PF> Btw -- why go to so much trouble writing a library 
PF> that already comes with 
PF> each compiler?

 PE> Hi Peter.  Had another reason today.  A program of mine abended,
 PE> so I recompiled with Watcom with debug on, and ran it again,
 PE> and it STILL abended, but the debugger told me the problem was
 PE> in some purgefile() function [or something] which was obviously
 PE> a compiler library, and although I'm pretty sure there's a problem

I agree that access to the library source is essential -- and one of my few
complaints about IBM's compiler (you can get the source for
ICLUI/OpenClass,  but not for the CRT!).

Watcom sells theirs -- but it IS available.

Borland's comes on later cdrom versions of the compiler (or for about $150
for the diskette version,  or if you bought it before they started
including it in the cdrom (like I did :-())).

I would not consider using a third party CRT,  because it has/can not be as
well tested.

I keep virtually all of my code compiler independent,  and switch compilers
when I run into such a bug I can't fix.



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