C99C overlays?

[Harry Potter]

Does C99C support overlays?  If so, how do I use them?  I have two programs to port to the TI99/4A that require them.

[Tursi]

If you're porting, are you sure you want to use C99 instead of GCC? GCC is a much more modern compiler and is pretty stable these days...

 

Of course, it won't run ON the TI, if so that's your goal you're stuck.

 

[+mizapf]

Also, C99 is far from ANSI C, I think not even full K&R.

[Harry Potter]

Is C99 popular?   If so, I want to target it in one of my projects.  I downloaded GCC.  Let's see if it works.   

[+mizapf]

Define "populus": How many percent of the people would you expect?

 

I was glad that TIC covered at least a bit more of the C features, so I switched to TIC for the Geneve when it was available. As for the TI-99/4A, I really cannot say.

[Harry Potter]

Most of the projects I want to port to the TI require overlays.  Regarding "popular" I mean used enough for it to be worth my time to target in one of my projects.  The project is meant to be a surprise, and I will not reveal its identity until I have it ready for distribution.

[+Ksarul]

At this point in time, I think the GCC implementation is the most likely software to be in use by TI programmers. C99 was based mostly on the Small C core functions, while TIC for the Geneve included a bit more functionality. It depends on whether or not you want to write your code on a TI or a TI/Geneve emulator. If you want to use a PC for the coding with the TI as your target system, you are probably best off with GCC. It may not have all of the libraries you need yet--but if you add the ones you need, a lot of TI people will likely use them in the future.

[Asmusr]

20 hours ago, Harry Potter said:

Does C99C support overlays?  If so, how do I use them?  I have two programs to port to the TI99/4A that require them.

AFAIK there isn't support in any of the c compilers for using SAMS pages for overlay programming. You would have to create your own library.

[Harry Potter]

Programming on a TI99/4A is not necessary, as I'm using an emulator on a Win10/64 system for testing.  I downloaded GCC, but I think it's a patch and not the full program.  I need to test it to see if it works.  I thank you for your support.

 

BTW, should I support C99C?  I have a project that can support it and really want to create it.

[Tursi]

Yes, GCC is a patch - you have to build the compiler yourself. Instructions are in the GCC thread but it takes a fair bit of time and does tend to run into a gotcha or two.

On Windows 10 you can install the Windows Subsystem for Linux and run the Linux version, I could send you my build folder if you get WSL installed.

 

As to whether you should support C99... that's really personal preference. But it's a limited subset of Small C which uses K&R-like syntax, so most software will be an effort to port to it. Unless you have already done so, I recommend that you attempt to port a small, simple program to it in order to become familiar with the limitations you will face. That should be enough information to decide.

 

[Harry Potter]

I want to port a specific program to the TI which requires overlays and am wondering how.  I don't want to use GCC as it requires a lot of work to initiate.  I can use C99C but need to familiarize myself with it.  My program is to serve the C community but doesn't need to be hosted on C99C.  I thank you for your information.