On Mon, 6 Jul 2009 12:30:18 +0100, "Michael Rigby-Jones"
<
Michael.Rigby-Jones@...> said:
> > Sly marketing? Frankly, if their free version went from doing
> > these optimizations to not doing them (honestly, a compiler
> > that doesn't take
> > i++ and output INCF is BROKEN in my mind), and yet nothing was said to
> > that effect, I would call it at best sleezy, at worst
> > something much worse.
>
>
> The description of Lite mode on the HiTech website clearly states
> optimisations are disabled.
>
> I think people are missing the point, if you wish to evaluate the
> compiler for a commercial project, you can do so, with full
> optimisations enabled for (I think) 45 days. The Lite mode is really
> for simple hobbyist projects where the ability to use any device often
> outweighs the bloated code it produces.
But what he was saying is that the free version was pretty good, and now
it isn't.
Why they would take away quality strikes me as bizarre.
It's even stranger if you look at the number of compilers available now
as opposed to when HiTech started out. There are a lot of good compilers
for cheap or free now. And if you are a beginner or a hobbyist, why
choose HiTech? It was always the compiler with the fewest features(no
I/O or other neat functions) but now it also produces the worst code. I
certainly wouldn't try it or buy it, and I was actually a customer of
theirs. I would not recommend it to anyone unless they had to do
maintenance on an existing project.
There's no longer a code size limit to the free version, but by
generating code several times bigger than necessary, isn't that almost
the same thing?
I'm not sure the ability to use any chip is that appealing to a hobbyist
or beginner. The old free compiler supported a few popular chips
properly.
I remember looking at the code generated by earlier versions and
admiring how clever it was. The new stuff looks like junk.
How can this be good for them?
Cheerful regards,
Bob
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