> An assembler is NOT a compiler.  The difference between a compiler
> of any sort, let alone C, and an assembler is HUGE.  The complexity
> and development cost for a compiler, as well as the maintanence cost,
> is HUGE.

You're right about that.  I did not state my thoughts correctly.

> The cost of these products is not negligible.  I would guess that
> Microsoft probably spends as much or more money and effort on
> their VisualStudio products as they do on Office, and it has a much
> smaller target audience.  MUCH smaller.

But I'm not asking for a full featured product like Visual Studio.  I'm
only talking about a free plain vanilla compiler, none of that other stuff
like object browser, and versioning control, etc.  For all I care, it
doesn't even have to be a gui tool or integreate into one.  For the good
looking, juicy, full featured stuff, to me is where the third party
vendors come in.

> As for Microchip, as has often been pointed out, they are in the
> chip business, not the software business.  While it would be nice
> for them to provide a free C compiler, they would either have to
> devote pretty hefty resources to it, in which case it would likely
> consume more than it produces, or produce a poor quality
> product, in which case the only people who would use it are
> hobbyists and low volume companies that can't afford a fancy,
> higher quality compiler.  Either way, they don't stand to gain
> by doing it.

You have some good points above.  But again, I'm talking about something
very basic.  They already have people sitting at a desk somewhere creating
tools such as the Application Maestro.  Now it's functionality is nowhere
near what a compiler does, however, they did have X number of employees
putting that together, and it's free.


Mario
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