1.1 Origin and history of C--

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      The author of SPHINX C-- is the Canadian Peter Cellik. His last version

  of SPHINX C-- is v 0.203 of October 28, 1996. Regrettably he abandoned

  further development of the language. This project, nearly dead, was taken

  up in 1998 by the Russian Mihail Sheker. The compiler started off as

  freeware (or greenware, as Peter Cellik called it) and it remains freeware.

 

     The compiler could originally create only *.com files, and was intended

  for creating small demos and TSRs. It has since been expanded to better

  meet current requirements.

 

     In developing the compiler, the following principles were observed where

  possible:

 

     1. Keep the syntax compatible with Peter Cellik's last version. This

  minimizes the work required to adapt programs written for his version 0.203

  to the latest version of C--.

 

     2. Make the compiler syntax similar to that of ANSI C, which makes it

  much easier to translate programs written in C.

 

     3. Efforts were also made to write a compiler that could be mastered with

  little effort by someone knowing only assembly language.

 

      These often conflicting principles influenced the choice of how to write

  this compiler. Judge for yourself how well these goals were achieved.

 

      Please email any suggestions for improvement or other ideas to

  sheker@mail.ru.  I will be delighted to consider all suggestions, but I

  cannot guarantee that they will all be implemented, for were this to

  happen, the result would be chaos. But those suggestions which are, in my

  opinion, promising and possible, will be included in the compiler (so it

  behooves you to present your arguments well).