Sender:	root AT delorie DOT com
Message-ID:	<3868B526.744C39C2@inti.gov.ar>
Date:	Tue, 28 Dec 1999 10:03:34 -0300
From:	salvador <salvador AT inti DOT gov DOT ar>
Organization:	INTI
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To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: Why did ID choose DJGPP for Quake?
References:	<94622644001 AT out DOT newmail DOT net>
Reply-To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com

Kalum Somaratna aka Grendel wrote:

> Greetings for the season to all,
>
> Could anyone please tell me the reason's why ID, who earlier used
> Watcom/DOS4GW for  DOOM etc switched to DJGPP. I know that
> DJGPP is better than Watcom but were there any other reason's
> (like financial - no royalties etc, better DPMI support etc) for
> making there choice. I ask this because there was an earlier thread
> which said that nearptr was added at ID's request.

I'm not sure, but I heard they wanted to allow people to create plug-ins using a
compiler. For this reason they needed to ship the compiler in the CD, so only a
free tool applied for it. But then they changed your mind and created QuakeC.
Of course djgpp is better. One big plus is portability (gcc is available for
most UNIXes, Watcom don't).

> The reason I'm asking this question is that I first got to know about
> DJGPP after playing Quake. I thought that the compiler used for
> the game must be quite good for ID to make the switch and ditch
> DOS4GW, had a peek at the EXE to find the compiler name and I
> downloaded it, got rid of that monstrosity Borland 4.5  and I have
> used DJGPP ever since.

GCC is currently generating better code than Watcom, but gcc 2.7.x (used in the
Quake years) was comparable with Watcom (very small differences). Watcom is much
better than Borland compilers.
So the reason wasn't just the generated code. Additionally: All the important
code in Quake is pure assembler, the rest isn't even well optimized.
One important thing of djgpp is the availability of sources, so you can fix the
C library is it have a bug, I don't know if Watcom released the code of your
libraries (Borland did it, not for free, but was available).

SET

--
Salvador Eduardo Tropea (SET). (Electronics Engineer)
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