Francois Thunus wrote in a message to Thomas Seeling:

 FT> [device driver writing]

 TS> No, compiler/assembler/linker need to be 16 bit.

 FT> Call me dumb, but why ??? I thought warp was a full 32 bit
 FT> operating system ?? 

Some device drivers in OS/2 are 32-bit, but others are 16-bit.  In general,
the lowest level device drivers are 16-bit, which works out reasonably well
because they tend to be small and I/O-bound.  You can use 32-bit
instructions in a 16-bit driver, however; it is only the 16-bit memory
model to which the driver must conform.  Most 16-bit device drivers are
small enough so that they are written in small model (except for
installation code which is discarded), which is as fast as 32-bit flat
model.  Where 16-bit code is slow is when segment register reloads must be
done, as in large model.
 
-- Mike


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