From:	Hans-Bernhard Broeker <broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: device driver using DJGPP
Date:	3 May 2000 08:12:43 GMT
Organization:	Aachen University of Technology (RWTH)
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Kuang-chun Cheng <kccheng AT soliton DOT phys DOT sinica DOT edu DOT tw> wrote:

> 	Can I develop MS-DOS device driver using DJGPP?  

You can, but I doubt it'll make much sense. Device drivers are still
best written in 16bit assembly or C, unless you need to access 32bit
memory space (as with memory-mapped PCI devices). These days, I'd
recommend something like the freed TurboC for the general coding, and
nasm for the assembly stuff, where needed.

At the time device drivers are loaded, the necessary environment for
running DJGPP-compiled applications may not be fully present, yet. And
besides, even though the memory footprint of CWSDPMI and the DJGPP
startup code isn't *that* oversized any more, you almost certainly
don't want to spend that much memory permanently. 40 KB drivers are a
pain. Not even to mention that several DOS programs will refuse to
work because the pre-loaded 32bit DPMI server prevents their DOS
extender of choice from loading.
-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

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