"DOS Mode" / 16-bit program... how? 1

[Ghodmode]

I have a very small, simple program that I want to compile for DOS.

The program itself works fine. It's console-only. It just opens a file, reads some data, and writes a new file after parsing the first file.

It has to run in DOS.

I've had some success with DJGPP, but I have to use DPMI if I use that.

Maybe I just need the right command-line options.

I have tried the following compilers:
MSYS/MinGW
Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
Borland C++ compiler

I have about a half-dozen other compilers that I have downloaded, but not tried yet.

Am I missing something that should be obvious?

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-- Ghodmode

 

[zeitghost]

How big is the file?

Do you mean proper dos as in dos6.22 or a dos box in a windoze machine?

 

[Ghodmode]

yep... "proper" DOS :-(

Technically, it's Windows 98 in MS-DOS mode. When it boots I can see the logo, but whoever built this system did it in such a way that there's not even a WINDOWS directory.

In any case, it acts like real DOS. The MS-DOS "stub" executes and states something like "This program must be run under Win32." when compiled with Borland and something like "This program cannot be run in DOS mode" with other compilers.

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-- Ghodmode

 

[Salem]

Well you could try Turbo C from the borland museum

http://bdn.borland.com/museum

Or maybe another compiler from here, which specifically mentions 16 bit or DOS mode.

http://www.compilers.net/Dir/Free/Compilers/CCpp.htm

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[Ghodmode]

Thank you.

I knew about the compilers.net page. I downloaded several of them, but didn't install any. I hadn't heard of most of the companies there, so I was looking for advice on which compiler to use.

I was looking for something like Turbo C because I've heard of Borland, but I didn't know what to look for. I ended up with the 32-bit compiler which wasn't what I needed.

After doing some reading, I chose the Digital Mars C compiler, mostly because of this statement on their features page: "Most other compilers for 16 bit code were abandoned nearly a decade ago. Digital Mars has a modern compiler for 16 bits."

For future reference, here's how to compile a DOS app with the Digital Mars compiler:

dmc -mtd hello.c

You end up with [tt]hello.com[/tt].

Best of all, for me, is that I can compile using WINE and test using DOSBOX or DOSEMU rather than starting my vmware session just to compile and test.

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-- Ghodmode

 

[xwb]

Good choice - it is one of the few that handles templates correctly.