| DICE C Compiler |

DICE C Compiler - from installation to first "hello.c"

The first question that Joe Average would ask (where the word "DICE" makes one think of a random number generator cube with eyes) would be: what actually is DICE? DICE is an ANSI-C development system that was written by Matt Dillion entirely for and on the Amiga. But DICE is even more:

DICE is a 68000 compiler and, provided you download the source, can be compiled on any platform you choose. DICE is easy to install - in any case much easier than Unix-like GNU-C. DICE is admittedly not perfect, but is the perfect solution for those who want to develop a pair of small tools and want to avoid a GCC installation, nor can raise the considerable sum of money required for a commercial compiler. DICE is for people who are not so familiar with C++ and need to first learn the ANSI-C standard. DICE is now Freeware.

DICE is perhaps not every man/woman's thing, especially those used to clicking on windows, who will need to be first re-acquainted with their keyboard. But don't worry - this workshop is meant exactly for these type of people. This will be a style of manual, and so I won't detail every single step. Later on, everyone should by then have the ability to experiment further and broaden their knowledge.

Ok let's start. Drop down to the sites listed below, and download the good bits - the abundant docs and corresponding archives. Fortunately, there is not much to download, and you will have a simple overview.

Why should you really use DICE and not some other compiler? Firstly, DICE runs on every Amiga (starting with an Amiga 500/1MB), and secondly, DICE compiles somewhat faster than GNU-C. What is DICE made up of exactly? Well, there's...

Compiler 'DCC' (übersetzt den Code)

Debugger 'DEBUG' (noch nicht ganz ausgereift)

Linker 'DLINK' (fügt Objektdateien zusammen)

Profiler 'DPROF' (wie tut unser Programm so?)

Assembler 'DAS', 'A68k' (komfortabler als 'DAS')

Online Help 'DiceHelp' (Info auf Knopfdruck)

'VMake', 'VOpts' (wer ungern MakeFiles selber macht)

Development Tools (Objektdateien und Libs manipulieren)

Make Utility 'DMake' (wer gern MakeFiles macht)

Editor 'DME' und andere (besser CygnusEd oder GoldEd)

Source Code Management Tools

Romable Code Generation Tools

Libraries & Source Codes

Installation

Decompress the DICE archive from the Aminet. Then read the file ReadMe.1st under "Installation" to see which assigns the program needs. Or if you're feeling lazy, just simply enter

assign DCC: <where it is installed>/DICE assign DLIB: DCC:dlib assign DINCLUDE: DCC:include path DCC:bin/ ADD

in the s:user-startup file. Then copy the dicecache.library to LIBS:. Next we need the AmigaOS includes (not actually for "Hello World!", but perhaps later for a program with a GUI). In case you have the Developer CD V1.2, do the following:

MakeDir dinclude:amiga31 MakeDir dinclude:amiga31/fd Copy ADCD_v1.2:ndk/ndk_3.1/includes&libs/include_h/#? dinclude:amiga31/ all Copy ADCD_v1.2:ndk/ndk_3.1/includes&libs/fd/#? dinclude:amiga31/fd/

Or the following if you have V1.1:

MakeDir dinclude:amiga31 MakeDir dinclude:amiga31/fd Copy Amiga_Dev_CD_v1.1:NDK_3.1/Includes&Libs/include_h/#? dinclude:amiga31/ all Copy Amiga_Dev_CD_v1.1:NDK_3.1/Includes&Libs/fd/#? dinclude:amiga31/fd/

So, a little browsing in the various ReadMe files never hurts, and I'm sure everyone will find their own way around quite easily. It is really not so difficult, and you will probably notice that some files are somewhat old, but don't be so disconcerted with that.

Our first program

There is a nice little workshop to be found in the docs directory (BEGINNER_README.DOC) that explains everything precisely. When you read this and follow it through, nothing should really go wrong. Ok good, I think to myself, and type away...

Neuer Shell-Prozeß 11 11.Ram Disk:> dcc DCC 1.12 (24.12.95) Copyright (c) 1992,1993,1994 Obvious Implementations Corp., Redistribution & Use under DICE-LICENSE.TXT. 11.Ram Disk:> t: 11.Ram Disk:T> ced test.c

Whereby test.c looks like:

#include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> main() { puts("HEllo World!"); return(0); }

And now...

11.Ram Disk:T> dcc test.c -o test DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:41 Unable to find dlib:amigas.lib model <> DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _LVOAllocMem (amiga/c) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _LVOSetSignal (amiga/c) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _LVOFreeMem (amiga/c) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _LVOForbid (amiga/c) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _LVOReplyMsg (amiga/c) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _FindTask (T:main) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _Open (T:main) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _CurrentDir (T:main) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _AllocMem (T:malloc) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _IsInteractive (T:isatty) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _Seek (T:lseek) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _Seek (T:write) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _Write (T:write) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _SetSignal (T:chkabort) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _DeleteFile (T:fclose) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _Close (T:close) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _FreeMem (T:free) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _Wait (T:free) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _LVOWaitPort (alib/wbmain) DLINK: "" L:0 C:0 Error:36 Undefined Symbol: _LVOGetMsg (alib/wbmain) Exit code 20

Oooops, what's happening here? Ah, you have to establish which libraries are to be used. We'll have that in a moment...

11.Ram Disk:T> dlib: 11.Fox:dice/dlib> dir amiga20l.lib amiga20pl.lib amiga20rl.lib amiga20rpl.lib amiga20s.lib amiga20sp.lib amiga20sr.lib amiga20srp.lib amiga31l.lib amiga31pl.lib amiga31rl.lib amiga31rpl.lib amiga31s.lib amiga31sp.lib amiga31sr.lib amiga31srp.lib autol.lib autos.lib c.o cl.lib cpl.lib crl.lib crpl.lib cs.lib cs.lib.free csp.lib csp.lib.free csr.lib csrp.lib c_pi.o c_pr.o ml.lib mpl.lib mrl.lib mrpl.lib ms.lib msp.lib msr.lib msrp.lib muil.lib muirl.lib muis.lib muisr.lib reqtoolsl.lib reqtoolsrl.lib reqtoolss.lib reqtoolssr.lib roml.lib romrl.lib roms.lib romsr.lib ucs.lib ucsr.lib x.o

As I have OS3.1, I enter the following:

11.Fox:dice/dlib> setenv dccopts -3.1

And try again...

11.Fox:dice/dlib> t: 11.Ram Disk:T> dcc test.c -o test 11.Ram Disk:T> test HEllo World!

Yep, that works quite well now, and to make it resident in memory compile it so:

11.Ram Disk:T> dcc test.c -o test -r 11.Ram Disk:T> test HEllo World!

Finito

That's it, The End. The rest you should all be able to work out easily for yourself. There are a couple of nice tutorials in a good Amiga ex-magazine (CU Amiga) on Amiga Intuition programming. The Amiga RKMs and the developer CDs are a good tip, also the Amiga Guru Book by Ralph Babel and various other literature sources. I have a large amount of books about C on the Amiga here at home in case anyone is interested. I can't read them all anyway, so e-mail me.

Bernhard Lukas
Steve Bowman

DICE Homepage

Richard Drummond's DICE Homepage

Download DICE 3.16 (Aminet)

Amiga C-Workshop with discussion area

Amiga C Mailinglist(s) (Search for 'amiga c')