DOS ain't dead - how compile with turbo c

how compile with turbo c (Developers)

posted by kerravon , Ligao, Free World North, 18.12.2025, 19:58

> > # very convenient but not available in Turbo C 2.01 - generic C/OBJ
> rule:
> > # .c.obj:
> > # $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $*.c
>
> Are you sure? I know TC 2.01 (and TP 5.5) have a much weaker MAKE, but it
> should work there too. But I honestly don't remember.

This plus other messages inspired me to check what the status
of Turbo C++ 1.01 was in pdpclib. I had to make changes to get
it to build again. And more changes for it to work with Turbo C 2.01.
And changes to make it work with masm from the DOS 4.0 distribution too.

And I can report:

As per:

https://sourceforge.net/p/pdos/gitcode/ci/master/tree/pdpclib/makefile.dos

.c.obj works fine.

pdmake for DOS works fine.
nmake works fine
wmake works fine
make (Borland) works fine.

Note that if for any reason you are ever in front of an 8088/8086 (like
the Book 8088 that was released a couple of years ago), with only
real mode available, your choices of free compiler and assembler
were realistically limited to just Turbo C++ 1.01 and wasmr.exe

But now masm.exe is available.

And Microsoft C 5.1 is available too, for the compiler, but it's missing
too much C90 stuff for some of my (reasonable) code to work. 6.0
is fine, but not freely available.

I recommend pdmake as the make program - public domain C90
source code provided so you can use it on any platform, and there
are no restrictions.

You can keep it, sell it, or any other suggestions you can think of:

https://www.ratman.biz/archive/young_ones/boring.html

BFN. Paul.

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Complete thread:

how compile with turbo c - iw2evk, 16.12.2025, 13:06 (Developers)
- how compile with turbo c - bencollver, 16.12.2025, 15:51
  - how compile with turbo c - rr, 16.12.2025, 18:24
    - how compile with turbo c - bocke, 17.12.2025, 08:57
      - how compile with turbo c - bocke, 17.12.2025, 09:01
      - how compile with turbo c - rr, 17.12.2025, 17:43
- how compile with turbo c - mceric, 16.12.2025, 21:37
  - how compile with turbo c - Rugxulo, 17.12.2025, 03:43
    - how compile with turbo c - kerravon, 18.12.2025, 19:58
      - how compile with turbo c - kerravon, 18.12.2025, 20:01
      - how compile with turbo c - kerravon, 19.12.2025, 04:47
        how compile with turbo c - kerravon, 19.12.2025, 09:02
- how compile with turbo c - Rugxulo, 17.12.2025, 03:47
  - how compile with turbo c - rr, 17.12.2025, 17:46
    - how compile with turbo c - Rugxulo, 17.12.2025, 21:18
      - how compile with turbo c - kerravon, 18.12.2025, 15:16
      - how compile with turbo c - rr, 18.12.2025, 20:57
        how compile with turbo c - Oso2k, 19.12.2025, 06:11
      - how compile with turbo c - RayeR, 19.12.2025, 03:08
        how compile with turbo c - bocke, 20.12.2025, 15:18