Mail Archives: djgpp/1998/07/15/19:30:27
In article <35AD196B DOT C31024BC AT cswnet DOT com>, kipley AT cswnet DOT com writes:
>I just downloaded djgpp (actually several files) for a class I'm to take
>in a few weeks. I know nothing about compilers or what they do. Can
>someone give me a REAL basic overview of what djgpp does and how to do
>it? I'd really appreciate any and all help.
One of the things that commercial software is always doing is convince people
that their software is easy to use. That's why they sometimes dumb down their
products and the books that go with them. DJGPP has lots of excellent
documentation written by excellent programmers who don't suffer from this
limitation.
So I'm recommending that instead of looking for basic overviews you just dive
in and read the very good documentation that people have written for you. But
here's something to tide you over:
What djgpp does, in a nutshell, is this: it allows you to use GNU tools a
machine that is running DOS. The great thing about that is that GNU tools are
free, very well made, and widely available. That means that things you learn
to do in djgpp are things that you can likely do in UNIX & Linux. What kinds
of things might you do?
You might use the GNU emacs editor (or RHIDE--not a GNU tool, just a real nice
IDE) to write a C program. You could compile it the GNU compiler, gcc, maybe
using GNU make for a complicated project. Then you could debug your program
with the GNU debugger, gdb. There's other stuff, too.
Your program would run in DOS under Windows or in plain DOS with the aid of a
DPMI program like CWSDPMI.
--Ed (Myknees)
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