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All of the Free Prop Compilers — Parallax Forums

All of the Free Prop Compilers

logan996logan996 Posts: 281
edited 2010-11-29 16:17 in General Discussion
I have a friend who is just now thinking of starting to use the prop but he isnt sure. I was wondering if you guys could give me a list of all the free Prop compilers with what they are for and the link, i think i remember a long time back a huge list made by humanoido but i cant exactly remember.

Comments

  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2010-11-28 12:01
    This thread? Remember that Humanoido tends to create exhaustive lists, not necessarily practical ones.

    There's Spin, PASM, C, PropBasic, and Forth. Since CP/M runs on the Prop using a Z80 emulator at nearly native speeds, everything done for CP/M (a lot) will also run, allbeit relatively slowly.
  • logan996logan996 Posts: 281
    edited 2010-11-28 14:28
    Yes! thanks mike, that was Exactly what i was looking for!
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2010-11-29 12:54
    Mike Green wrote: »
    This thread? Remember that Humanoido tends to create exhaustive lists, not necessarily practical ones.
    Mike, remember that the Forum is comprised of many diverse people around the world working on many various Propeller projects. A list not practical to some people can be very practical to others. This one in particular, the ULTIMATE List of Propeller Languages is now blogged across the web, apparently boosting the Propeller's popularity in programming language choices. I'm sure Parallax appreciates this, as well as individuals looking for a more complete source of Propeller languages, including Logan996. :) I also note that you have several languages on the list which is a great accomplishment. If you have any new ones, or know of any new languages, please let us know. Thanks!
  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2010-11-29 13:33
    Humanoido,
    I don't mean to say that your lists are not useful, just of limited practicality. There needs to be a discussion of the differences among native Propeller instructions, Spin bytecodes, LMM, XLMM, Z80 and other emulations, and other execution environments, then maybe a list of keywords or codes that show what applies to each language system so people can begin to judge what the tradeoffs are. It would be unfortunate for someone to spend some time investigating a particular language and only discovering later that it runs way too slowly for their needs or requires hardware they don't have or the compiled programs won't fit in what memory they have available. It doesn't take much of this sort of information for readers to be able to separate the languages into their main groups for Propeller implementations.

    Regarding the several languages where I'm given as the author ... They're all relatively minor variations of the same code base, modified for specific hardware configurations (all the ....Basic variants). They're all very slow since they're interpreted by an interpreted interpreter (written in Spin), but they're useful for simple hardware exercising and testing and for simple applications and demonstration (like the Roaming with the BoeBot Demo translated into BoeBot Basic or the demo for the now discontinued uOLED-96-Prop written in uOLEDBasic.
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2010-11-29 16:17
    Mike, I understand, this information would be very helpful - you are talking about an almost in-depth analysis of each programming language and while agreed it's useful knowledge, it's reasonably certain that currently doesn't exist in terms of documentation for every prop language, or even by benchmark comparison - given the wide variations of systems, hardware, and programming differences. In looking for such information from the authors we know not everyone earns a star in documentation and often times just getting some fundamental information becomes a hard pressed issue, or we don't have the time to sift through page upon page of technical issues looking for memory usage, for example. For now, at best, you could post to the author, email the author, follow the provided link to the author's web site, ask questions, and ascertain information required to see if the language is suitable for the intended application. The list is not intended to be a technical analysis of each language but solely a suitable non-technical source as a launch-point to finding languages, knowing which ones are available and documenting authors and versions for credit.

    With the speed of the language, what may be entirely suitable for one person is not suitable for the next. I find some of the slower implementations the most useful because they get the job done within the required time-frame, offer useful features, have low overhead, and are easy to use.
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