Developer tools

The full commercial version of the Acorn C/C++ Development Suite is now available to purchase from Castle Technology at £199 including VAT. See our software products page on http://www.castle.org.uk/castle/software.htm.

These C/C++ Development Suite is a major update to the Acorn C/C++ package that was originally released in 1994. As well as updated versions of the original Acorn tools it includes many extras:

New C compiler with support for most of the C99 language features and some of the C99 library routines
New ARM assembler with full support for ARM Architectures up to ARM 5TE (i.e. Intel XScale)
New linker
New ABC BASIC Compiler and ABClib
Updated C/C++, ARM Assembler and Tools manuals in PDF format
RISC OS 3 Programmer's Reference Manual, volumes 1-4 and 5a in PDF format
BBC BASIC manual, RISC OS 3 Style Guide and Acorn Toolbox manual in PDF format
Additional documentation and notes on converting software to work with 32-bit versions of RISC OS
Latest 32-bit versions of Colin Granville's PDF Reader and FTPc file transfer utility
Diff and Find utilities with long filename support
SID disassembler capable of generating output suitable for ObjASm with comments highlighting potential problems in code intended for 32-bit use
Perl interpreter and libraries*
Zap and StrongEd text editors*
StrongHelp help system*

* Currently only suitable for use on 26-bit versions of RISC OS.

The new tools will generate 32-bit compliant code which will be suitable for anything from an ARM2 Archimedes running RISC OS 3 to an XScale IYONIX pc running RISC OS 5.

See Paul Skirrow's Guide (PDF) for more details.

ABC Compiler

ABC is a BASIC compiler from Pineapple Software which is included on Castle Technology's C/C++ Development Environment CD. The latest version runs on IYONIX pc as well as earlier systems, and generates code that can run on either.

Programs compiled with ABC need the ABClib to be installed in !System. ABClib 4.12 is supplied on the C/C++ CD and as part of the IYONIX pc disc image. This is the minimum version to RMEnsure on IYONIX pc. This version is also needed for programs compiled with ABC 4.10. As a general rule the ABClib that is used must have a version number greater than or equal to the version number of the ABC compiler used to compile the program.

Developers with prototype systems should be aware that an older ABClib is in !System - this should be replaced with ABClib 4.12. Note that ABClib 4.12 is suitable for programs compiled using earlier versions of ABC and it may be used on all systems - 26 or 32-bit.

Applications compiled with earlier versions of the ABC Compiler will not run on IYONIX pc. An error will be given by ABClib advising the user that the application needs to be recompiled with !ABC 4.10 or later.

All applications must be recompiled for IYONIX pc with a new version of ABC. This is necessary because the linkage scheme between the compiled code and ABClib has had to be changed for 32-bit compatibility, and the new scheme needs more memory than is provided in old applications. In addition, various 32-bit illegal code sequences have been eliminated from both compiler and ABClib.

Although ABC has been made 32-bit capable, its emulation of BASIC's inline assembler has NOT been expanded to cater for ARM architectures V4 and V5.