Date: Tue, 31 Aug 93 00:38:39 JST
From: Stephen Turnbull <turnbull AT shako DOT sk DOT tsukuba DOT ac DOT jp>
To: kunst AT prl DOT philips DOT nl
Cc: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Subject: DJGPP in press

According to kunst AT prl DOT philips DOT nl

>> I found the following book:
>> 
>>    "DOS and Windows Protected Mode - Programming with DOS Extenders in C"
>>    Al Williams, 1993, Addison Wesley (63218)
>> 
>> In this book about half a page (hm...) is devoted to DJGPP.
>> I didn't buy the book (yet), but I summarize what I remember.
>> The general opinion of the author was something of DJGPP being 
>> rather "unprofessional":
>> 
>>  - the (absence of) support for PD software was questionned 
>>    (we, the readers of this list, know better...)

We still don't have manuals.  I'm not complaining (one of the things I
*am* reasonably competent to do is cull the FAQ and mail archives, but
somehow I never seem to have time ... I bet the newbies would *really*
appreciate it if I ... or someone ... made the time to do it), but
this really is part of "support."  [I'm trying to convince myself to
do this.  Soon.  Really.  Anyone who's also working on it, let me know
....]

>>  - the lack of DPMI support was seen as a big limitation 
>>    (Al should check out the latest release ;-)

Last I heard, the bugs are still being ironed out of the DPMI
version(s) of GO32.  In particular, graphics doesn't work (well?) yet.
That sort of undermines programming *for* Windows, I think.  Also, I
haven't seen any discussion of how to interface with Windows DLLs,
etc.  Am I wrong in assuming that's because people aren't doing it
(because it's not possible)?

[**** That's the end of adult content.  More flames follow :-) ****]

    Not that I'd personally do such a thing: at the moment, the only
Windows software I run is Mathematica in DV/X's "Windows box" (and
once I get my network link, I'll use the X version from the Unix box).
Animated graphics are slow, and I can't listen to sounds, but being
able to recover from most bizarre behavior without rebooting is a big
plus.  Mathematica seems to be capable of crashing any PC operating
system, I think it has changed the ROM BIOS .... :-)
    I like DJGPP because it compiles most GNU C programs with minimal
or even no changes; because it *is* GNU C/C++ within the limits of the
DOS operating environment; because the community is supportive, and
because I support free software.  (Heaven knows that Japan needs more
inexpensive everything....)
    But if I do start programming Windows in the forseeable future,
it'll probably be with Zortech's compiler (because it's cheap---I'm on
the upgrade path :-) which has a lot of support for Windows: resource
managers, DLL support, on-line help for Windows calls, etc.

>>  - the royalty requirements were considered an obstacle
>>    (again, this has changed since 1.10 ofcourse)

Not the GPL, though.  I don't know how useful the stuff covered by GPL
is to "professionals," but ....

>>  - The only valid (IMHO) critical remark made was concerning 
>>    the limited support of signals etc.

Al's pretty crabby for a DOS/Windows programmer---they have only
limited support in the DOS/Windows environment anyway.  :-)

>>  - Al was positive when discussing the price of the package...
>> 
>> The book comes with a "Lite" version of the Phar-Lap DOS extender on disk.

Now, *that's* weird---a few months ago you could get the real DOS
extender plus special NT support (NT wasn't--and isn't, so I
hear---stable, so you needed to compile and test under the extender,
then port to NT; the special support was some sort of thunk that made
Windows 3.1 look like NT, as I recall) for media plus shipping
cost....

>> 
>> Pieter Kunst (kunst AT prl DOT philips DOT nl)

    The bottom line is that DJGPP *is* professional-quality software,
but ya gotta remember, all it takes to be a professional programmer
these days is to find some sucker who will pay you to write code ;-)
and that type of "pro" needs more handholding than you'll get, even
from this list.  :-(


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|                         Stephen Turnbull                         |
|   University of Tsukuba, Institute of Socio-Economic Planning    |
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