Datalight faster than 4.2, why?

[bjorn at dataio.UUCP]

I'm sitting here, moving our latest software product down to the IBM PC,
waiting for it to compile, and I notice this (odd) fact: the compiler
on the PC is better than the one on the VAX!  It's faster, it produces
better code, and it catches errors that the UNIX C does not.  So I'm
curious:
	The state-of-the-art in compilers has progressed on PCs,
	so why hasn't anyone come up with a better compiler for
	UNIX, or have I just not heard of it?

For your information I'm running UNIX 4.2bsd with the standard C 
compiler on a VAX 11/750, and Datalight C 2.04 on an IBM PC/AT under
MSDOS 3.0.  The PC takes 5 minutes 26 seconds to compile 7605 lines of 
code in 29 files (plus 735 lines of header in 13 files), whereas the unloaded
VAX (load average 1.13) takes 8 minutes 30 seconds.  All the outside 
influences were indentical: debugging, optimization, etc.

					Bjorn N Freeman-Benson
					FutureNet, a Data I/O company