Dr. Imre,
Wow! This looks like just the language I need to do my PIC projects
in. It is so wonderfully arcane. I am wondering, though, if this
INTERCAL language is Y2K compliant. I notice that in the example
given the values of the subroutine identifiers only go from
(1900) to (1904). Have you ever tried a value such as (2000)?

As to using HiTech C, I visited their website, and could not
find any free C compiler there. I cannot understand why they
do not offer their product for free. You would think that they
would realize that giving it away for free would be a great
selling point. Money hungry capitalists...

I was also dismayed when I looked at some examples of C code
provided by HiTech. I couldn't immediately understand it. This
tells me that this product has a learning curve. I do not want
a product that has a learning curve. Is there any version of
the C language out there that is totally free, completely
documented, has a complete library of all the routines I will
ever need, and which has a zero learning curve? If I could
find a product that met all these criteria, I would buy it
immediately, no questions asked. Assuming, of course, that the
company also provides lifetime free updates and a toll-free
help desk that is accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The help staff would have to be large, so that I would never
have to be placed on hold, because, after all, my time is
precious. The help staff would have to be extremely intelligent
professionals who know not only their own product, but who are
able to give me free consulting advice also on my hardware
designs. Just because a product is free doesn't mean that
the developers of that product have any right to foist upon
us users a product that is in any way deficient. It is
disgusting how some software purveyers expect us users
to provide free Beta testing for their products. I think
that they should pay us money for each bug we find in their
product.

I hope that the companies that produce the over-priced
not-for-free compilers will read this post and at last come to
their senses.

I do not have the time to research all these C compilers on my
own. If there is anyone on the PIC list that has already
done an exhaustive compilation of the relative merits of all
the existing C compilers, send me a copy immediately.

Fr. Tom McGahee

-----Original Message-----
From: Dr. Imre Bartfai <root@PROF.PMMF.HU>
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Thursday, December 23, 1999 2:12 AM
Subject: Re: Help Wanted: PIC Based Christmas Tree Ornament


>Hi,
>
>I must disagree due to intended languages as COBOL or FORTRAN. They are
>absolutely inappropriate for that project. I would suggest INTERCAL, as a
>superior language for that choice. As illustration, I insert here a small
>random number generator taken from the Intercal distribution package.
>
>        DO (1900) NEXT
>        DO READ OUT .1
>        PLEASE GIVE UP
>(1900)  DO STASH .2 + .3
>        DO .3 <- #65535
>        DO (1903) NEXT
>(1903)  PLEASE FORGET #1
>        DO .2 <- #0
>        PLEASE %50 IGNORE .2
>        DO .2 <- #1
>        PLEASE REMEMBER .2
>        DO .1 <- !1$.2'~"#65535$#1"
>        DO .3 <- .3~#65534
>        DO (1902) NEXT
>        DO (1903) NEXT
>(1902)  DO (1904) NEXT
>        DO RETRIEVE .2 + .3
>        DO FORGET #1
>        PLEASE RESUME #1
>(1904)  PLEASE RESUME '?"!3~.3'~#1"$#1'~#3
>
>As one can see, it gives the most clearest structure and such way due to
>the very short project deadline this is the once tool you can use.
>
>And a remark: there is no Intercal compiler for PIC, though. But it is
>absolutely no problem, as Intercal produces C output and the compilation
>can be done by the (almost) free compiler of HiTech or whatever you
>choose.
>
>Regards and merry Xmas:
>
>Imre
>