Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Tiny C Compiler VS Portable C Compiler

Compare Tiny C Compiler VS Portable C Compiler and see what are their differences

Tiny C Compiler logo Tiny C Compiler

The Tiny C Compiler is an x86, x86-64 and ARM processor C compiler created by Fabrice Bellard.

Portable C Compiler logo Portable C Compiler

pcc is a C99 compiler which aims to be small, simple, fast and understandable.
  • Tiny C Compiler Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-11-06
  • Portable C Compiler Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-11-06

Tiny C Compiler features and specs

  • Fast Compilation
    Tiny C Compiler (TCC) is known for its incredibly fast compilation speed, which makes it ideal for quick compilations and testing.
  • Small Size
    TCC has a very small footprint compared to other compilers, making it easy to include in applications and use in environments with limited resources.
  • C99 Support
    TCC provides support for the C99 standard, allowing the use of newer C language features.
  • Dynamic Code Generation
    TCC can compile and execute code dynamically, which can be useful for scripting or embedded contexts.
  • Simplified Licensing
    Under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), TCC can be more easily used in various projects, including proprietary ones, compared to compilers with more restrictive licenses.

Possible disadvantages of Tiny C Compiler

  • Limited Optimization
    TCC does not perform extensive optimization, which can result in less efficient executable code compared to compilers like GCC or Clang.
  • Incomplete C Standard Library
    TCC's standard C library implementation is not as complete as those of more established compilers, which might lead to compatibility issues.
  • Lack of Detailed Documentation
    Users may find the available documentation lacking in detail, which can hinder learning and debugging for complex projects.
  • Limited Platform Support
    TCC is primarily designed for smaller-scale applications and lacks some platform-specific and cross-compilation capabilities.
  • Fewer Community Resources
    Compared to major compilers like GCC or Clang, TCC has a smaller user community, which can mean fewer tutorials, forums, and third-party support tools.

Portable C Compiler features and specs

  • Simplicity
    PCC is designed to be simple and easy to understand, making it a good choice for educational purposes and for those learning about compilers.
  • Portability
    As its name suggests, PCC is portable and can be easily adapted to different machine architectures, allowing for broad platform support.
  • Small Size
    PCC has a smaller code base compared to other compilers like GCC, which makes it more lightweight and quicker to compile.
  • Legacy Code Support
    PCC is useful for compiling older C code that may not comply with modern C standards, providing support for legacy systems.

Possible disadvantages of Portable C Compiler

  • Limited Features
    PCC may lack some of the advanced features and optimizations found in more modern compilers like GCC or Clang.
  • Performance
    The performance of code compiled with PCC may not be as optimized as that compiled with other contemporary compilers.
  • Community and Support
    PCC has a smaller community and less active development compared to larger projects, potentially leading to fewer updates and less troubleshooting support.
  • Standard Compliance
    PCC may not fully support the latest C standards, which could be a limitation for projects that need to adhere to modern specifications.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Tiny C Compiler and Portable C Compiler)
IDE
66 66%
34% 34
Project Management
62 62%
38% 38
Text Editors
63 63%
37% 37
Email Marketing
68 68%
32% 32

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Tiny C Compiler seems to be a lot more popular than Portable C Compiler. While we know about 35 links to Tiny C Compiler, we've tracked only 2 mentions of Portable C Compiler. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Tiny C Compiler mentions (35)

  • Weird Lexical Syntax
    > I'm not sure who wants to be able to syntax highlight C at 35 MB per second, but I am now able to do so Fast, but tcc *compiles* C to binary code at 29 MB/s on a really old computer: https://bellard.org/tcc/#speed. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Pnut: A C to POSIX Shell Compiler you can Trust
    "Because Pnut can be distributed as a human-readable shell script (`pnut.sh`), it can serve as the basis for a reproducible build system. With a POSIX compliant shell, `pnut.sh` is sufficiently powerful to compile itself and, with some effort, [TCC](https://bellard.org/tcc/). Because TCC can be used to bootstrap GCC, this makes it possible to bootstrap a fully featured build toolchain from only human-readable... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Cwerg: C-like language that can be implemented in 10kLOC
    For what it's worth you can implement a C compiler in under 10kLOC. The chibi C compiler is only a few thousand lines [1]. There is also Cake [2] and the tiny C compiler [3] which are both relatively small. [1] https://github.com/rui314/chibicc [3] https://bellard.org/tcc/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Exploring the Internals of Linux v0.01
    I was going to say, the list should include something by Fabrice Bellard. Tiny C Compiler is one. https://bellard.org/tcc/ I was thinking, maybe first version/commit of QEMU would be interesting to read. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • The C Interpreter: A Tutorial for Cin
    I occasionally use tcc (https://bellard.org/tcc/) like an interpreter (`tcc -run`), it's convenient for certain odd tasks. Not so much for interactive stuff, but if I'm building little PoCs for an idea that will get dropped into a C project, or fiddling with structs work out how something should/is being stored, or in situations where I'm making stuff that interacts with or examples based on C code and I want to... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
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Portable C Compiler mentions (2)

  • Hand-optimizing the TCC code generator
    Check PCC [1]. Official release was 2014, but development still active [2]. [1] http://pcc.ludd.ltu.se/. - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
  • Research Unix v7 for Raspberry Pi
    Works for me in qemu, but remember to provide an SD card image as mentioned in the README before you run "make tools/sd.img" - e.g. The one in the releases https://github.com/r1mikey/research-unix-v7/releases/download/v7-unix-pi1-20200212/v7-unix-pi1-20200212.img.xz Otherwise, qemu will start up complaining about a large number of invalid memory accesses. Unfortunately, there is no port of pcc (the portable C... - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Tiny C Compiler and Portable C Compiler, you can also consider the following products

GNU Compiler Collection - The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting...

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LLVM - LLVM is a compiler infrastructure designed for compile-time, link-time, run-time, and...

NASM - The Netwide Assembler, NASM, is an 80x86 and x86-64 assembler designed for portability and...

WebAssembly - Application and Data, Languages & Frameworks, and Languages