Compilers... What did they use before?

[Dr_Righteous]

Ok, so I've decided to try my hand at coding for Amiga... I'm used to Borland C for DOS and I don't like the overly complex crap you have to go through with GNU based C/CPP compilers. I want a folder full of libraries a nice IDE and a no-nonsense compiler... Like the good old days. A package that wouldn't know what to do with a "makefile." Freeware of course.

So what did people use before GCC, before anyone even heard of Linux?

[Dr_Righteous]

Heh, I've considered assembler, but that's a little time consuming.

[Dr_Righteous]

Ok, perhaps I should rephrase my question... What is the best C/CPP compiler for Amiga that is NOT *nix based?

[Dr_Righteous]

@ltstanfo

[OT] HUGE fan of Styx.. Even sans Dennis and John (RIP). They play around here several times a year and I go to every show I can! [/OT]

I'll probably upgrade to Storm C once I get my feet wet, since it seems to be the best commercial package available. I'm really just looking to get my feet wet with something freeware for now.

I've been browsing around for a couple of hours now, and found SAS/C to pretty much be a dead end in terms of availability.

I really don't mind the lack of a REAL IDE, since I think I have a copy of GoldED running around someplace. Failing that there's always EditPlus on my PeeCee. I just need a something tidy to crank out the binary when I'm done.

DICE looks promising... Any thoughts?

[Dr_Righteous]

Yeah, GCC just isn't my cup of tea... I've got a small problem with the *nixing of AOS. I just don't like "GNU things." If I wanted an old *nix box, I'd buy an SGI O2 or something.

Perhaps I'm headed in the wrong direction? Aside from losing my mind in assembler, are there alternatives? Is there a better high-level language to code in for Amiga?

Say it's 1994 and I just got my brand-spanking-new A4000D... I get a wild hair up my keister and want to write a word-processor or a platform game from scratch. What would have been used?

[Dr_Righteous]

Thanks to everyone for the info... I think I'm gonna start off with DICE, since it's free, and work my way up from there.

Looks like I'll also need a devkit... Was there ever one beyond v2.1 (OS3.5)? One for OS3.9?

[Dr_Righteous]

chiark wrote:
Another vote here for DICE C - it did the job, and mostly did it well.  Do update the thread with your experiences!

Well, so far no good... I can code integers just fine... Change them to floats and printf will actually print the word in place of the number. Bad stdio.h?