Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 17:08:01 +0300 (IDT)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Forgive my ignorance....
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On Mon, 7 May 2001, mesh wrote:

> ...but I'm having a difficult time figuring out what exactly DJGPP is.  I
> mean, I know that it's "a complete 32-bit C/C++ development system for Intel
> 80386 (and higher) PCs running DOS" and all, but does that mean that's it's
> a program or what exactly?  When I compile a source file, I use the GNU
> compiler, right?  So where does DJGPP come into play?

DJGPP is a name for the following activities:

  - ports of GNU compilers, assembler, linker, librarian, debugger, Make, 
    and other development tools;

  - a standard C library required to run programs produced by the above 
    on all supported platforms (DOS, Windows, etc.);

  - various support programs and libraries required in certain cases (a 
    DPMI server for plain DOS, FP emulator for machines without an FPU, a 
    program for editing the stub loader, etc.);

  - last, but not least, people who ask questions here and provide help 
    to DJGPP users.

> Couldn't I just have
> downloaded gcc from the GNU website and used that to compile my source?

GNU FTP sites distribute sources only.  You need a compiler and 
additional tools, such as Make, to build those programs.  If you download 
the compiler sources without having an operational compiler binary, you 
have a chicken-and-egg problem.