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Old C Compiler Lives Again Under GPL

Posted by timothy on from the just-what-I-was-looking-for dept.

JordanH writes "The DeSmet-C compiler, a commercial C compiler from the '80s, is being released under the GPL. Yet another alternative C compiler implementation available for your coding pleasure."

11 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. C'mon by lbmouse · · Score: 5, Funny

    How is something from the 80's considered OLD?! It's not even vintage yet. I have underwear from the 80's that are just fine.

    1. Re:C'mon by Gherald · · Score: 3, Funny

      > How is something from the 80's considered OLD?! It's not even vintage yet. I have underwear from the 80's that are just fine.

      Perhaps the computer world moves faster than your ass?

      Just a thought :)

      --
      The unofficial /. digest
    2. Re:C'mon by ctr2sprt · · Score: 4, Funny
      I have underwear from the 80's that are just fine.
      Only on Slashdot would this be modded "Interesting."
  2. RTFA! by dotzie · · Score: 2, Informative

    From the FA:

    """
    There are other, smaller options like TCC that is a complete C compiler, but it's too geared to 386+ and Linux to be a good playground. Other open-source C compilers tend to be variations of Small C that, while understandable, don't implement the entire language.
    """

  3. Shareware Catalogs by vasqzr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I remember seeing this in shareware catalogs. Didn't it generate assembler code, and you had to have MASM to build your program?

    Anyone remember MIX C? They used to have the full-page ads in Computer Shopper, you got the compiler, book, and everything for $59.95.

    I never got to use either of them, I was lucky enough to get a copy of Borland Turbo C.

    1. Re:Shareware Catalogs by rot26 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      IIRC, the DeSmet compiler was the cheapest "real" compiler you could get in the early 80's. Mix was more like a toy. Support was excellent... I called them once to ask a stupid question, and they said "We don't know, why don't you call Mark?" and then they gave me his home phone number, and I promptly woke him up. FWIW, I believe that Mark DeSmet wrote the macro assembler that Intel used internally as well.

      --



      To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
  4. Not for serious use by Nasarius · · Score: 3, Insightful
    From the article:
    I started feeling the usual insane urge to play with a C compiler source.

    It seems it's more for people who just want to poke at the source of a real compiler, without having to deal with the mind-boggling complexities of GCC. I might take a look myself.

    --
    LOAD "SIG",8,1
    1. Re:Not for serious use by larry+bagina · · Score: 2, Informative

      for that purpose, lcc is pretty good. The source is available for free, but there's also a college-level compiler book which goes along with it. The parsing and lexing are done manually (rather than generated via flex/lex and bison/yacc).

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  5. Addendum by JordanH · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I was in a hurry when I submitted this story.

    I should have added that I saw this on the excellent PLNews: Programming Language News site.

  6. Also check out the ACK by david.given · · Score: 2, Interesting
    You can never have too many compilers, is my motto. Kudos to the author for making it open source.

    <PLUG>

    If you want to try something altogether larger, more powerful and more flexible, then check out the ACK --- this is a compiler toolchain written by Andy Tanenbaum and Ceriel Jacobs that was released under a BSD license a few years ago. It supports K&R C, ANSI C, Pascal, Modula 2, Occam, Basic and Fortran, and supports a whole bunch of (slightly elderly) architectures. A subset of the compiler comes with Minix, if you've ever used that. Ever wanted to run Occam programs on your Apple I? Yep, you can do that.

    It's way, way smaller than gcc, astonishingly faster, much easier to port new architectures for, and produces adequate if not brilliant code.

    </PLUG>

  7. Some thoughts on DeSmet C by oldfogie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    1) I survived a slashdotting! Yah!! (at least it wasn't the front page!)

    2) Where I expect the source code to show up most often is in someone's compiler class homework (unattributed, of course...)

    3) People have been asking "what's the use of an old compiler"? As I mentioned on the website, it's small enough so that a noobie (like me) can get their teeth into it. The code itself may never go anywhere, but the lessons learned will be around for a long time.

    Bill