Open Watcom 1.2 Released

An anonymous reader writes "Open Watcom 1.2 has been released and is now available for download from the Open Watcom website. This release contains a large number of new features, product enhancements and several fixs designed to bring Open Watcom to a higher level of quality and compatibility. SciTech software Inc, the official maintainers of the Open Watcom project, have also announced the availability of an updated Open Watcom CD, complete with SciTechs installer for DOS, OS/2, and windows. Support for the update will be handled exclusively through the Open Watcom website. Read More." According to the web site, "the Watcom C/C++ and Fortran products will be the first mass market, proprietary compilers to be Open Sourced."

Comments

Is it worth it?

[Sklivvz]

This tool compiles for various Win32/16 flavors plus dos and os/2. It doesn't do Linux or PPC/PalmOS... that are the two platforms where you really wanna cross compile!
Do you people think it's a worthwhile product? Has it retained the value it used to have back in the day when most DOS games were compiled using Watcom?

But is it usable?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm very interested in finding out if the user interface isn't still a complete joke. Usability was never Watcom's strong point... actually, usability was always the very *worst* aspect of the compiler. It made Microsoft Visual Studio a dream in comparison, probably why it lost the compiler wars despite having a reputation of good performance for the things it compiled.

Anyone know if it's been improved for this release?

Re:But is it usable?

[91degrees]

Lots of people seem to agree with you, but for some reason, I've never worked out what it is that it doesn't do. Personally, I'm quite fond of it. The main reason for this is I'm a screen space miser, and It's one of the few IDEs that comes with a full screen editor.

DB?

[baldass_newbie]

Any chance of the DB going Open Source? Or is Sybase holding that too close?
I think that would be a great tool to have in Windows. Give MySQL a run for its money and could kill Access on the desktop.

Re:DB?

[hey!]

Any chance of the DB going Open Source? Or is Sybase holding that too close?

There's zero chance.

RDBMS is the core business at Sybase. They'd have to completely redefine the company and its businss model. Watcom C++ is something they ended up with by pure accident, and were wise to unload.

Watcom was acquired by PowerBuilder as part of the deal which got them Sql Anywhere (pretty much comparable and competitive with Interbase that begat Firebird). PowerBuilder needed a fairly robust database for the same reason Borland coupled Interbase with Delphi. PowerBuilder at one point threw Watcom SQL into some of their PowerBuilder configurations, and may have used parts of it in their native code generation. However, it wasn't really very key to their product strategy, it's just something they got with SQL Anywhere.

Sybase, during one of its more feckless management period, puchased PowerBuilder. I don't know why, probably so they'd have a RAD platform to compete with Oracles forms products. In the process the obtained SQL Anywhere (nee Watcom SQL) and Watcom C++.

SQL Anywhere was a secondary acquisition they got with PowerBuilder, but it actually (in some twisted way) made sense, since its low footprint allowed it to be deployed on mobile devices, giving Sybase a "small" database engine to compete with Oracle's "Personal" database, the way Adaptive Server Enterprise competes with Oracle's flagship database. They rechristened it Adaptive Server Anywhere (although they may have re-rechristened it yet again, since they seem to be very schizo about what they call this product). They also spun off a separate company to promote ASA in mobile apps.

Watcom C++ was not only not a primary consideration in the PowerBuilder acquisition, it wasn't even secondary. It doesn't fit in with what Sybase does, even in a wild flight of imagination. Furthermore, by that time even they had no illusions that they might compete with Microsoft in Win32 compilers.

So, in a rare fit of enlightenment, they opened the source rather than abandoning the users. One of the few product management decisions they've made that I agree with. It makes perfect, selfish sense: there's no value in maintaining the product, but they don't want to alienate customers. So just pass the buck to somebody who wants to maintain it, provide a little engineering help to extricate pieces with license problems, and write the expense off as PR.

Thinking about that old stuff...

[JMZero]

...really puts in perspective the rate of change in computers. It's been a long time since I thought about what I was going to use extended memory for, or strategies for getting a block right on a 64K line (for use in DMA) without wasting space. I suppose in a few years, it will sound just as hokey to be thinking about how you were going to connect to a database.

I didn't know anyone on the BBS's that had Watcom (or knew much about it beyond its memory setup), but most of us wanted it (everyone noticed it in the Doom load screens). Perhaps having it available will usher in a new wave of retro programming from my generation.

Not really "open" source

[some guy I know]

Unfortunately, the site has some really annoying webcode that prevents me from downloading it.
I'd have to either enable JavaScript, which I refuse to do, or spend 15-20 minutes decoding the JavaScript and making my own fake responses, which I also refuse to do.
Does anyone have any mirrors?