From: andy-w@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Andrew webster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ti
Subject: Re: TI developing: what's up, what's in, what's out there?
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 13:21:07 MDT
Organization: Edmonton Remote Systems #2, Edmonton, AB, Canada

olsone@aix02.ecs.rpi.edu (Erik G. Olson) writes:

- Recently something changed overnight. It was just one of those
- status things: "we" bought MDOS. Products will be made later...
- 
- What I'm wondering about tonight is just that: making products.
- My favorite way to write a program is to pull out Funnelweb 3.5 and
- chug away at my assembler source code (sans comments-- it takes
- up less disk space and cuts those loading times.) NOT. 
- 
- So what tools exist for developers today?
- 
- Somebody once expressed the idea that the Geneve would be a platform
- from which to more easily write 4A programs. Has anything come of this?
- Surely it is a better platform to base tools on. I think Paul Charlton's
- GenProg is the overwhelming example in that category.
- 
- Those who have 80-column cards and other capabilities in common with
- the 9640 are a potential market for a package written for the Geneve 
- but which also scales down a little. (I daresay a larger market; there are
- 800 registered Geneve owners--  so I heard from Beery Miller-- and
- at least a few hundred 80-column cards of various kinds, although I
- can't even begin to know for sure how many.)
- 
- But never mind the flashy user hardware platforms. I'm interested in 
- the flashy developer platforms. There was Al Beard's 99ASM, which 
- ran on a PC to assemble 9900 source into loadable object code. I
- thought that was a pretty neat accomplishment. I'm still holding
- out for some kind of compiler that can put out TI executables from
- another platform. 
- 
- I hear there is a full-C compiler now that runs on a TI. A lot of
- programs came out as a result of Clint Pulley's "small-c" c99. Full C is
- desirable among, well, programmers, because in these days when we can
- be wooed to other platforms we take some features as the bare necessities.
- (Where do you think Charles Earl went? Actually, I hear he was a PC 
- consultant long before he got a TI.) Having a full-C compiler over 
- something less (say, plain old assembly; actually, GenAsm macros make it 
- rather delightful) means the difference between a fun programming project 
- and a chore that isn't so viable. Or maybe those people (like, Barry 
- Boone) who have put out products recently don't let that get to them. 
- If I may pretend you are reading this, Barry, am I right in suspecting 
- that you made SoundFX rather than some more useful product because it was 
- a heck of a lot of fun to just do it? I don't believe people can write 
- programs just because people "need their brains." What's in it for me?
- (What do you think was on Paul Charlton's mind when Lou Philips wanted 
- his brain?) 
- 
- Anyway, enough of my ramblings. What can you buy these days? Has anyone
- taken a shot at the integrated source editor/compiler environment?
- The kind that compiles without unloading your source and pops you back to
- edit specific lines with errors? (A modest sketch.) I could dream on..
- Maybe one of those is doable with a cross-platform arrangement, where
- the PC or whatever uploads the object code to the TI, and assists in a
- debugging role too. 
- 
- OK, no more ramblings.. Someone tell me what you prefer, or what's out 
- there: editors, languages, debugging tools, that kind of thing.
- 
- P.S. I really do prefer Funnelweb 3.5 over 4.1. (Why do you think I
- still own a TI?)
- -- 
- Erik G. Olson          =+ There was Virtue in the world before there was
- olsone@rpi.edu         =+ Orthodoxy in it.
-                        =+ --The Independent Whig (as quoted by John Adams) 

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You like Feb'web 3.5 over 4.x!!! Why? Do have an 80 col card and a RAM?
__________________________________________________________________________

Andrew webster              andy-w@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca