Deep Blue C

Deep Blue C is a compiler for a subset of the C programming language for the Atari 8-bit family distributed by the Atari Program Exchange. The compiler is a version of Ron Cain's public domain Small-C^[1] modified by John Howard Palevich to run on the Atari computer hardware. Palevich also wrote the Atari 8-bit game Dandy.^[2] The syntax supported by Deep Blue C is close to that of ANSI C with significant limitations.

The source code to the compiler was sold as Deep Blue Secrets, also from APX.^[1]

Limitations

The following language constructs are not supported:^[3]

• structs
• unions
• multidimensional arrays
• floating point numbers
• sizeof operator
• type casting
• functions return integer only results

Other non-standard properties of Deep Blue C:

• The last part of switch clause must be ended with: break, continue, or return.
• The maximum length of source code line has to be less than 80 characters.
• The number of arguments for functions cannot exceed 126.
• $( and $) are used instead of { and }.

Sample program

The exemplary program writes the "Hello World!" message on the user screen.^[4]

 main()
 $(
   printf("Hello World!");
 $)

Performance

The Deep Blue C compiler does not create the native executable for 6502 processor but intermediate code called C-code. The C-code is then executed by C-code interpreter.^[3] According to Atari 8-bit FAQ the compiler creates binary code for Intel 8080 processor and then executed by 8080 virtual machine.^[5] This is the main cause of low performance of generated code.

References