Development Tools
Prospero Pascal for Helios is an ISO standard Pascal compiler for use with T800 transputers, under Perihelion's Helios operating system. It has been developed by Prospero Software, well known for high quality validated standards-conforming compilers used by demanding programmers around the world.
Prospero Pascal conforms fully to the ISO standard, level 0. In addition, a comprehensive set of language extensions is supported, including dynamic string types, double-precision floating point, random access files, separate compilation, bit manipulation and parallel programming.
The Prospero Pascal package includes:
The compiler is one pass, giving fast compilation speeds, and performs global optimizations such as strength reduction, common subexpression elimination and loop invariant code movement, as well as constant folding and register tracking. A number of compile-time options are available, including a choice of error reporting regimes, run-time range checking, and control over the optimization regime.
Prospero Pascal for Helios allows programmers to harness the full power of the T800 transputer. Object code and data sizes are restricted only by the available memory. Language extensions, modelled on those of the occam language, allow direct use of the parallel execution and inter-process communication facilities built into the transputer hardware. Full use is made of the on-chip floating-point processor. (On the Whetstone benchmark, a 20MHz T800 performs over twice as fast as a 16MHz 386/387 pair.) On a number of occasions, the code generated by Prospero Pascal has proved superior to that produced by hand-crafted assembler.
The Prospero Pascal package includes Probe, a source level symbolic debugger. This allows the programmer to step through a program at the source-line level, examining or altering variables, setting breakpoints, and displaying the recent execution and call histories. On a multi-threaded program, individual threads of execution can be separately monitored.
The Prospero extension library provides access to low level and operating system facilities via external procedures and functions. In particular, there is a comprehensive set of error handling and recovery routines, to allow robust programs to be developed. Since the calling conventions match those of the operating system, all Helios functions are also directly callable from Pascal programs.
A cross-development system, with compiler and other tools executing under MS-DOS, is also available.
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