From:	"John M. Aldrich" <fighteer AT cs DOT com>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: Is DJGPP any good??
Date:	Tue, 27 Jan 1998 02:19:47 -0500
Organization:	Two pounds of chaos and a pinch of salt.
Lines:	38
Message-ID:	<34CD8A93.4A66@cs.com>
References:	<34CB6674 DOT 1189 AT geocities DOT com>
NNTP-Posting-Host:	ppp205.cs.com
Mime-Version:	1.0
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

Skeletor wrote:
> 
> Hi,
>                 I'm just wondering if this DJGPP compiler is any good
> hence "you get what you pay for" plz mail all comments to
> skeletor1 AT geocities DOT com

In the sense of "you get what you pay for," DJGPP is not completely
free.  It requires some investment of time and effort on your part to
get used to it.  After that, you are home free, because DJGPP is one of
the best compilers available for PC platforms, and probably _the_ best
DOS-native compiler.  Its code generation is fantastic; it works under
almost all platforms, and its copyright allows you to do nearly anything
you want with code you produce from it.

The major reason why DJGPP remains free, instead of costing hundreds of
dollars, is the user support.  DJGPP isn't supported by, in Nate's
elegant phrase, "underpaid tech support droids," but by the users
themselves who have encountered problems, solved them, and now wish to
pass their knowledge on to others.  Also, DJGPP is a rapidly evolving
product, and users are constantly contributing more and newer packages,
including add-ons designed from scratch, ports of tools from other
compilers, and compatibility packages like RSXNT and wsock.  All this is
free because everybody helps, thereby spreading the burden of tech
support over a large number of people.

The DJGPP developers and the die-hard users all have one awesome goal in
mind:  proving that freeware developed openly and cooperatively can be
every bit as good as those buggy, poorly-supported products you pay
hundreds of dollars for.  :-)

-- 
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|      John M. Aldrich       | "If 'everybody knows' such-and-such, |
|       aka Fighteer I       | then it ain't so, by at least ten    |
|   mailto:fighteer AT cs DOT com   | thousand to one."                    |
| http://www.cs.com/fighteer |                 - Lazarus Long       |
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