[Coco] gcc-coco revisited

[KnudsenMJ at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/31/03 9:24:19 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
billcousert at yahoo.com writes:

> Reasons for using RMA:
>  1. It's Coco - strictly nostalgic.
>  2. It's Coco - The rof's generated by gcc09 could be used on a real
>  Coco or an emulator.
>  3. We already have rlink libraries

And (4) a lost of Coconuts are used to its syntax and pseudo-ops.  Learning 
the pseudo-ops and memory allocation conventions of different assemblers (to 
say nothing of macro processing) can be a big learning curve.

Also, why such a hurry to abandon the original Microware C compiler?  Its 
bugs and shortcomings are well enough understood to work around.  CPrep2 makes up 
for a lot.

Originally, C++ compilers were just pre-processors that "macro expanded" C++ 
source into straight C code.  Granted, they require some things that 
Microware's old K&R C can't handle, like long names.  But I wonder if an extra pre-proc 
stage couldn't fix that too.

If there *is* a back end to GCC++ that can not only output 6809 code, but can 
be optioned to do it PIC or not (for L2 or RSDOS, see my other posting), then 
maybe GCC is worth pursuing.  Don't know how, if ever, 6309 extensions could 
be provided, either by Microware C or GCC.  --Mike K.