From:	elf AT netcom DOT com (Marc Singer)
Message-Id:	<199604230054.RAA29369@netcom5.netcom.com>
Subject:	Re: Standard 32-bit libraries
To:	d DOT love AT dl DOT ac DOT uk (Dave Love)
Date:	Mon, 22 Apr 1996 17:54:33 -0700 (PDT)
Cc:	djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu (DJGPP List Alias)
In-Reply-To:	<rzq68asfps1.fsf@djlvig.dl.ac.uk> from "Dave Love" at Apr 22, 96 12:42:55 pm
Mime-Version:	1.0

> Is the djgpp C ABI known to be compatible with any common proprietary
> compiler/extender system modulo obj->coff, or is this not a sensible
> question?  Specifically, if I want to use a library (one for a data
> acquisition card in this case) that has a choice of bindings not
> including djgpp, am I screwed?  Is it possible that I can obj->coff
> and link against one intended for some other 32-bit C compiler system
> -- some variation on Borland, Microsoft, Watcom or whatever?

While it is likely that the Watcom C interface is OK, you should
choose to do some analysis of the Watcom output to determine if this
is correct.

I would change the focus of the discussion, instead of meandering down
the path of ABI compatibility.  Do you really need a library to use
this card?  Could you probably write some sufficient subset of the
vendor's interface?  If you plan to use this program in DOS, or
Windows, or Windows NT, or Linux, would you benefit from creating the
software from scratch?  Is the vendor willing to recompile for DJGPP?

Marc Singer

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