-=> Quoting Stephen Hurd to Scott Adams <=-

 SH> Re: Re: JD...
 SH> By: Scott Adams to Stephen Hurd on Thu Feb 19 2004 21:26:11
 
 >  SH> Of all the free *nix pascal compilers out there, only FP and GPC will
 >  SH> run on non-Linux plavours of *nix.
 > 
 >      Well the question was not linux but since you bring it up there
 >      are very limited linux versions of ANY language.

 SH> Actually, I believe the question was cross-platform with focus on *nix
 SH> platforms... though I could be wrong there... too lazy to go back in
 SH> the thread.  :-)

     No the question was compilers in general if I recall.  Not
     language specific.  But I'm also lazy :)

 > SH> Bascially, if you're not porting to Linux and Linux only, all except
 > SH> GPC are going to cause more problems than solutions.
 > 
 >     Possible.  Depends on what you need the language/program to do.

 SH> Generally, I need to program to do what it's programmed to do... and
 SH> the compiler to properly compile it.  When you compile a program, and
 SH> start getting bug reports, it's really not feasable to debug both your
 SH> program AND your compiler well, things start getting too hairy too
 SH> fast.  When you also can't depend on the standard units to work as
 SH> documented, you end up having to first, go through your program and
 SH> make sure it's correct, second, go through any included standard units
 SH> and make sure THEY are correct, then go through the compiler and ensure
 SH> that IT is correct.  You quickly loose interest in using the compiler
 SH> for anything usefull. 

     Nah.  Like anything its the skill of the programmer not the compiler
     that counts.  A good coder won't have to worry about bugs.  He
     can work around them to avoid the compiler quirks.  Every
     compiler has some quirks and bugs and thus can't be avoided unless
     you write your own then you'll still have bugs!

     As to standard units again most high level coders don't rely on
     the standard units they develop their own toolkits.  The main
     compiler I use I've had my toolkit finished since mid-90s and
     never use standard unit calls but rarely.

     Besides its been shown that doing your own procedures in even
     the simplest thing like a simple PutPixel command will speed
     things and make it more efficient than using the standard
     putpixel for example. 

 SH> I did spend a largish amount of time porting Pascal doors to FPC...
 SH> when debugging became effectivly impossible to to compiler errors, I
 SH> simply stopped working on them... it's faster to translate the program
 SH> into a language that DOES compile correctly on the target platform
 SH> (Something I did with TimePort) than it is to port/debug/unit
 SH> debug/compiler debug the program in its native language.

     Yep.  Porting rather than native design is harder for sure.

... Make it mad?!?!  Are you nuts?!?!  Commander? - Garibaldi
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