IBM C and C++ Compilers, Version 3.6.5
IBM C and C++ Compilers, Version 3.6.5 is one of the two compiler tools coming with IBM VisualAge C++ Professional 4.0, released 1998-12-18. It is provided there for compatibility reasons with older software, with software for VAC 3.5 for Windows NT and projects that need a stand-alone compiler tool (the VisualAge C++ 4.0 compiler is integrated in the IDE). It still does not support all ISO C++ standard features.
As described in the product overview, the product includes:
- a rich set of IBM Class Libraries
- graphical debuggers
- memory management routines
- resource tools for creating and compiling resources and converting between platform formats
- a powerful full-text online help search engine
As VisualAge C++ 4.0 was a radical step forward it meant that as it stood the tool-chain was not compatible with earlier projects that were developed in VisualAge C++ Version 3.0 or IBM C Set++ for OS/2. This was in particular problematic for driver development that all relied on code that needed quite a bit of massaging to work. So a command line compiler with a version number 3.6.5 was shipped with the product for OS/2 and Windows.
IBM called it the "IBM C and C++ Compiler" rather than VisualAge since it did not feature any visual tools, but actually it is an update of the compiler included in VisualAge C++ 3.x and has better compatibility with projects created with VisualAge C++ Version 3.5 for Windows.
- C & C++ Compilers are command line only and therefore do not support any visual tools built into the IDE, including Visual Builder, Configuration Optimizer, Data Access Builder, IDE debugging. The kit however comes with a separate graphical debugger and text mode debugging using classic IBM or third party tools is supported as well. You could also use visual tools from VisualAge C++ 3.0 with some caveats though.
- Other v4 IDE bound features such as incremental compilation are not supported.
- However the improved memory management routines that were introduced with v4 are supplied with 3.6.5, as are separate resource tools for creating and compiling resources and converting resources between platforms.
- Also includes the full-text online help search engine.
- Like the rest of the 3.x branch, 3.6 is not ISO C++ compliant and it does not support the STL
- Unlike the older 3.x versions it does support the IBM Open Class Version 4.0.
Version
- Available in Simplified Chinese and Japanese in addition to English.
- Last known OS/2 version is 3.6.5-FP2 for the English version and 3.6.5-FP1 for the Simplified Chinese and Japanese versions. Last known MS Windows version is 3.6.5-FP2-TF2 for the English variant, 3.6.5-FP2 for the Japanese one and 3.6.5-FP1 for the Chinese version.
The product has two fixpacks, plus some fixes necessary for the Mozilla project, that originally used this compiler. Since version 1.4, Mozilla has been built using GCC instead, since this compiler could not handle the later Mozilla code that uses more modern C++.
Licence
IBM Commercial License
Links
- C/C++ 3.6.5 updates
- The last fixpack for the English OS/2 version of 3.6.5 is Fixpack 2, and Fixpack 1 for the Chinese and Japanese versions of the tool.
- The Windows version of 3.6.5 also has English Fixpack 2 but there was also a Postfix issued that can be found in the e-fix051200 subfolder. The Japanese version also got a Fixpack 2 while the Simplified Chinese version stalled at Fixpack 1.
