Open Watcom Effort Makes First Public Release

epowers writes: "It's been a long time since /. ran this story, but a few days ago the Open Watcom Project made it's first public release. It's only a binary patch targeted at 11.0a/b owners, but it's still an important roadmark on the way to the planned full open source release of both the Watcom C/C++ and Fortran compilers. Most programmers, particularly game programmers, should remember the amount of prestige id software's DOOM generated for the Watcom compiler and the sudden proliferation of 32-bit DOS games with the tell-tale "DOS/4GW" startup banner. The download is available for free, but Open Watcom requests a $1-$50 donation to help support the development effort required to remove code Sybase doesn't own and to prepare the open source release."

Comments

free?

[jrockway]

It's a free download but you have to pay for it? Doesn't sound too free to me. Reminds me of what we did to sell lemonade when I was a kid: "Free Lemonade, only 25 Cents!". :-)

experience with W2K [OT]

[alienmole]

my hopes were high that it would perform up to snuff with the Windows 2k boxes which were(and still are!) doing an AMAZING job at their respective tasks of serving HTTP requests, DNS, and fileserving.

Yeah, it is amazing how Win2K can keep on functioning even when it is simultaneously infected with Code Red, Sadmind, and Nimda! The data rates produced by virus-generated GET requests are most impressive, and only exceeded by the rate at which IIS with ASP leaks memory. Microsoft and its "professional full fledged development team" have truly reached a pinnacle of performance and stability!

Re:Ruminations: Will it merge with gcc?

[reynaert]

since I put the NT 4.0 CD, that came with my computer, in the microwave.

The only acceptable use policy for Windows CD's :)

Re:Hmm

[John Miles]

Because gcc crashes when you try to pass more than 32 megabytes on the stack.

"Doctor, doctor. It hurts when I do this!"