[Coco] gcc-coco-rsdos installer for Mac OS X

[James Jones]

alsplace at pobox.com wrote:

> I wonder, if it can be made to do OS-9 stuff, how it will compare to 
> the old K&R Microware compiler.

The Microware 6809 C compiler is, as you say, compatible with K&R 1st 
edition (save that it lacks bitfields, and you have to gratuitously call 
some dummy routines to drag in support for printing 32-bit integers to 
avoid always dragging it in (since format strings are interpreted at run 
time, there's no way to automatically determine a priori whether you 
need it).

Having prototypes would avoid the perverse semantics of K&R C's (ack; I 
had to look up the old style syntax...)

int
blah(f)
float f;
{
    ....
}

which requires that the parameter be converted to double to be passed, 
and get converted right back to float in the function prologue of 
blah(). If the compiler is good, it will also let one avoid gratuitous SEX.

The main thing about generating code for OS-9 is making it always 
generate position-independent code and non-absolute addressing for data 
of any sort.

    James