19 Sep
2010
19 Sep
'10
12:21 p.m.
On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 2:17 PM, Mark Davidson <mdavidson1963 at gmail.com> wrote:
On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 6:31 AM, Philip Pemberton
<classiccmp at philpem.me.uk> wrote:
IIRC, most SIBO programming was done in OPL rather than in C. I'm not
sure how much better performance native C offers over OPL, but I'd
certain think it would be worth trying out before you go crazy looking
for some long-gone C compiler...
Anyways, congratulations on the Workabout. I wish that there were
still PDAs on the market that had the combo of super-readable screens,
excellent keyboards and long battery life that Psion had back in the
early 90s...
Mike
Hi guys,
As near as I can tell, this was a 16-bit 8086 C compiler which generated
code under (and for) MS-DOS type platforms. The Psion documentation
references Topspeed Compiler v3.10 and Environment v3.10.002, but I suspect
other versions may also work. Psion suggest it was released by Clarion, but
every other reference I can find suggests it was sold be a company called
"JPI".
I know others will probably provide more info, but you are mostly
correct. ?TopSpeed was originally sold and supported by (I believe)
JPI, but they bought Clarion many years ago. ?These days, Clarion is
the only remnants of the company. ?Clarion was originally the
purveyors of the Clarion Development System, a 4GL-like system for DOS
and (eventually) Windows. ?They merged with JPI to gain the compiler
technology of TopSpeed. ?I don't know if you can still get the
original compiler system from Clarion.
Disclaimer: ?I worked for Clarion back in 1987 or so, back before
TopSpeed and before they went into the world of Windows. ?I definitely
have a bias. :) ?They're idiots.
Mark