Jump to content

Norcroft C compiler

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Trevj (talk | contribs) at 14:52, 18 August 2011 (→‎External links: new section). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Norcroft C compiler
Original author(s)Codemist, Acorn Computers
Developer(s)RISC OS Open
Initial release1988 (1988)[specify]
Stable release
20 / December 12, 2010 (2010-12-12)
Written inBBC BASIC and Assembly language[citation needed]
Operating systemRISC OS
PlatformARM architecture
TypeIntegrated development environment
LicenceProprietary commercial software
Websiteriscosopen.org/content/sales

The Norcroft C compiler (also referred to as the Norcroft compiler suite or Acorn C/C++) in computing is a set of C/C++ programming tools for RISC OS. The tools were originally developed for Acorn Computers by university academics Alan Mycroft and Arthur C Norman of Codemist.[1] Their development was subsequently taken over by Castle Technology, who then funded this by means of a subscription scheme.[2]

In early 2009, ownership, development and sales of the tools were transferred to RISC OS Open.[3] The suite of tools is currently the only means of compiling the source code to RISC OS, although it is ultimately intended that this will also be possible using the free software GCC system.[citation needed]

A comparison between Norcroft and GCC in 2002 found Norcroft to be faster, but there was neither support for the newer C++ implementation nor C99, as there was in GCC .[4] Castle later added C99 support.

History

Acorn's work on ANSI C compilers was begun in 1987, with a commercial release in 1988 for its Archimedes computer.[5]. Desktop C and Desktop Assembler were released in 1991. Codemist worked primarily on the ANSI C standard, while Acorn concentrated on the RISC OS specifics and optimisation for the ARM. Both parties exchanged sources regularly.[6][7] Codemist was established and run by a group of academics from the University of Cambridge and University of Bath.[8][9] The name Norcroft is derived from the authors' surnames, Norman and Mycroft.[10]

Uses

The Norcroft compiler can be used to produce standalone RISC OS modules, as well as compiling the entire operating system itself.

Before beginning development of the Inform programming language, Graham Nelson originally used Norcroft C to develop his text adventure Curses.[11][12]

Architectures

The compiler exclusively supports ARM core processors running RISC OS.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ Mycroft, Alan; Norman, Arthur C. (1992). "Part I: classical imperative languages". Optimising compilation. Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge, Computer Laboratory. OCLC 29982690. [...] the 'Norcroft' compiler suite jointly constructed by the authors [...] Commercial interests are referred to Codemist Ltd. [...]{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  2. ^ "CTL launch C/C++ compiler sub scheme". Drobe. 2004-04-29. Retrieved 2011-06-16. Castle has announced the launch of a subscription scheme for its C/C++ development suite. The scheme aims to fund future development of the compiler suite through annual subscriptions [...]
  3. ^ "News in brief". Drobe. 2009-05-04. Retrieved 2011-06-16. RISC OS Open has taken over sales of the Acorn C/C++ development suite, known as the Norcroft compiler, which is used to build RISC OS.
  4. ^ "Norcroft versus GCC". riscos.info. Archived from the original on 2002-04-04. Retrieved 2011-06-16. Norcroft: Faster than GCC to compile programs, probably by about two times. GCC: Supports a much newer C++ implementation than Norcroft, as well as C99.
  5. ^ Norman, A.C. (2005). "Thirty Years of Lisp Support for REDUCE". In Dolzmann, Andreas (ed.). Algorithmic algebra and logic : proceedings of the A3L 2005, April 3-6, Passau, Germany conference in honor of the 60th birthday of Volker Weispfenning. Seidl, Andreas; Sturm, Thomas; Weispfenning, Volker. Passau, Germany. ISBN 9783833426698. OCLC 63200315. In 1989 [...] concurrently working with Alan Mycroft developing the Norcroft [MN88 - 1988] C compiler, and so we were especially well in tune with the emerging ANSI C standard.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  6. ^ "Interview with Ian Johnson" (Document). ACCU. Acorn began work on ANSI C compilers around 1987. C release 3 was made in 1989, and was followed by Desktop C and Desktop Assembler in 1991. The development of the compiler was a joint venture between Norcroft (at the time Arthur Norman and Alan Mycroft--two academics from Cambridge University Computing Labs) and the PLG at Acorn. Sources were regularly exchanged between both parties but, generally, Norcroft were responsible for adherence to the emerging ANSI standard, whilst Acorn concentrated on the RISC OS specifics of the C library and on common subexpression elimination, register allocation and peephole optimisation for the ARM. {{cite document}}: Unknown parameter |accessdate= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |issue= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |url= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |volume= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  7. ^ "Codemist Compilers / Norcroft". Bath, UK: Codemist Ltd. 2002. Archived from the original on 2001-11-18. Retrieved 2011-06-16. We have created C compilers for a range of computers, from mainframes to embedded special purpose chips. [...] the following partial list will give an idea of the range of our output. Acorn Computers ARM C Compiler. This is the original ANSI C compiler known as Norcroft C.
  8. ^ "Codemist Ltd". Bath, UK: Codemist Ltd. 2002. Archived from the original on 2002-12-20. Retrieved 2011-06-16. Codemist is owned and operated by a group of university academics from Bath and Cambridge.
  9. ^ Alan Mycroft (April 29, 1988). "Query about C compilers on IBM 370s". Newsgroup: comp.lang.c. 997@ima.ISC.COM. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
  10. ^ Mogensen, Torben (2011-05-27). "Hindbærtærte" (in Danish). Version2. Retrieved 2011-07-12. [...] Norcroft Compiler (navnet er en sammentrækning af Norman og Mycroft) [...] {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Montfort, Nick (2005). "7 The Independents". Twisty little passages : an approach to interactive fiction. Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States: MIT Press. ISBN 0262633183. Before Nelson begain work on Inform [...] Using an Acorn Archimedes and programming in ANSI C, he quickly abandoned his small game to begin developing Curses, using that to put the in-progress compiler through its paces. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  12. ^ "Interview: Graham Nelson". XYZZY News. Eileen Mullin. Archived from the original on 2008-10-30. Retrieved 2008-10-30. I use two languages, the excellent Norcroft ANSI C compiler and Inform.

External links

Stub icon

This programming-tool-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Norcroft_C_compiler&oldid=445510597"