On Mon, 10 May 2004, Bart Oldeman wrote:
Hi Tom,
You don't remember correctly. the kernel reference compiler has been for a long time TC 2.01 (which is free), and has been changed to OW because it generates better (smaller) code, and because it's free and open.
Aitor remembers correctly -- he simply goes a few years further back than you and me. Before August '99 TC 2.01 couldn't be used. Watcom's been used as reference since Feb 2002.
http://fd-doc.sourceforge.net/spec/spec.html Section "Programming Tools To Be Used"
"Our reference standard for a C compiler will be Borland C 3.1. Our reference standard for Assembly will be Microsoft MASM. Borland C 3.1 was chosen as the reference standard because this is the compiler used to build the FreeDOS kernel. Microsoft MASM was chosen as the reference standard because of the free availability of MASM-compatible assemblers. The existing code base was also a deciding factor in choosing a reference standard."
How about to change the reference compiler not only for the kernel, but for all the project?
There had been a movement from MASM to NASM already, so this can be reflected here as well. This is missing some documentation as well, right? It would be helpful to have some port MASM --> NASM document.
I know Jim can phrase the change of the reference tools so that Turbo C becomes a backup-solution, not to be turned down immediately.
Arkady, how is your progress toward OW going? Did have you assembled a Mini-DOS-OW development environment, for instance? I just unpacked any ZIP, except that ones specifically marked as "Fortran".
Bye,
Oops. I meant to go through and update the fd-doc site a while ago. There's even a note about something like that on the SF site. The Spec is very out of date. It should have been updated long ago. I'm very embarrassed that I haven't done it yet.
I'll get back on this, and start updating the fd-doc site. The original intent was to have the Spec reflect what people actually _use_ so that when a new developer comes into the project, he/she will know what tools to use when contributing to FreeDOS (such as OW for C compiler, etc.)
When the Spec was first written, no open tools (suitable for 16bit deployment) were available. However, pretty much everyone on the FreeDOS lists had (or was already using) TurboC or Borland C, so TC/BC were listed as the standard. Same thing for assembly, except that's changed now too.
-jh
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