Turbocharge Compiler

ZX Computing

Brian Beckett

QL COLUMN Brian Beckett with news of Digital Precision's new Turbocharge compiler. 'Compiler Wars' does not star Harrison Ford, neither does it feature overly cute robots or assorted other humanoids, aliens, Jedi or whatever. Nor is it a computer game in the strict sense - although it certainly is in a wider one - but it promises to be just as amusing and probably just as long lasting. A while ago. Liberation Software released QLiberator, a superBASIC compiler to compete with Digital Precision's longstanding and very well received Supercharge. Both sell at £60 and although QLiberator lacks some of Supercharge's features and is generally finer slow it is a good product which attracted a lot of interest. In the meantime, Digital was developing Turbocharge, son-of-Supercharge, mega-compiler is due for release at any time. Actually it's been due for release at any time for a while, and some reviewers have taken to needling the company a bit. According to Digital, Turbo will be significantly faster than Supercharge and have numerous additional features and refinements, designed to justify the package's sub-title of the "encyclocompiler". Turbo will sell for £84.95 which includes Turbo Toolkit, a package of over 60 new commands designed to extend and otherwise supplement Superbasic. Turbo Toolkit is available now (for £24.95) but there doesn't seem much point in buying it yet if you're at all interested in getting the Turbo compiler when it's ready. Digital has sent me the manual so Turbo must be about due since they never bother to write me unless they're about to release something (I didn't even get a Christmas card) for me to tell you about. In the meantime, the war of words is heating up. Digital has apparently been annoying Liberation Software by constantly referring to QLiberator as a 'pseudo-compiler'. Digital has responded with a denial (possibly at a lawyer's request) slating that the term is simply a technical one referring to the "pseudo code" interpreted by QLiberator compared to the "true 68088 code" produced by "true" compilers like (surprise) Supercharge and the up-coming compiler-to-end-all-compilers, Turbo. The funny bit was that this gentlemanly qualifier was printed in a typeface and layout so small that it practically takes a high resolution microscope to read it at all. Beastly remarks about the competition emerge regularly from both sides and are likely to increase as time goes by. Although it might prove a bit confusing to all those potential customers out there, it promises to be loads of fun for reviewers bored with standard PR releases. Obviously we'll be looking at Turbo when it does come out but, for a sneak preview, here are some of the (many) features Digital is promising. Normally I'd hesitate a bit before writing about a product I haven't seen yet but, as Digital regularly releases high quality packages tor the QL. I have little doubt that the product will live up to its promises. First of all, Turbo will be multi-tasking (as is QLiberator) and - a real favour to the user - will lack that infernal Lenslok security system found on Supercharge. It promises to be much faster than Supercharge and is said to be far more user-friendly with an extensive menu and built-in flexibility of use. It will adjust for many structural faults in the programs under compilation and list corrections made. If you're working with an unexpanded QL, lengthy programs are compiled in modules as would be expected but there are a number of features designed to minimise the drawbacks and difficulties of the task. Turbo tasks will be able to both read and write into other Turbo tasks. Error warnings will be reported by line, statement and position. This is just the bare surface of what's promised but gives a hint of what's coming over the horizon in the (hopefully) very near future. I have, however, seen the manual which, although nobody is going to go out and spend £85 for a bunch of A4 sheets, is an impressive feature in its own right. The whole thing is some 350 pages (including the Turbo Toolkit manual) and is very well written in a readable and humorous style. There are some cartoons and a glossary (which includes a definition of "reviewer" that makes up for in accuracy what it lacks in basic human kindness) clearly designed to amuse as well as inform. The point is that Digital obviously wants to sell its product to as wide a circle as possible and has gone to a considerable effort to produce supporting documentation that will enable non-programmers (or those less familiar with all the technical ins and outs and various specialist lingo) to get the best out of it. There are detailed explanations of some of the background maths and supporting functions which underlie what is going on and much of the manual is clearly aimed at those not intimately acquainted with the QL. Professional software packaged for all users is a virtue that commends itself and Digital (which always takes this approach) deserves full marks for doing this as a matter of course. The Turbo manual excels in this respect. If you want another QL to play around with the networking facility (which has sort of died a death) or simply because you haven't yet got around to buying one. I've seen them for sale at £100 on the High Street. Push it a bit and you can probably get one for a fair bit less if the retailer has gotten sick of the thing on his shelves (and I suspect most have) and wants to get rid of it. More importantly, it ought to be time to go shopping for a bargain-basement memory expansion and/or disc interface. Although most (but by no means all) of the QL software is designed for an unexpanded machine, just about all the good stuff works a lot better or easier with extra RAM. There's a lot of competing memory expansions on the market and most of the companies are probably beginning to flirt with the idea of getting rid of any surplus stock as the market starts to decline. At the last couple of Microfairs, I noticed quite a few Medic disc interface/extra RAM modules in service. Medic made an excellent package but sadly ran into difficulties but it looks like some of the original stock of modules has surfaced. If you get a chance to get one cheaply (and I wouldn't pay much for one now) get it because it's probably the best designed QL expansion package I've seen. You will have to find someone to maintain or repair it but, if you can get it cheap enough, it's well worth it as long as you make sure it works to begin with.