Editing Cross compiler (section)

== Manx Aztec C cross compilers ==
[[Manx Software Systems]], of [[Shrewsbury, New Jersey|Shrewsbury]], [[New Jersey]], produced [[Compiler|C compilers]] beginning in the 1980s targeted at professional developers for a variety of platforms up to and including [[IBM PC compatible]]s and [[Mac (computer)|Macs]].

Manx's [[Aztec C]] [[C (programming language)|programming language]] was available for a variety of platforms including [[MS-DOS]], [[Apple II]], [[Apple DOS|DOS 3.3]] and [[Apple ProDOS|ProDOS]], [[Commodore 64]], [[Mac (computer)|Mac]] 68k<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304210 |title=Obsolete Macintosh Computers |access-date=2008-03-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226113432/http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304210 |archive-date=2008-02-26 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[Amiga]].

From the 1980s and continuing throughout the 1990s until Manx Software Systems disappeared, the MS-DOS version of Aztec C<ref>[http://www.clipshop.ca/Aztec/index.htm Aztec C]</ref> was offered both as a native mode compiler or as a cross compiler for other platforms with different processors including the Commodore 64<ref>[http://www.clipshop.ca/Aztec/index.htm#commodore Commodore 64]</ref> and Apple II.<ref>[http://www.clipshop.ca/Aztec/index.htm#apple Apple II]</ref> Internet distributions still exist for Aztec C including their MS-DOS based cross compilers. They are still in use today.

Manx's Aztec C86, their native mode [[Intel 8086|8086]] MS-DOS compiler, was also a cross compiler. Although it did not compile code for a different processor like their Aztec C65 [[MOS Technology 6502|6502]] cross compilers for the Commodore 64 and Apple II, it created binary executables for then-legacy operating systems for the 16-bit 8086 family of processors.

When the IBM PC was first introduced it was available with a choice of operating systems, [[CP/M-86]] and [[IBM PC DOS|PC DOS]] being two of them. Aztec C86 was provided with link libraries for generating code for both [[IBM Personal Computer|IBM PC]] operating systems. Throughout the 1980s later versions of Aztec C86 (3.xx, 4.xx and 5.xx) added support for [[MS-DOS]] "transitory" versions 1 and 2<ref>[http://members.fortunecity.com/pcmuseum/dos.htm MS-DOS Timeline] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080501141058/http://members.fortunecity.com/pcmuseum/dos.htm |date=2008-05-01 }}</ref> and which were less robust than the "baseline" MS-DOS version 3 and later which Aztec C86 targeted until its demise.

Finally, Aztec C86 provided C language developers with the ability to produce [[ROM image|ROM-able]] [[Hexadecimal|"HEX"]] code which could then be transferred using a [[Read-only memory|ROM burner]] directly to an 8086 based processor. [[Paravirtualization]] may be more common today but the practice of creating low-level ROM code was more common per-capita during those years when [[device driver]] development was often done by application programmers for individual applications, and new devices amounted to a [[cottage industry]]. It was not uncommon for application programmers to interface directly with hardware without support from the manufacturer. This practice was similar to [[embedded system|Embedded Systems Development]] today.

Thomas Fenwick and James Goodnow II were the two principal developers of Aztec-C. Fenwick later became notable as the author of the [[Microsoft]] [[Windows CE]] [[Kernel (operating system)|kernel]] or NK ("New Kernel") as it was then called.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Microsoft-Windows-John-Murray/dp/1199000361 Inside Windows CE (search for Fenwick)]</ref>