Review of commercial C compilers

[Pierrot le fou]

Hello !

I am looking for a paper that reviews the currently available commercial C compilers, in order to choose one of them.
My principal expectations for a C compiler are: efficient debugging, user-friendliness and optimisation possibilities... So far, I selected more or less two compilers (Visual C++ and Borland 2007), but I cannot find any (good) literature that would help me to make the decision.
Any comment on your working experience with C compiler(s) is welcome !

Thank you in advance,
Pierre.

[Ancient Dragon]

VC++ has excellent debugging capabilities. A little difficult to learn but because its so loaded with features. You can download a free version VC++ 2005 Express that is identiacal to the commercial version minus some features such as mfc support. But you can test-drive the compiler and debugger.

[Pierrot le fou]

Thanks for your answer.
I read that Borland 2007 was easier to use than VC++. Do you have an opinion on this ?

With regards to my task, which is to build up a process engineering simulator (solving DAEs and boundary value problems), does the previous remark apply ?
Pierre

[Narue]

>I read that Borland 2007 was easier to use than VC++. Do you have an opinion on this ?
I don't think it is, but I can see how some people would feel that way. Visual Studio is a feature rich development environment. Borland doesn't throw everything in your face in the same way, though after the initial learning curve I find Visual Studio to be more comfortable.

>My principal expectations for a C compiler are: efficient debugging
I hate the Borland debugger, and I like the Visual Studio debugger. I know people that say the opposite. Efficient debugging is strictly about what you're comfortable with. So rather than reading reviews, you should be trying these things out and seeing what you like best.

>user-friendliness
You're unlikely to find a commercial compiler that isn't user-friendly. Such a beast would fail miserably in the market. Once again, find one that you're comfortable with.

>optimisation possibilities...
If you want optimization for x86 processors, the Intel C++ compiler is about as good as it gets. But optimization is very good with the leading commercial compilers. Even the free compilers (such as gcc) are excellent at optimizing object code.