C compiler??

There are several, but they are not generating utlimately fast code of course. I'm not sure if they can be used to program any raster effects or interrupt driven stuff.

I myself have used the following combo: Hi-Tech C compiler for CP/M, run by a CP/M emulator under Linux. Editing done with VIM, preprocessing with gcc, testing in openMSX. If you want to know more, let me know.

There's also SDCC (free software), which can produce Z80 code and ASCII-C for MSX.
And probably even more.

im curious, how many (and how good) libraries are there?

i think that is the biggest problem... or not?? does anybody know what libraries are available?

I myself have used the following combo: Hi-Tech C compiler for CP/M, run by a CP/M emulator under Linux. Editing done with VIM, preprocessing with gcc, testing in openMSX. If you want to know more, let me know.

There's also SDCC (free software), which can produce Z80 code and ASCII-C for MSX.
And probably even more.

Manuel, I guess you made some MSX-DOS utilities with the gcc-setup described above? Without any difficult graphic stuff (because of a lack of libraries)?

I tried the SDCC package, but after disassembling my hllwrld.c, I decided not to continue with that assembler! The only two general purpose registers it knows are A and HL and all variables / calculations are done via the stack... You'll need to do a lot of work to have SDCC generate some usefull (fast and compact) code.

IIRC there is another tread about SDCC and someone is currently creating libraries for the MSX.

Willem: Your asm skills were pretty darn solid, if I remember correctly... Why bother with C at all? Nothing wrong with a little oldskool action!
@Sonic_aka_T: (hi Toob) ASM is great if you are doing games and fast stuff, but if you want to create some parser of any kind, ASM is hell (or you need a good library of subroutines).

Furthermore, it would be nice if one could code the non-real time parts (like file IO, gfx setup e.d.) in C and the real-time stuff (like interrupt handlers and game code) in ASM. I remember that Jan van Valburg used to work like this (Gianna Sisters, Retaliator). He even put his main.c file on the Retaliator disk to show how he coded.

Jeroen Smael also told me he should have had parts of the FD maincode in C and other parts in ASM (inline). That would really help with reading/upgrading the code in the new millenium.

On topic again: I think that Hitech C is the best way to go with the usage of inline assembly. Hitech does support this and the version on the MCCM CDs has an extensive manual on how to create libraries and stuff.

The official homepage of Hitech C is http://www.htsoft.com/products/CPM.php

Its free! Compiler, docs, library sources.

See also the Uzix homepage, the page
http://uzix.sourceforge.net/uzix2.0/index.php?page=down&lang=us
contains many interesting versions of this compiler.
And ofcourse UZIX is a great example of using C on MSX.