Lattice C

Last updated
Lattice C
Developer(s) Steve Krueger et al.
Initial release1982;41 years ago (1982)
Written inC, Assembly
Operating system DOS, OS/2, MVS, VMS, UNIX, AmigaOS, Sinclair QDOS, Atari TOS
Type Compiler
License Proprietary
Website support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/sasc/

The Lattice C Compiler was released in June 1982 by Lifeboat Associates and was the first[ citation needed ] C compiler for the IBM Personal Computer. [1] The compiler sold for $500 and would run on PC DOS or MS-DOS (which at the time were the same product with different brandings). The first hardware requirements were given as 96KB of RAM and one (later two) floppy drives. [2] [3] It was ported to many other platforms, such as mainframes (MVS), minicomputers (VMS), workstations (UNIX), OS/2, the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and the Sinclair QL.

Contents

The compiler was subsequently repackaged by Microsoft under a distribution agreement as Microsoft C version 2.0. [4] Microsoft developed their own C compiler that was released in April 1985 as Microsoft C Compiler 3.0. [5] Lattice was purchased by SAS Institute in 1987 and rebranded as SAS/C. After this, support for other platforms dwindled until compiler development ceased for all platforms except IBM mainframes. The product is still available in versions that run on other platforms, but these are cross compilers that only produce mainframe code.

Some of the early 1982 commercial software for the IBM PC was ported from CP/M (where it was written for the BDS C subset of the C language) to MS-DOS using Lattice C including Perfect Writer, PerfectCalc, PerfectSpeller and PerfectFiler. This suite was bundled with the Seequa Chameleon and Columbia Data Products.

Reception

In a 1983 review of five C compilers for the IBM PC, BYTE chose Lattice C as the best in the "superior quality, but expensive and unsuited to the beginner" category. It cited the software's "quick compile and execution times, small incremental code, best documentation and consistent reliability". [6] PC Magazine that year similarly praised Lattice C's documentation and compile-time and runtime performance, and stated that it was slightly superior to the CI-C86 and c-systems C compilers. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM Personal Computer</span> Personal computer model released in 1981

The IBM Personal Computer is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team of engineers and designers directed by Don Estridge in Boca Raton, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM PC compatible</span> Computers similar to the IBM PC and its derivatives

IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones. The term "IBM PC compatible" is now a historical description only, since IBM no longer sells personal computers after it sold its personal computer division in 2005 to Chinese technology company Lenovo. The designation "PC", as used in much of personal computer history, has not meant "personal computer" generally, but rather an x86 computer capable of running the same software that a contemporary IBM PC could. The term was initially in contrast to the variety of home computer systems available in the early 1980s, such as the Apple II, TRS-80, and Commodore 64. Later, the term was primarily used in contrast to Apple's Macintosh computers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xenix</span> Discontinued Unix version published by Microsoft

Xenix is a discontinued version of the Unix operating system for various microcomputer platforms, licensed by Microsoft from AT&T Corporation in the late 1970s. The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) later acquired exclusive rights to the software, and eventually replaced it with SCO UNIX.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital Research</span> Defunct American software company

Digital Research, Inc. was a privately held American software company created by Gary Kildall to market and develop his CP/M operating system and related 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit systems like MP/M, Concurrent DOS, FlexOS, Multiuser DOS, DOS Plus, DR DOS and GEM. It was the first large software company in the microcomputer world. Digital Research was originally based in Pacific Grove, California, later in Monterey, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CP/M-86</span> Discontinued computer operating system for x86 processors

CP/M-86 was a version of the CP/M operating system that Digital Research (DR) made for the Intel 8086 and Intel 8088. The system commands are the same as in CP/M-80. Executable files used the relocatable .CMD file format. Digital Research also produced a multi-user multitasking operating system compatible with CP/M-86, MP/M-86, which later evolved into Concurrent CP/M-86. When an emulator was added to provide PC DOS compatibility, the system was renamed Concurrent DOS, which later became Multiuser DOS, of which REAL/32 is the latest incarnation. The FlexOS, DOS Plus, and DR DOS families of operating systems started as derivations of Concurrent DOS as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">86-DOS</span> Discontinued computer operating system for x86 processors and predecessor to MS-DOS/PC DOS

86-DOS is a discontinued operating system developed and marketed by Seattle Computer Products (SCP) for its Intel 8086-based computer kit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Expanded memory</span>

In DOS memory management, expanded memory is a system of bank switching that provided additional memory to DOS programs beyond the limit of conventional memory (640 KiB).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM TopView</span> Former front-end to DOS

TopView is the first object-oriented, multitasking, and windowing, personal computer operating environment for PC DOS developed by IBM, announced in August 1984 and shipped in March 1985. TopView provided a text-mode operating environment that allowed users to run more than one application at the same time on a PC. IBM demonstrated an early version of the product to key customers before making it generally available, around the time they shipped their new PC AT computer.

