StormC — Native IDE and Compiler Suite

Overview

StormC was a native Amiga integrated development environment (IDE) developed by Haage & Partner. Unlike SAS/C (command-line focused) or GCC (cross-compilation), StormC provided a modern GUI-based IDE running directly on the Amiga with project management, integrated editor, debugger, and compiler — similar to what Borland C++ and Visual Studio offered on PC.

Version History

Version	Year	Key Features
StormC 1.0	1996	Initial release, C compiler, basic IDE
StormC 2.0	1997	C++ support, improved optimizer
StormC 3.0	1998	Full C++ with exceptions, STL, PowerPC support
StormC 4.0	1999	Final version, OS 3.5 integration

Key Features

Feature	Description
Native IDE	GUI editor + project manager running on AmigaOS itself
C and C++	Full C89/C90, C++ with exceptions and RTTI
PowerPC	StormC 3+ could target PPC (for CyberStorm PPC, BlizzardPPC)
68k code gen	68000 through 68060 target support
Debugger	Integrated source-level debugger with breakpoints and watch
Linker	StormLink — Amiga hunk format output
Profiler	Built-in function-level profiler
AmigaOS integration	Full NDK headers, pragma support, Amiga library call stubs
MUI support	Built-in MUI class creation wizards (later versions)

Project Structure

StormC used .storm project files (proprietary format) containing:

Source file list and compilation order
Compiler flags per file or project-wide
Include paths and library search paths
Debug/Release build configurations
Target CPU selection

Compilation

; From the IDE:
; Project → Build (or press Ctrl+B)

; Command-line compiler also available:
stormc -O2 -m68020 -o myapp main.c util.c

; Typical flags:
;   -m68000      Target 68000
;   -m68020      Target 68020+
;   -m68040      Target 68040
;   -m68060      Target 68060
;   -O0 to -O3   Optimization level
;   -g           Debug info
;   -c           Compile only (no link)
;   -I<path>     Include path
;   -L<path>     Library path
;   -l<lib>      Link library

StormC vs. Other Amiga Compilers

Feature	SAS/C 6.58	GCC (bebbo)	StormC 4.0
C++ support	No (C only)	Yes (GCC 6.5)	Yes (with exceptions)
IDE	No (CLI + editor)	No (CLI + any editor)	Yes (native GUI)
Debugger	External (CodeProbe)	GDB remote	Integrated
Cross-compile	No (native only)	Yes (Linux/macOS host)	No (native only)
Optimizer quality	Excellent	Good	Good
PowerPC	No	No	Yes (v3+)
Availability	Abandonware	Free / open source	Abandonware
Legacy code compat	High (dominant compiler)	Moderate (GCC differences)	Moderate
Pragma support	Native `#pragma libcall`	Inline asm stubs	Pragma compatible

Limitations and Legacy

Proprietary project format: .storm files can't be converted to Makefiles easily
No cross-compilation: Must run on a real Amiga or emulator
C++ ABI: StormC's C++ name mangling and vtable layout differ from GCC — libraries compiled with StormC can't be linked with GCC C++ code
Abandoned: Haage & Partner ceased operations; no source release
PowerPC path abandoned: The WarpOS/PowerUP split made PPC support fragmented

Despite these issues, StormC was the most productive native Amiga development environment, and many late-era Amiga applications (1996–2000) were developed with it.

References

Haage & Partner: historical website (archived)
Aminet: dev/c/StormC — various StormC patches and updates
See also: sasc.md — SAS/C (dominant legacy compiler)
See also: gcc_amiga.md — GCC cross-compiler (modern standard)

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