic Computing Lines: 45 In article , JIM@UCF1VM.BITNET (Jim Ennis) says: > >Hello, > > I do not know if this has been around the list before but I was wondering >if anyone can recommend a better Modula-2 compiler than Logitech V 3. I am At the risk of starting a my compiler is better than your compiler war ... I also started with the Logitech compiler (versions 2.0, 3.0 and finally 3.03) and I also felt like I was wrestling with the compiler as much as the projects I was working on. (To be fair, I was also just learning the language.) About 8 months ago, I switched to JPI's TopSpeed Modula-2, and I've never regretted it. A few of the ways I think TopSpeed excells are * the environment, everything in the system can be run from the editor or from the command line equally easily. * the speed, this compiler just sings! It is so nice to be able to edit, compile, fix an error, recompile, ... all in the space of time the Logitech compiler is still on its first pass. * the debugger, though there are things this debugger will not do (some that I sorely miss), everything it does do it does painlessly and well. I don't remember if Logitech had an interactive debugger with source- level tracing, but I never used it if it did. * the library, this feature should probably have been put first. After cleaning a couple Megs of Logitech stuff off my hard disk, the TopSpeed library looked positively barren! Boy, was I wrong! JPI gives you the source code to a positively elegant library. If you study their source you will find just about every feature of Modula-2 used to its fullest, including full usage of procedure variables, careful modularization, and information hiding. Having said all that, there will be some people who won't like TopSpeed. This is a single-pass compiler (hence the speed?) that requires FORWARD refrencing like Pascal. There are a few nonstandard enhancements (like a GOTO stament ;-) but we're all adults here after all, right? If you are concerned with writing Wirth 3/e Modula-2, you can write it with TopSpeed. The compiler comes in DOS and OS/2 versions and for the money, the full TechKit is worth it (I think we got an educational discount, too). I have not seen the Stonybrook, FST, or FTL (?) compilers, but like I said, I love TopSpeed, so I'm not looking elsewhere. Good luck, Tim Larson ODX@PSUVM.BITNET Disclaimer: I don't work for 'em, I'm just raising my glass to 'em.