Auwvax.346
net.general
utzoo!decvax!harpo!uwvax!solomon
Sun May 2 10:01:39 1982
Re: Modula 2 compiler
We made the mistake of buying a Modula 2 compiler from Zurich.
They give you a choice of six or so versions (classified by
source machine, destination machine, and implementation language).
You must pay 300 Swiss francs for EACH version (about $175, last
time I checked), so we only chose the version most likely
to be useful. This was a version written in Pascal and
generating code for a PDP-11. (I'm not completely sure about
the last--it's been a while and my memory is a little fuzzy.)
What we got was a huge program written in EXTREMELY machine-dependant
CDC 7600 Pascal. For example, it had the "fact" that an integer
is 60 bits long wired into it all over the place, and used
unchecked variant records to exploit that "fact".
Worse still, they neglected to include the language-specific
linkage editor (absolutely essential to running Modula 2).
They said something about not having gotten around to writing is
yet. They suggested some sort of kludge using a linker included
on a different distribution tape (which you could get for another
$175!)
Caveat emptor!
Marvin Solomon (...!harpo!uwvax!solomon or solomon@uwisc)
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