From: rbs{at}snippets.org
To: c_echo{at}yahoogroups.com

On Thu, 2 Oct 2003 Ian Wilmore wrote:

> I followed the recent thread concerning the DJGPP compiler with
> interest. I regularly use a program compiled with this, the DOS
> newsreader SNEWS. One point that wasn't properly addressed in the recent
> discussion was that a program created with this compiler can use DPMI.
> This with SNEWS is a great advantage as it allows bigger files to be
> handled. A number of other compilers have been discussed
> enthusiastically here and I wonder which of these will produce a DPMI
> executable?

An excellent question... TTBOMK, DJGPP remains the only DOS-hosted, DOS-
targeted compiler with this capability, but I could be way wrong. OTOH, if
you're willing to use a Win32-hosted, DOS-targeted compiler, then the
Digital Mars Compiler is an excellent choice, since it's matched with Doug
Huffman's excellent X32-VM DOS extender. (Back when Symantec was selling
the same compiler as Symantec C++, the DOS extender was called DOSX.) The
current version, like the compiler, is free and works great. Basically, it
creates programs that run equally well under DOS using XMS, VCPI, or DPMI
memory managers, Win16, and Win32. As a side benefit, it includes a
virtual memory manager so you can go ahead and allocate arrays with as
many megabytes as your file system (yes, it's usable on embedded systems)
can support.

> I note that some people think that the DJGPP compiler produces over
> sized files. I have no idea whether this is the case but I do have two
> comparable versions of SNEWS here. One, compiled with Borland 3.1 is
> 166032 bytes, the other compiled with DJGPP is 101648 bytes.

This isn't surprising... DJGPP's problem with code bloat is a library
issue. A large application that actually uses a lot of library code will
exhibit much less apparent bloat than simple "Hello world" program which
links in library code it doesn't really need.

> I don't know much about C but I am interested because it seems that these
> days if one wishes to continue to use anything other than bog standard
> Windoze software, one must gen up a bit about programming.

Another neat thing that Digital Mars offers, as well as Borland, IIRC, is
a library module that allows you to compile dual mode applications that
will run either on the command line in text mode or automagically in a
window. I never used that much, so I can't comment on how well it works.
However, the prospect of writing one program that could run in either text
or GUI mode, with 32-bit variables and virtual memory always intrigued
me...

-------------------------------------------------------------
Consulting: http://www.MicroFirm.biz/
Web graphics development: http://Image-Magicians.com/
Software archives: http://snippets.snippets.org/
  c.snippets.org/   cpp.snippets.org/      java.snippets.org/
  d.snippets.org/   python.snippets.org/   perl.snippets.org/
  dos.snippets.org/ embedded.snippets.org/ apps.snippets.org/
Audio and loudspeaker design:
  http://LDSG.snippets.org/   http://www.diyspeakers.net/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05