Bjorn Wrote (concerning the package containing csplit.exe):
> Reading the README.DOS from tut111ax.zip I notice the author
> mention he ported the text utilities with both Microsoft C (version
> 8.00c) and GNU C (DJGPP 1.12m4), out of which he preferred the
> former - the latter port not being distributed. This I guess could
> explain the difference of the binaries in the two, leaving the
> impression the MS C is able to include some features from the UNIX
> versions the other ports can not. But then again, I'm not a
> programmer - so I wouldn't know :
Actually there is a significant difference between DJGPP and MS C
compiling -- the opposite of what you surmised.
Microsoft wrote DOS, long ago, assuming no PC would need or have more
than 640K of ram and that PCs would have a CPU (microprocessor) that
would handle only 16 bits of info. at a time.
For many years, most programs compiled for plain DOS (not a windows
dos box) had to live with these assumptions, or use complex workarounds
such as DOS ``memory managers.''
Later, tools became available to extend DOS and compile DOS programs
so that these 2 limiting assumptions did not have to be lived with.
Among these tools is the DJGPP compiling software. With its aid,
a program like csplit.exe can be compiled so that the PCs microprocessor
will process 32 (rather than 16) instructions at a time, and so the
program can directly use all the RAM your machine has, without resorting to
memory management tricks.
In principle this means that a program compiled with DJGPP or similar
tool will run faster and it will be able to handle more date. That is,
the program itself can be bigger, it can load big files or lots of date
into memory and process them, etc. Whether this really happens, and
whether you might care depends on the program and other details.
Oh - to be a bit crass ``compiling'' is the process of translating a
program from a language humans (programmers are more or less humans, yes?)
understand to the binary language a particular type of computer hardware
understands.
Since csplit.exe potentially processes large files (although probably
as a data stream), the DJGPP version of it may work better. You can
find it at:
http://oak.oakland.edu/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/txt122b.zip
To use a DJGPP compiled program you need another program, usually
cwsdpmi.exe, residing in a directory in your path, or in the same
directory as the program you want to run.
I am sending Bjorn the program directly, but wont burden the list
with an attachment. Forgive the old news for all you that know this
stuff -- some dont and can use the info. (I hope).
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