gcc-ia16
open-watcom-v2
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gcc-ia16 | open-watcom-v2 | |
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11 | 23 | |
154 | 918 | |
- | 4.1% | |
0.0 | 9.9 | |
2 months ago | about 10 hours ago | |
C | C | |
GNU General Public License v3.0 only | GNU General Public License v3.0 or later |
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gcc-ia16
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Building GCC 1.27 (first GCC with x86 support) (2019)
Mainstream GCC has never supported 16-bit code on x86, only 32-bit
However, there is (at least one) fork which adds 16-bit code support, see https://github.com/tkchia/gcc-ia16
I don't think the GCC maintainers have ever or will ever want to support 16-bit x86, because it is so limited, and adds a lot of messy corner cases, and nowadays is really only of hobbyist/retrocomputing interest.
Maybe there is some 16-bit x86 embedded system still being maintained–there were military spec versions of the 8086, and possibly some weapons system, aircraft, satellite, etc, still in use contains one. But I doubt they'd have any interest in adopting a 16-bit GCC – they'd already have some proprietary compiler they'd been using for decades, switching now would add a lot of risk, very late in the life of a legacy system, for no tangible benefit
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Djgpp
These days there is also a 16-bit GCC port to DOS (https://github.com/tkchia/gcc-ia16). I never encountered one of those back in the day? I think the compiler itself does not run in 16-bit DOS though.
Anyone interested in compiling for DOS (32-bit or 16-bit) should also check out Free Pascal.
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Rust is Boring
My advice is, when you feel you need that challenge, install DOSBox or DOSBox-X and Open Watcom C/C++, DJGPP, or gcc-ia16 and do some retro-programming. You'll also get the fun of being able to do low-level hardware twiddling and rely on DOS being so simple that it's effectively an RTOS.
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Writing FreeDOS Programs in C
Looking at part 1 and some of the videos, it looks like this doesn't actually use OpenWatcom, but i16gcc from the FreeDOS distribution, which looks to be a port of gcc that targets 16-bit x86.
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"My Reaction to Dr. Stroustrup’s Recent Memory Safety Comments"
And, if that surprises you, gcc-ia16 is a thing that has come into existence not only over a decade after DJGPP but also after Open Watcom already existed.
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How can I compile rust for 16bit x86 (Intel 8086)?
or GCC IA 16 (https://github.com/tkchia/gcc-ia16) gets someday mainlined (also a multi month/years project) and then gccrs can maybe use it as backend
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Tools and/or tutorials for making a roguelike in DOS?
There is a 16-bit port of GCC these days as well included together with DJGPP if you install FreeDOS, but available separately as well (I think it can cross-compile from other systems like DJGPP can too?) https://github.com/tkchia/gcc-ia16
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How FreeDOS Grew Up and Became a Modern DOS
TK Chia and others have been working on adding DOS C/C++ compiler-isms to GCC as well as improving the the codegen to make it more hospitable for DOS apps. So far, the FreeDOS kernel compilable by gcc-ia16.
https://github.com/tkchia/gcc-ia16
- Linux (ELKS) running on an IBM PC XT replica
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how to get started programming a game/program for dos?
There is a more recent fork of gcc/DJGPP to make 16-bit DOS applications that I also never tried, but that might be worth using (and I think it is bundled in the latest FreeDOS, so it might be very easy to set up by just installing that in a virtual machine?): https://github.com/tkchia/gcc-ia16
open-watcom-v2
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Djgpp
https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2
In terms of ISO-complianceness, perhaps don't expect much. It basically C89 (the C99 support is still incomplete), and for C++... most likely not even C++98 - compliant.
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Popularity of DOS/4GW made Win95 game compat easier, but with higher stakes
> You will also want to start with a 16-bit C compiler like Borland Turbo C or Microsoft C
The parent post mentioned they're going to use OpenWatcom which is an actively developed[0] C and C++ compiler that targets 16bit DOS (among others).
[0] https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2
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#pragma once / header guards / C++ committee.
Despite the lack of feature support, the compiler is still updated to this day, and still does support DOS, Windows, Linux, and OS/2, so it's modern in the sense of maintenance, just not really standards support. If you got further questions, I can send you the Discord link. They are pretty friendly.
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Rust is Boring
My advice is, when you feel you need that challenge, install DOSBox or DOSBox-X and Open Watcom C/C++, DJGPP, or gcc-ia16 and do some retro-programming. You'll also get the fun of being able to do low-level hardware twiddling and rely on DOS being so simple that it's effectively an RTOS.
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Build C/C++ programs to run on homebrew 286?
If you want to build under Linux, I would recommend you look at Open Watcom. It's the best open source 16-bit x86 C compiler, IMHO.
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"My Reaction to Dr. Stroustrup’s Recent Memory Safety Comments"
I have recently found out that Watcom C still exists. And not just exists, but there are plenty of commits.
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Win16 Retro Development
I should note, that OpenWatcom 2.0[1] is far better for supporting more recent C and C++ code, modern hosts and tooling, but still able to compile into 16 bit code. It is also actively maintained. Instead of MASM I recommend JWasm[2] + Jwlink[3]. Back in time I did a fork[4] of JWasm that has cleaner build system (CMake).
[1] https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2
[2] https://github.com/Baron-von-Riedesel/JWasm
[3] https://github.com/JWasm/JWlink
[4] https://github.com/JWasm/JWasm
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Rendering like it's 1996 - Baby's first pixel
If you want to run this in DOS: the code under src/should actually compile with this OpenWatcom fork via the -za99 flag. MiniFB however will not compile. You'd have to palettize the output pixel buffer to 256 colors and then blit it to 0xa000if you fancy that.
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Falsehoods programmers believe about undefined behavior
GCC, clang or maybe watcom? You wouldn't find it there (before invention of AGI, but that would be entirely different can of worms).
- Having trouble setting up whonix on Mac OS
What are some alternatives?
elks - Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset - Linux for 8086
DOOM - DOOM Open Source Release
build-djgpp - Build DJGPP cross compiler and binutils on Windows (MinGW/Cygwin), Mac OSX and Linux
MS-DOS - The original sources of MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0, for reference purposes
em-dosbox - An Emscripten port of DOSBox
rusty-dos - A Rust skeleton for an MS-DOS program for IBM compatibles and the PC-98, including some PC-98-specific functionality
emu2 - Simple x86 and DOS emulator for the Linux terminal.
emularity - easily embed emulators
abrash-black-book - Markdown source for Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book
awesome-dos - Curated list of references for development of DOS applications.