Short:        A clean-up and re-compiile of DICE
Author:       Matt Dillon
Uploader:     richard drummond u-net com (Richard Drummond)
Type:         dev/c
Architecture: m68k-amigaos


Introduction
============

This archive is basically a cleanup and re-compile of DICE from the
dice-3.15.lha archive posted to the Aminet last year. I have called
it version 3.16 for no other reasons than it is a newer release than
3.15. There are no significant modifications.

DICE is a superb C programming environment - Matt did the Amiga
community a huge favour by releasing the source code. However, it
was a non-trivial task to produce an actual working compiler from the
dice source archive. Most notably, the amiga.lib linker libraries
for OS2.0 and 3.0 were missing.

So - rather than let DICE fester in a near unusable state - I have
performed a quick overhaul. What I have done is to re-compile all the
main compiler executables (in many cases the source code provided was
a higher revision than the supplied executables), rebuild all the
linker libraries, reorganize the directory tree a bit, and restore
some of the icons. What is here should be a fully functioning copy of
DICE (you need to supply the OS includes yourself - see below.)

I have done this overhaul for several reasons:

1. I have been mucking about with the DICE source code for some time
   now with the vague notion of doing something with it. I put it
   aside when I signed up with CU, but, now I am no longer gainfully
   employed, have dug it out again. (I was always intrigued by
   compiler design.)

2. I have a great fondness for DICE. We go back a long way - I started
   using DICE in, I suppose, about 1990. (I never had enough money to
   get the commercial version, though - hey, I was a student.) I guess
   this is also an act of homage to the great Matt Dillon ;-)

3. There has been a few posting concerning DICE to the CU mailing list
   recently and I received a not insignificant number of responses to
   a post from myself asking whether there would be any interest in a
   more readily usuable version of DICE. So everybody who mailed me
   saying it was a "cool idea" - this is down to you.

4. DICE is still very usable. OK, it doesn't produce code for 040,
   060, or PPC - but it would have been a shame to see it
   languishing in the state that it was. I just hope some more Amigans
   get some use out of it.


Distribution
============

DICE is still copyrighted by Matt Dillon and Obvious Implementations
Corp. Read the file DICE-LICENSE.txt


Installation
============

The archive is rather large when unpacked (about 10MB), so de-lha it
to where you want DICE to live on your hard drive. Read the file
ReadMe.1st for full installation details.