Recommend a C compiler?

[Bob Stout]

In an article of <15 Aug 89 17:20:55 GMT>, (Walter Murray) writes:

 >I know C but am a total novice in the world of PC compatibles.
 >Which compiler should I buy for my home use?  I want good quality,
 >a commitment to ANSI C, responsiveness in fixing bugs, and good
 >documentation.  I expect to be doing a variety of applications,
 >including graphics.

  I noticed you've already received a few answers, but nothing too    
comprehensive, so here goes:

Microsoft C     Not recommended for home use. Too expensive and extremely slow
5.1 ("MSC")     compile times. Also not very good for a novice and below 
                average graphics support. In the plus column, MSC does set the
                pace for PC compilers and is quite good in ANSI compatibility
                and documentation is excellent. Currently required for OS/2
                or MS Windows programming. Responsiveness to bug reports is
                next to non-existant ("wait for the next version"). The
                included CodeView debugger is long past being state-of-the- 
                art. Includes Quick C (see below) for faster development.

Turbo C 2.0     Very popular for good reason. Affordable and the fastest 
("TC")          compile times in the business. Graphics support is excellent
                but not too speedy. Documentation is voluminous but lacks
                examples - use the on-line THELP facility. A novice will need 
                some other book(s). Good ANSI and MSC compatibility. Borland 
                won't admit bugs very often, let alone fix them. Best bet is 
                their toll call BBS which contains all the latest patches. 
                Although their "integrated environment" (editor, compiler, and 
                debugger) is seductive to tyros, be forewarned that everything 
                in the package is a memory hog. The Turbo Debugger included in 
                the Professional Pack is excellent.

Zortech C/C++   FAIR WARNING OF POTENTIAL BIAS: My compiler of choice. 
1.07 ("ZTC")    Comparing apples to apples, cost with the separate Zortech
                C Debugger is about the same as TC. Compile times are 
                comparable to TC with the optimizer disabled. Optimized,
                compiles in roughly the same time as MSC, but produces 
                generally better code. Documentation is marginally adaquate
                but includes useful examples. Also includes an excellent on-
                line help facility. ANSI and MSC compatibility is a little less
                than the others, but has steadily improved. Excellent support
                (known bugs are admitted and work-arounds suggested) from
                Walter Bright's (the author's) BBS, although Zortech's own 
                support line is less useful - i.e. more typical. Graphics 
                support is better than MSC, less than TC though faster. The
                available C debugger is almost as good as Borland's. Going 
                with the full C++ package raises the price above Borland, but
                gives an excellent and economical introduction to C++ (Cfront
                1.2 compatible in the current release).

Quick C 2.0     Microsoft's "baby" compiler is actually quite good and a best
("QC")          buy among the majors. Code is often as good as, or better than,
                its "big brother", graphics support is up to TC levels and much
                faster, and the bundled begugger is actually better than
                CodeView in most respects. Paper documentation borders on being
                non-existant (the reason for the low price?) though. It tries 
                to make up for it by including an excellent and comprehensive 
                on-line help system. Another "integrated environment" compiler
                but one which (unlike TC) supports mice and/or your favorite
                editor. All other MSC comments apply.

Mix Power C     Not a world class compiler, Mix deserves mention here simply
                because it is the world's greatest buy. For the price of a
                decent tutorial ($20 - sic!), you get an excellent tutorial
                and a very good ANSI comforming compiler. This bears 
                repeating, the documentation for beginners is the best 
                available - period. I usually recommend folks start with Power 
                C and then migrate to another compiler as their needs evolve. 
                Including the complete library source and their quite good 
                debugger will still leave a few pennies change from a $50 
                bill. As to the compiler, it's not bad, generating fast though 
                not particularly tight code. It's especially good for 
                applications requiring excellent floating point support.

Watcom C        Generates the world's best code at the cost of the world's 
                worst compile times (makes MSC look speedy!) Also claims
                "100%" ANSI complaince - well, they're almost there. 
                Outstandingly good floating point operations, challenged only
                by Mix. A large part of its performance is due to the non-
                standard (i.e. 3rd party libraries may be a problem) practice
                of passing arguments to functions in registers. This can be
                disabled at the cost of performance dropping into MSC 
                territory. Most other MSC comments apply here as well, 
                including the higher cost and the inclusion of a "baby"
                compiler (Watcom Express C - not as good stand-alone as QC) to 
                overcome glacial compile time objections.