DOS or WIN 6809 free/low cost Compiler?

We are currently using an 18 year old version (3.x) of Introl-C that runs under DOS. A 6809 C compiler (+assembler,etc) is needed to maintain and update code for our 6809-based card. (And NO, I can't get our product updated to a newer CPU!) I've run into a number of compiler crashes. Sometimes the compiler complains that it has an internal error, and sometimes it hangs the PC and I'm forced to reboot! It's taken me 1/2 a day or so to work around some of the compiler problems. Apparently Introl doesn't exist anymore. Their web URL is apparently up for sale.

I've looked into Dunfield's 6809 C compiler, but it doesn't handle enums or typedefs. "typedef" is used a lot because our 6809 system passes LAN traffic to PC code written in Turbo Pascal, and it is important that the C data structures and types match the Pascal records and types.

I've found a URL to GCC-6809, but as far as I can tell, it only runs under Linux. It would make things much easier for us if it would run under DOS or Win-2K. I know practically nothing about Linux, so I don't know if there is a way to run GCC-6809 under Win2K.

Ideas, anyone?

-Dave Pollum

Reply to
vze24h5m
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You should be able to use Cygwin (provides a *nix-like shell under Windows), & re-compile GCC-6809 under that.

snipped-for-privacy@verizon.net wrote: [snip]

Reply to
David Brooks

Which version are you running? 3.? What DOS/Windows version are you using?

It's kind of unfair to criticize an 18 year old product for not running properly under a (presumably) new version of an OS.

It you have a need to get going again, I can probably give you a hand.

-Rich

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Richard Pennington
Email: rich@pennware.com
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Reply to
Richard Pennington

We have some old DOS software that we need to run , it crashed a lot in Win98 and would not run at all in 2K or XP. We've used MS Virtual PC to create a virtual DOS machine and that solved our problems. You can also try VMWare.

Tom

Reply to
Tom

You're still maintaining a product that's around 18 years old!?! That's impressive! Do tell! ...

As another posted replied, you shouldn't have any problems building GCC-6809 under cygwin on windoze. I do know that it has successfully been done (or at least documented on a web site) with a patched version of GCC-6809 for the TRS-80 CoCo...

Regards, Mark

Reply to
Mark McDougall

Thanks, Dave, for suggesting Cygwin. I sorta thought there was something like that, but I wasn't sure. "..use Cygwin & re-compile GCC-6809 under that". I also have a copy of DJ Delorie's DJGPP compiler suite, which runs in a Win2K DOS box. Would that be of any use for this?

-Dave Pollum

Reply to
vze24h5m

Thanks for the info about MS Virtual PC and VMWARE. We're using a PC running MS-DOS 6.2, the SemWare editor (advanced version of Q-edit), and the Introl 6809 C compiler suite v3.05. The compiler runs OK in a Win2K DOS box, but the batch files behave a bit differently under Win2K's DOS.

-Dave Pollum

Reply to
vze24h5m

Richard - we're using a PC running MS-DOS 6.2 and Introl C, v3.02. I am able to work around the compiler problems, but it takes time. Apparently, I'm pushing the compiler too hard. But I guess it's holding up well for being an 18 year old product.

-Dave Pollum

Reply to
vze24h5m

Mark, Actually, earlier versions of the hardware (a 6809-based board that handles government communications protocols) go back to the mid 80's. I designed most of that hardware. When it was redesigned as an ISA card (by another company, in 1991), I argued for a "better" CPU, such as a 68K. I was overruled, because the "powers that be" demanded minimal software changes, and because they didn't think the project would last more than 5 years. Recently, the board has been redesigned as a PCI card, and it _still_ uses a 6809 CPU, again for software compatibilty. I heard that our PCI version may be around until 2010 or even 2015! I'm working with the company that designed the PCI version, fixing their snafus, writing firmware, and learning about VHDL and CPLDs. So I'm having a good time, except for "fighting" with the compiler from time to time. I've also written all of the firmware, and I'm currently working on writing high and low-level hardware diagnostics.

Reply to
vze24h5m

You might also want to have a look at the BCC compiler (under Cygwin/Linux) which also supports the 6809, see

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I remember using Flex on an Elector (Electuur magazine) 6809 system...... those were the days :-)

Hans

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Reply to
Hans

Thanks for the URL, Hans. I'll download that and see what its like. I also wrote Dave Dunfield, regarding his product's lack of support for "enum" and "typedef". His response regarding missuse of "typedef" gave me something to think about, so I've also downloaded a demo version from him. Now all I need some time to play with, um, evalute the 6809 C compilers.

Reply to
vze24h5m

That is to be expected. Some of the DOS functions are really COM or EXE files.

They can be copied to the newer PC. Other commands are different, but you can get to work.

Reply to
Neil Kurzman

Well it wouldn't solve your software development issues, but if you want new hardware that runs the same old software, why not look at an emulator. There was a pretty good 6809 emulator released in 1995 that lets you play the original robotron hex code on a PC. The emulator does a very faithful job of recreating a 2Mhz 6809 system with a custom video display on a slow 100 Mhz Intel Pentium.

And an emulator (once it was working) could make debugging a snap.

Mark

Reply to
mhahn

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