The Last Psion | Alex on Nostr: Here's something I wish would be open sourced. The #TopSpeed C #compiler is an ...

Here's something I wish would be open sourced.

The #TopSpeed C #compiler is an integral part of the #Psion SIBO C SDK.

Old timers might remember JPI as a group of developers who left #Borland in 1987, after Borland decided not to use the team's new compiler technology. They took their code with them, and it became the TopSpeed compiler.

From what I gather, the TopSpeed compiler IP is now owned by #SoftVelocity, the company who now also owns Clarion. I emailed them about 6 years ago, asking them if they would consider open sourcing the compiler code. I got no response, which I guess is to be expected.

I even found someone who had a copy of the source code (written in Modula-2), but they understandably wouldn't give it to me without the IP owner's approval.

This is the situation with so many bits of software (including the SIBO C SDK tools) from this time. We are lucky that copies of the applications still exist, otherwise the job of building C software for #EPOC16 would be significantly more difficult. But it is likely that the original source code, along with many other codebases, will disappear thanks to copyright laws that don't support digital preservation.

#retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #digipres