From: j DOT aldrich6 AT genie DOT com
Message-Id: <199605102219.AA282886757@relay1.geis.com>
Date: Fri, 10 May 96 22:25:00 UTC 0000
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Subject: Re: A few questions...

Reply to message 3059504    from RPOPE AT SACLINK on 05/09/96  9:31PM


>1-How do I find out how much free memory is available?

AFAIK, because DPMI handles memory allocation in special ways, and
also because of virtual memory and paging, there is no truly accurate way
to detect free memory.  About all you can do is keep malloc'ing until it fails.
There was a thread about this a while back.

>2-Why on Earth is the Linker so slow??? I'm running a 486DX/50 w/ 8MB RAM

There have been several threads about this problem with the linker.  Most
people don't experience it, but for those who do the solution is usually to
use stubedit to increase ld's transfer buffer to 64k.  In your DJGPP\SRC
directory, type this:

stubedit ld.exe bufsize=64k

>4-I've heard something about having to distribute your source code if you
>write a program using the C++ libraries, is that true?

If you link with libgpp.a, your program is subject to the GNU General Public
License, which requires that you make available to your users either your
source code or linkable object code.  See the GPL, which is included with
the docs for gcc, for more info.  There is a trimmed down library,
libiostream.a,
which does not include the GNU classes, that you can use without worrying
about GPL.

>5-What are the minimum files required for operating DJGPP(within reason,
>you know, I want to compile, have the standard library, an assembler,
>that stuff)?

According to the readme.1st file that is available at all SimTel sites...

"To build C programs, you'll need djdev200.zip, gcc272b.zip, and
 bnu252b.zip.  For C++, also get gpp272b.zip and lgp271b.zip.  To read
 the online manuals, get txi360b.zip and run "info".  If you don't have
 a DPMI server installed, you'll need csdpmi1b.zip.  (Windows, QDPMI,
 386Max, NWDOS, OS/2, Win/NT and Linux DOSEmu all provide DPMI
 services, so you don't need CWSDPMI in those environments.)  For more
 details, download either faq200in.zip (the hypertext version) or FAQ
 (the text version) and read Chapter 4 of the FAQ."

I also recommend getting djlsr200.zip, which includes the source code
for the entire DJGPP C library.  Make sure that the files are dated Feb. 22
or later, because these contain several bug fixes and additional programs
that are useful for C++ development (like gxx.exe).

John