DataFlex is an object-oriented high-level programming language and a fourth generation visual tool for developing Windows, web and mobile software applications on one framework-based platform. It was introduced and developed by Data Access Corporation beginning in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compaq Portable</span> Early portable computer

The Compaq Portable is an early portable computer which was one of the first IBM PC compatible systems. It was Compaq Computer Corporation's first product, to be followed by others in the Compaq Portable series and later Compaq Deskpro series. It was not simply an 8088-CPU computer that ran a Microsoft DOS as a PC "work-alike", but contained a reverse-engineered BIOS, and a version of MS-DOS that was so similar to IBM's PC DOS that it ran nearly all its application software. The computer was also an early variation on the idea of an "all-in-one".

<i>PCMag</i> Computer magazine

PC Magazine is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present day.


Merge is a software system which allows a user to run DOS/Windows 3.1 on SCO UNIX, in an 8086 virtual machine.

Interactive Systems Corporation was a US-based software company and the first vendor of the Unix operating system outside AT&T, operating from Santa Monica, California. It was founded in 1977 by Peter G. Weiner, a RAND Corporation researcher who had previously founded the Yale University computer science department and had been the Ph. D. advisor to Brian Kernighan, one of Unix's developers at AT&T. Weiner was joined by Heinz Lycklama, also a veteran of AT&T and previously the author of a Version 6 Unix port to the LSI-11 computer.

A source-to-source translator, source-to-source compiler, transcompiler, or transpiler is a type of translator that takes the source code of a program written in a programming language as its input and produces an equivalent source code in the same or a different programming language. A source-to-source translator converts between programming languages that operate at approximately the same level of abstraction, while a traditional compiler translates from a higher level programming language to a lower level programming language. For example, a source-to-source translator may perform a translation of a program from Python to JavaScript, while a traditional compiler translates from a language like C to assembler or Java to bytecode. An automatic parallelizing compiler will frequently take in a high level language program as an input and then transform the code and annotate it with parallel code annotations or language constructs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM 3270 PC</span>

The IBM 3270 PC, released in October 1983, is an IBM PC XT containing additional hardware that, in combination with software, can emulate the behaviour of an IBM 3270 terminal. It can therefore be used both as a standalone computer, and as a terminal to a mainframe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Influence of the IBM PC on the personal computer market</span> Overview about the influence of the IBM PC on the personal computer market

Following the introduction of the IBM Personal Computer, or IBM PC, many other personal computer architectures became extinct within just a few years. It led to a wave of IBM PC compatible systems being released.

This article presents a timeline of events in the history of 16-bit x86 DOS-family disk operating systems from 1980 to present. Non-x86 operating systems named "DOS" are not part of the scope of this timeline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows 2.1x</span> Major release of Microsoft Windows

Windows 2.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on May 27, 1988, as a successor to Windows 2.0.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows 1.0x</span> First major release of Microsoft Windows

Windows 1.0 is the first major release of Microsoft Windows, a family of graphical operating systems for personal computers developed by Microsoft. It was first released to manufacturing in the United States on November 20, 1985, while the European version was released as Windows 1.02 in May 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows 2.0x</span> Second major release of Microsoft Windows

Windows 2.0 is a major release of Microsoft Windows, a family of graphical operating systems for personal computers developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on December 9, 1987, as a successor to Windows 1.0.

References

  1. "Software News". InfoWorld. Vol. 4, no. 22. Palo Alto CA: Popular Computing. June 7, 1982. p. 61. ISSN   0199-6649. Lifeboat Associates' new Lattice C Compiler for the IBM Personal Computer produces relocatable machine code in Intel's 8086 object module format and takes advantage of the 8086 instruction set.
  2. "InfoWorld Software Report Card". InfoWorld. 4 (42): 47. 1982-10-25.
  3. 1 2 Hinsch, Hanno (July 4, 1983). "Is Lifeboat King of the C's?". PC Magazine. Vol. 2, no. 2. Ziff-Davis Publishing. pp. 527–533. ISSN   0888-8507.
  4. Clapp, Douglas (October 4, 1983). "Microsoft C Unveiled". PC Magazine. Vol. 2, no. 5. Ziff-Davis Publishing. pp. 503–508. ISSN   0888-8507.
  5. "Software". Computerworld. Framingham, MA: CW Communications. 19 (15): 71. April 15, 1985. ISSN   0010-4841. Microsoft has announced an enhanced version of its Microsoft C Compiler for the IBM Personal Computer… A vendor spokesman said Version 3.0 is the first C compiler developed internally by Microsoft.
  6. Phraner, Ralph A. (August 1983). "Nine C Compilers for the IBM PC". BYTE. pp. 134–168. Retrieved 20 October 2013.