Re: CoCo OS-9 C compilers - ANSI?

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On Thu, May 14, 2026, 17:04 Allen Huffman via Coco <
[email protected]> wrote:

> I recall back in the 90s, Vaughn Cato (? I think ?) created ANSIFront for
> the OS-9 compiler. It allowed ANSI-like stuff with functions to be done int
> he old pre-ANSI K&R C compiler.
>
> All my old CoCo and MM/1 OS-9 stuff is K&R since that is the compiler I
> had on both systems.
>
> I would like to clean up my old C source code.
>
> What is the recommended C toolchain to be using these days for OS-9/6809
> stuff?
>

Like Curtis said, DCC (found in my CoCo C repo at  <
https://github.com/Deek/CoCoC>) is more up to date and friendly to work
with and has fewer bugs.

The preprocessor, dcpp, should be C99-compatible, with variadic macros and
modern token pasting and 'stringification', where the old preprocessor
didn't even have "#if expression". That is to say, you should be able to do
something like:

#if (!defined(NDEBUG)) // debugging code included by default
# define dprintf(...) fprintf(stderr, __VA_ARGS__)
#else
# define dprintf(...)
#endif

That said, the language still isn't ANSI. Prototypes are not supported, and
structs still have only one namespace. My current project, in my free time,
is to resurrect the 2-pass version of the compiler so that there's space to
add processing for prototypes, limited struct member uniqueness, and const
(which will shrink binaries but make accidental self-modifying code
possible).

Patches on anything are welcome.

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<div dir=3D"auto"><div><div class=3D"gmail_quote"><div dir=3D"ltr" class=3D=
"gmail_attr">On Thu, May 14, 2026, 17:04 Allen Huffman via Coco &lt;<a href=
=3D"mailto:[email protected]" target=3D"_blank" rel=3D"noreferrer">=
[email protected]</a>&gt; wrote:<br></div><blockquote class=3D"gmai=
l_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,20=
4,204);padding-left:1ex"><div>I recall back in the 90s, Vaughn Cato (? I th=
ink ?) created ANSIFront for the OS-9 compiler. It allowed ANSI-like stuff =
with functions to be done int he old pre-ANSI K&amp;R C compiler.<div><br><=
/div><div>All my old CoCo and MM/1 OS-9 stuff is K&amp;R since that is the =
compiler I had on both systems.</div><div><br></div><div>I would like to cl=
ean up my old C source code.</div><div><br></div><div>What is the recommend=
ed C toolchain to be using these days for OS-9/6809 stuff?</div></div></blo=
ckquote></div></div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">Like Curt=
is said, DCC (found in my CoCo C repo at=C2=A0 &lt;<a href=3D"https://githu=
b.com/Deek/CoCoC" target=3D"_blank" rel=3D"noreferrer">https://github.com/D=
eek/CoCoC</a>&gt;) is more up to date and friendly to work with and has few=
er bugs.</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">The preprocesso=
r, dcpp, should be C99-compatible, with variadic macros and modern token pa=
sting and &#39;stringification&#39;, where the old preprocessor didn&#39;t =
even have &quot;#if expression&quot;. That is to say, you should be able to=
 do something like:</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">#if =
(!defined(NDEBUG)) // debugging code included by default</div><div dir=3D"a=
uto"># define dprintf(...) fprintf(stderr, __VA_ARGS__)</div><div dir=3D"au=
to">#else</div><div dir=3D"auto"># define dprintf(...)</div><div dir=3D"aut=
o">#endif</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">That said, the=
 language still isn&#39;t ANSI. Prototypes are not supported, and structs s=
till have only one namespace. My current project, in my free time, is to re=
surrect the 2-pass version of the compiler so that there&#39;s space to add=
 processing for prototypes, limited struct member uniqueness, and const (wh=
ich will shrink binaries but make accidental self-modifying code possible).=
</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">Patches on anything are=
 welcome.</div><div dir=3D"auto"></div></div>

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