4 ms·

This makes me feel very old. I remember that issue. I was a Pascal snob at the time but interested because C had a reputation for speed. A year later I got my f

This makes me feel very old. I remember that issue. I was a Pascal snob at the time but interested because C had a reputation for speed. A year later I got my first job and read K&R, not realizing I would be using C and C++ for most of my career. It mentions Lattice C. Does anybody here remember if Microsoft C was a fresh start, or did they license the entire codebase and use it for a start? I used Lattice on both PC and Amiga, but quickly dumped it on Amiga in favor of Aztec C, for which I still have fond memories. It was much faster and produced a ASM file intermediary which was useful for figuring out how to optimize. Nostalgia is a powerful drug. I’m sure I’d blanche with horror having to develop with those tools today.

eesmith 2y ago
The linked-to article says: "One that has survived is Lattice C, one of the most performant of the compilers tested by Byte. Lattice C was so good that it was licensed by Microsoft and sold as Microsoft C V1.0 before being replaced by Microsoft’s own in-house Microsoft C V2.0 compiler."
- johngossman 2y ago
  I read that, but I'm not convinced it is correct. It is a best ambiguous--development could have gone internal but started with the Lattice codebase. It is also incorrect at least as to version numbers. MSC 3.0 was the first version that wasn't developed by Lattice, whatever the provenance of the source
  - eesmith 2y ago
    Peter Norton wrote this in 1983: "The Microsoft C compiler has interesting historical roots. Although Microsoft itself works with C, this compiler is not a direct Microsoft product. Instead, it is an adaptation of the famous and highly regarded Lattice C compiler." There are also ads like https://archive.org/details/PC-Mag-1984-09-04/page/n51/mode/2up?q=lattice https://archive.org/details/PC-Mag-1984-09-04/page/n51/mode/... saying "Microsoft C compiler / Includes Lattice C and the MS Librarian". I can't find info about v2 or v3. Edit: https://winworldpc.com/product/microsoft-c-c/2x https://winworldpc.com/product/microsoft-c-c/2x says "Microsoft C 1.0 and 2.0 are a rebranded version of Lifeboat Associates Lattice C", so your doubt seems well founded.
    - pjmlp 2y ago
      Another historical note, if I remember correctly, Microsoft was the last C compiler vendor on MS-DOS to add C++ support, which happened on Microsoft C/C++ v7.0 release, their last release for MS-DOS as well, before Visual C++ came to be.
mek6800d2 2y ago
Obligatory mention of Ed Post's "Real Programmers Don't Use PASCAL"! You switched from Pascal to C instead of Fortran, but I suppose that is semi-acceptable! https://www.ecb.torontomu.ca/~elf/hack/realmen.html https://www.ecb.torontomu.ca/~elf/hack/realmen.html

eesmith 2y ago

The linked-to article says: "One that has survived is Lattice C, one of the most performant of the compilers tested by Byte. Lattice C was so good that it was licensed by Microsoft and sold as Microsoft C V1.0 before being replaced by Microsoft’s own in-house Microsoft C V2.0 compiler."

johngossman 2y ago
I read that, but I'm not convinced it is correct. It is a best ambiguous--development could have gone internal but started with the Lattice codebase. It is also incorrect at least as to version numbers. MSC 3.0 was the first version that wasn't developed by Lattice, whatever the provenance of the source
- eesmith 2y ago
  Peter Norton wrote this in 1983: "The Microsoft C compiler has interesting historical roots. Although Microsoft itself works with C, this compiler is not a direct Microsoft product. Instead, it is an adaptation of the famous and highly regarded Lattice C compiler." There are also ads like https://archive.org/details/PC-Mag-1984-09-04/page/n51/mode/2up?q=lattice https://archive.org/details/PC-Mag-1984-09-04/page/n51/mode/... saying "Microsoft C compiler / Includes Lattice C and the MS Librarian". I can't find info about v2 or v3. Edit: https://winworldpc.com/product/microsoft-c-c/2x https://winworldpc.com/product/microsoft-c-c/2x says "Microsoft C 1.0 and 2.0 are a rebranded version of Lifeboat Associates Lattice C", so your doubt seems well founded.
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    Another historical note, if I remember correctly, Microsoft was the last C compiler vendor on MS-DOS to add C++ support, which happened on Microsoft C/C++ v7.0 release, their last release for MS-DOS as well, before Visual C++ came to be.

mek6800d2 2y ago

Obligatory mention of Ed Post's "Real Programmers Don't Use PASCAL"! You switched from Pascal to C instead of Fortran, but I suppose that is semi-acceptable! https://www.ecb.torontomu.ca/~elf/hack/realmen.html https://www.ecb.torontomu.ca/~elf/hack/realmen.html