-={ Tuesday, 22 March 2016, 14:25:00 -0400 }=-

Hey mark!

 ml> the old ones still work quite well...

Depending on the host machine I would assume, although it might work okay in
certain virtual enviroment(s).  I have serious doubts about any old compiler
working well on modern systems.

 ml> i know they have one that does 32bit in DOS and requires an
 ml> external memory manager like GO32...

DJGPP (DOS port of gcc) was (is?) like that.  I haven't used or seen that in a
couple decades now.

 ml> one problem would be the use of long file names...

Amongst other more serius issues methinks.  Good thing he had a way to fix the
issue without having to resort to recompiling.  ;-)

As for the lack of any decent features, such as native utf8 support, that is
far beyond the reach of DOS based abandonware.  There very good reasons why DOS
was abandoned way back when nevermind long filenames.

Life is good,
Maurice

... Ræd sceal mon secgan, rune writan, leoþ gesingan, lofes gearnian.
    One should give counsel, write secrets, sing songs, earn praise.
--- GNU bash, version 4.3.42(1)-release (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)