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I've been able to find the manual for the CPC version of HiSoft C, but not for the ZX. The only ones I could find appeared to have been OCRed, so virtually all of the necessary information was lost.

Related to Native C compiler for Sinclair ZX Spectrum

forest
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  • I found http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jg27paw4/pourri/hisoft_c.htm, but it doesn't seem to be complete. – forest Jun 15 '21 at 02:35
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    Unfortunately, I did not find any "pure scan", only the OCRed one, but here is an interesting link to HiSoft C disassembled code with some documentation, if you are deeply interested: https://github.com/oldcompcz/HiSoft-C/blob/master/README.md – Martin Maly Jun 15 '21 at 07:26
  • I have an original one, but sadly of an earlier version. – Rui F Ribeiro Jun 30 '21 at 17:50
  • @RuiFRibeiro Did the earlier version change particularly drastically? – forest Jul 02 '21 at 01:01
  • I'm have no idea about content tbh. later ones are more polished, this one seems written by a typewriter. – Rui F Ribeiro Jul 02 '21 at 02:27

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You're right, there doesn't seem to be a ‘pure scan’ available, but there are endless copies of this: HiSoft C Manual for ZX Spectrum (pdf). While I don't share your aversion to OCR'd manuals (and having done a few myself, I'd not let one out the door unless it had fewer typos than the original …) you might wish to refer to the HiSoft C Manual for Amstrad CPC & CP/M: it is a scan, and seems very complete. You will have to refer to the OCR copy for Spectrum-specific routines, though.

I understand that HiSoft C was originally developed by compiling code using the CP/M BDS C system, then manually porting the result to each target Z80 system. The ZX Spectrum and Amstrad versions have very similar compilers, with the major differences being in the runtime library.

scruss
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