Well, it's finally happened. The ACE source code has been released under 
the Gnu Public Lisence. In fact, the complete distribution has. This 
represents version 2.4 of the compiler, and the later update to db.lib 
(version 2.61). See docs/history for the details. The primary ACE document
(ace.doc/ace.fmt/ace.guide) has been annotated with recent changes, e.g.
re: contact information.

I developed ACE between November 1991 and September 1996. In preparing the 
archive I was reminded again of how much work I've put into this project.
It was a labour of love, which was driven by my desire for simplicity and
power in a programming language, but for a variety of reasons I moved on 
to other things. If you want to know more about this, go to my web page to 
see an interview with me a couple of years ago re: the state of ACE, the 
Amiga, and me.

ACE was the first large C project I worked on and I learned so much, but 
made plenty of mistakes along the way.

There are a number of things I feel I should apologise for.

First, for the time it's taken me to make the ACE source code available.
For a long time, I wasn't sure that I _would_ do so. But since I'm not 
working on it any longer, I want others to have the chance to do this if 
they wish, but not to exploit it by making money from ACE without sharing 
the benefits with others. That's what the GPL gives us.

Second, the source code is a mixture of C and assembler, mostly C. The
bad news is that it's in K&R C rather than ANSI C. I developed ACE
using an old but stable C compiler: Sozobon C v1.01. See the ZC directory.
I had plans to convert it to ANSI C but never got around to it. I recall
seeing at least one freeware utility for doing this conversion however.

Third, my coding style has changed considerably over the last few years,
and you'll notice the evolution in some of the ACE sources. My commenting
tends to be more fanatical nowadays also, although it's adequate in most
of the ACE sources.

Fourth, there's no makefiles. I used a few scripts (see make directory) to
generate the compiler and libraries. This works fine, but compared to
what I'm used to now, it's primitive. It wouldn't be hard to write some
makefiles for ACE though.

Fifth, no source control system was used. I just kept each version in
separate directories.

Sixth, there's a single common header file for the whole compiler. These 
days I generally use one header per C file and conditional compilation.

Lastly, there's one small object module (src/lib/obj/LoadIFFToWindow.o) to
which there is no source code. That's because it's a shared library stub
for ilbm.lib (which ACE regenerates at run-time). It's used in one place 
(src/lib/c/iff.c)

That's all the negative stuff I can think of. The good news is that the 
source code compiles and produces a compiler and libraries that work. I'm 
not pretending that there are no bugs though. I didn't use bug tracking 
software, so another task I should carry out is the conversion of my 
paper-based problem logs to electronic format. I didn't want to delay 
releasing the ACE source any longer in order to do this.

I also have paper-based plans for how ACE could be improved and expanded,
which I'm also willing to make available (after suitable conversion) if 
there's demand for it.

I am willing to make this kind of information available and to answer 
questions about the ACE source code and about ACE in general.

I need to thank Daniel Seifert for supplying the necessary guilt level to 
release the ACE source code and I'd like to thank everyone who's been involved 
with ACE since it came into being eight years ago. It was a wonderful 
experience. I came to know many fine people in the Amiga Community during 
the course of the project. I also want to thank my wife Karen, for putting
up with me during those years when I lived, breathed, and ate ACE.

There's nothing much left to say except that if anyone decides to keep 
developing ACE, or use the source code for some other purpose, I hope 
you spend more time thanking me than cursing me and that you send me 
some mail letting me know what you're doing.

Enjoy.

Best regards

David Benn, October 5 1998

dbenn@camtech.net.au
http://www.adelaide.net.au/~dbenn/  
6 Stacey Crescent, Klemzig, South Australia, 5087