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From: ppaatt AT aol DOT com (Pat LaVarre)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: even ordinary .exe .com .sys rebuilt by djgpp
Date: 9 Mar 2004 10:00:50 -0800
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

Can djgpp build ordinary .exe and .com and .sys?

That is, with dgpp can I build real-mode .exe and .com and .sys that
run exclusively in real-mode, without ever switching to protected
mode?  For example, a command.com workalike?

Is there a relevant tutorial or faq?

Else is there some other gcc that just plain works?

Personally I get by today working mostly in a Dos box of Win XP with
the massively distributed Debug.exe asm and the gratis Borland tcc.

But that solution involves too much hassle for many friends of mine to
adopt it.  These people complain of having no labels in asm, no asm in
C, no subroutines without prologue and epilogue in C, INT_MAX = x7FFF
in C, less than all C pointers being _huge, etc.

Because of such complaints they choose not to help me with the Dos
ports of such vanity-published tools as:

http://members.aol.com/plscsi/tools/pldd/index.html
http://members.aol.com/plscsi/tools/gccscsi/
http://members.aol.com/plscsi/dos.html

Therefore, I ask:

Can djgpp build ordinary .exe and .com and .sys?

Thanks in advance, Pat LaVarre

P.S.

Separately I will pursue the idea that people who boot Linux from HDD
can use bcc, aka "Bruce's C compiler", aka 'ELKS' for building
ordinary .exe and .com and .sys.  That answer may naturally exclude
Knoppix (or other cd-boot) Linux & Apple Mac OS & MSFT Windows folk. 
I see some installations of Red Hat Linux include bcc.

P.P.S.

Years ago now elsewhere I first asked:

Can djgpp build ordinary .exe and .com and .sys?

I'm guessing NO NO NO, no by design, but I haven't yet found a
persuasive straight answer.

Most recently I found near here:

> Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
> Subject: Re: Generate real-mode 386 DOS executables? 
> Date: 2003-02-08 10:41:52 PST 
>
> If you want real-mode code, you can do it with
> GCC. However, there is a fair bit of work
> involved ...

Personally I care because now and again I write real-mode apps to
exercise real-mode Dos .sys device drivers ...

In my ignorance, I fear the runtime time cost, the real mode space
cost, compatibility, and other effects of switching back and forth
between real and protected mode.

Finding substitute protected-mode drivers to talk to my devices
defeats the point for me: I'm actually working to characterise
compatibility, thruput etc. of boot BIOS device services, Dos .sys
device drivers, etc.

I'm hoping to find a C compiler to let me easily mix real-mode
interrupt handlers and other direct hardware access written in _asm
with C ported from 32-bit Linux/ Mac/ Windows desktops, while happily
never using more than x10:0000 bytes of real memory ...

I notice:

http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/doc/
has no hits for "real".

group:comp.os.msdos.djgpp faq yields
http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/v2faq/
has two seemingly irrelevant hits for "real".

http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/v2faq/faq24.html
has more seemingly irrelevant hits for "real", by way of being a FAQ
topic index.

I speak here today because of groups.google.com searches such as:

Pat LaVarre djgpp
gcc real mode protected mode
group:comp.os.msdos.djgpp real mode in c
group:comp.os.msdos.djgpp .exe .com .sys
group:comp.os.msdos.djgpp tutorial real mode