At 06:42 PM 7/05/98 -0700, Mark S wrote:
>
>
>And expensive, right?
>
>
>>
>>Hi Tech is GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>>
>>Dennis
>>

Time for a history lesson. In the beginning, there was a little company
located in a house at the bottom of a big hill in Alderly Queensland. They
made C compilers and they where (For starter and first releases) good, and
the cost of these compilers was a mire $50 (About 25 cents US at the current
market rate). But hardly anyone brought software from the little company in
the house at the bottom of the big hill. Everyone (Nearly) thought that the
software was TOO CHEEP to be any better than the already existing C
compilers costing many megga bucks.

Then one day the owners of the little company located in the house at the
bottom of the big hill came unto an idea, "Lets increase the price of the
software, then people will think that it is good". So the owners of the
little----- did that. Now people think, that the C compilers produced by the
Largish company located in a nice house at the top of the hill in a very
well to do suburb are good, but perhaps too expensive.

On a personal note, I don't think that the Hi Tech software is expensive, at
around $695 Aust for most of the compilers it is good, and one advantage is
that all of the compilers have a generic type feel, so we don't have to
spend lotts of time learning a new compiler for a new processor (This in
itself is a large saving, taking one day to learn how to drive a linker in a
new compiler can cost more than the compiler is worth!). As for the term
expensive? Perhaps not, there are some compilers out there, say for a 68xxx
that cost over $3000, and how much would you expect to pay for the Hi tech?
about $900, bonus!!

But for a hobbyist, this may seem over the top and the $120 for the PIC C is
cheep and affordable

Dennis