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FPC for DOS / FreeDOS (DOSX)

posted by Rugxulo Homepage, Usono, 12.04.2008, 00:43

> > > IMHO in all other things FPC is better. The most crucial one being
> that
> > > FPC (and maybe GPC) are the only ones with any future at all.
> >
> > Yes, obviously, and that is due to being GPL.
>
> Not really. Being open, and having some community actually developing it.
> License is less important.
Okay, true, Win32 support would be nil if what I said was absolute. But then again, Win32 is everywhere, so getting support for that isn't surprising. (And FreeDOS is GPL and doesn't have as much FPC support, doh. So I guess I spoke too rashly.)

> > (But of course C/C++ is
> > king, for good or bad.)
>
> Actually VB and VB.NET are afaik still the most used development tools.

Not from my perspective, and certainly not in Linux or *BSD lands.

> > FASM is fully written in ASM,
> and
> > it has many users.
>
> Well, maybe some others like to move dunes in the Sahara using a spoon,
> but I find that neither very interesting let alone that I want to do that
> myself.
I think you overestimate the work involved. You can use external libraries just as in C. You don't have to reinvent the wheel for every project.

> Note also that an assembler is fairly simple compared to a full production
> level compiler.
An assembler could be simpler than a compiler, but it isn't always. I would certainly not consider NASM or FASM "simple." They are very powerful. Sure, a raw assembler that didn't do any macros, preprocessor tricks, etc., only raw instruction/opcode conversion would be simpler than trying to be POSIX and ANSI C compliant.

(Gah, stupid Windows, "Updated blah, do you want to reboot ... [counts down from 5 min. if I don't explicitly say NO!")

> It might not be impossible too to move dunes in the sahara using spoons.
> However it is neither useful nor productive :-)
It is indeed useful for speed and size reasons. C is not as fast as assembly and definitely not optimal. (Although C compilers ain't that bad anymore.) You do indeed have to tweak a lot if you want speed (which adds up).

> Worse, at least moving dunes is simple, yet just a lot of work. The danger
> with asm is that when it really grows, you'll never get it somewhat
> bugfree.

And anything ever is? No, but assembly is no worse. Heck, if you really want, just mix the two and have the "best of both worlds."

> Where the border lies is a matter of discipline and skill. But that comes
> at a productivity price. Moreover assembler is no good to me if for
> stability reasons I still have to code according a strict regime.
It has its uses. And some people prefer it. It all depends what you want and how much you know.

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