TopSpeed C: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:10, 21 December 2014

Description

A C development system for 16 bit OS/2 and DOS code, can be run natively or by cross compiling from DOS, notable as being the first PC C compiler that was fully ANSI C compliant, and the first C compiler overall to get validated at all. System now owned by Soft Velocity who use it as a utility development system for their Clarion database product and an OS/2 compatible product is no longer being offered. Originally a development of the TopSpeed Modula-2 and shares the same environment and back-end

The later versions of the TopSpeed C compiler are considered to be very good unlike their C++ counterpart, although by now completely outdated.

The TopSpeed development environment

One unusual aspect of the TopSpeed system was that you could buy variants of the development system for Modula-2, C++ and Pascal in addition to the C compiler and they all shared a back end. Not only could you call C, C++ or Pascal code from the Modula compiler (and vise versa) but you could mix and match the languages in one source file without resorting to any containers. An unique feature in its time and only one or two other development systems have offered similar features since. After Clarion took over the sales of the TopSpeed system the Clarion 4GL database language was ported to the TopSpeed system (and remains based on it to this day) and became one of the interchangeable front ends.

Another unusual and somewhat unique aspect of the system was its ability to make multi-threaded code and dynamic libraries (DLL's) for DOS. The TopSpeed systems was developed under OS/2 v1.x and the developers were so taken with the threading model that they duplicated it for the DOS environment giving you not only the obvious benefit of being able to make multi-threaded DOS applications but also the option of making portable multi-threaded apps since the TS version for doses copied the OS/2 version down to a tee.

Version

3.10

License

Commercial - Discontinued

Author

Publications

L. John Ribar: TopSpeed C Made Easy Paperback - ISBN:0078815606 - 1990

Articles

Various fixes and workarounds for the 3.10 version of the compiler
A review of TopSpeed C/C++ v3.02 - From PC Magazine July 1992

Links

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 ====The TopSpeed development environment====
-One unusual aspect of the TopSpeed system was that you could buy variants of the development system for [[TopSpeed Modula-2|Modula-2]], [[TopSpeed C++|C++]] and [[TopSpeed Pascal|Pascal]] in addition to the C compiler and they all shared a back end. Not only could you call C, C++ or Pascal code from the Modula compiler (and vise versa) but you could mix and match the languages in one source file without resorting to any containers. An unique feature in its time and only one or two other development systems have offered similar features since.
+One unusual aspect of the TopSpeed system was that you could buy variants of the development system for [[TopSpeed Modula-2|Modula-2]], [[TopSpeed C++|C++]] and [[TopSpeed Pascal|Pascal]] in addition to the C compiler and they all shared a back end. Not only could you call C, C++ or Pascal code from the Modula compiler (and vise versa) but you could mix and match the languages in one source file without resorting to any containers. An unique feature in its time and only one or two other development systems have offered similar features since. After Clarion took over the sales of the TopSpeed system the Clarion 4GL database language was ported to the TopSpeed system (and remains based on it to  this day) and became one of the interchangeable front ends.
+Another unusual and somewhat unique aspect of the system was its ability to make multi-threaded code and dynamic libraries (DLL's) for DOS. The TopSpeed systems was developed under OS/2 v1.x and the developers were so taken with the threading model that they duplicated it for the DOS environment giving you not only the obvious benefit of being able to make multi-threaded DOS applications but also the option of making portable multi-threaded apps since the TS version for doses copied the OS/2 version down to a tee.
 ==Version==