Comments on: Wanted: C Compiler

Question: Wanted: C Compiler

iconjack — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:40:53 -0800

Does anybody know of a free C compiler for DOS that generates 16-bit code and allows in-line assembly?

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:49:53 -0800

By 16-bit code, do you mean something that can run on an 80286 / 8086 / 8088, or something else?

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 23:06:01 -0800

The ELKS project has a cross-compiler targeting 8086s and 286s, in freestanding mode but maybe there's a DOS libc available. This mirror of the old SIMTEL archive has a few compilers. pcc was targeted to DOS at one point, I think; you should be able to find a copy of that somewhere.

By: Jon Mitchell

Jon Mitchell — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 23:35:49 -0800

I used to use Turbo Pascal when I was learning to program 16 bit assembly - the inline assembler was particularly easy to use.

They've released the 'C' equivalent as freeware...

By: majick

majick — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 23:36:44 -0800

Borland Turbo C 2.01 is free and "Supports inline assembly".

I only used Turbo C up to 1.5, myself, but I'd imagine the later version is just as good.

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 23:39:21 -0800

Look here, I can't tell if DeSmet generates 16-bit.

By: majick

majick — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 23:48:35 -0800

If you want something a bit more modern, OpenWatcom has a 16-bit target mode, but I think the compiler itself is 32 bit code (or it was last I looked at it years ago).

If you want something even more old-school, there's DeSmet C, but I don't remember if it supports inline asm.

I vaguely remember LCC having asm support.

I don't know anything about Pacific C apart from that it's free.

By: prodevel

prodevel — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 06:10:31 -0800

Ya'll know about sourceforge.net I assume/hope

By: prodevel

prodevel — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 06:16:23 -0800

perl does this too, apparently... I'll take the hit for not being C.

http://www.perlmonks.com/?node_id=50182

By: atomly

atomly — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 04:31:09 -0800

DJGPP is a DOS port of GCC that I used to use quite religiously. By default it generates 32-bit code, but it also has 16-bit tools. For inline assembly, it uses NASM, which also works great.