21.1 New features in DJGPP v2

Q: What exciting new features will I find in v2 as opposed to v1.x?

A: DJGPP v2.x is a DPMI-only environment, and it includes a free DPMI host for those who don't have another DPMI provider installed. In addition, v2 features the following major improvements upon v1.1x:

• much faster extender (the free DPMI host) and library functions;
• very low memory footprint of the DPMI host below 640KB;
• the DPMI server is loaded only once: no more problems with spawning child programs (e.g., almost unlimited recursive Make's);
• ANSI- and POSIX-compliant libraries and header files, which should make porting Unix programs a lot easier;
• support for signals;
• 387 emulation under DPMI;
• graphics which works in any setup, including under Windows;
• fixes of many bugs in hardware interrupts' and mixed-mode programming support;
• support of long filenames on Windows 9X;
• ability to build all of DJGPP without commercial products (like Turbo C required to compile go32 in v1.x);

If you want to help in further v2 development, check out the list of features which have yet to be done and volunteer to implement some of them.