Hi David,
maybe you can compile Jove with Turbo-C. I read that Jove can be compiled
for DOS. Turbo-C produces smaller executables and works (after some patches)
with ELKS too:
http://www.alfonsomartone.itb.it/fhlvnr.html
Regarding the Watcom licence you cited, I think this applies to the Watcom-C
code itself and not to code generated using Watcom-C. You can generate
closed source code or public domain code with Watcom-C.
Georg
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
From: David O'Shea
Sent: Monday, June 19, 2017 5:58 AM
To: linux-8086
Subject: Re: New GCC compiler for 8086 cpu's
Hi Juan, all,
Thanks for your reply! Replies below:
On Sat, Jun 17, 2017 at 4:27 AM, Juan Perez-Sanchez <lithoxs@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
- Section 3.3 says "Far pointers currently do not work, so accessing
memory outside the program's 64kB segment requires the use of assembly
(either inline or a separate file that is assembled and then linked
into the program).", so it's not going to let you make bigger
executables even if ELKS added such support. For what it's worth
you'd find far pointer support in OpenWatcom.
Switching to another compiler would require rewriting large portions
of the current code base.
I think I saw some posts earlier where someone had compiled something
in ELKS with OpenWatcom and as a result contributed some ANSI
C-related fixes. Perhaps it was just the kernel though?
And there are the requirements for the compiler to be open source with
an acceptable license.
Someone at this list mentioned in the past an objection to the license
of OpenWatcom.
Assuming that OpenWatcom fulfills the developer's requirements, what
is needed is a the complete certainty that its licence is acceptable.
I wasn't aware of this concern. I'm not a lawyer, but I believe that
I see what you are talking about. I'm not clear on the differences
between some of the clauses, but in
https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2/blob/master/license.txt
I see:
"2.2 You may use, reproduce, display, perform, modify and Deploy Covered
Code,
provided that in each instance:
...
(c) You must make Source Code of all Your Deployed Modifications publicly
available under the terms of this License, including the license grants set
forth in Section 3 below, for as long as you Deploy the Covered Code or
twelve
(12) months from the date of initial Deployment, whichever is longer. You
should preferably distribute the Source Code of Your Deployed Modifications
electronically (e.g. download from a web site);"
To take it to the extreme, I think that by some definitions the source
would be "publicly available" if it was in the bottom drawer of a
filing cabinet in a toilet stall with a sign on the door saying
"Beware of the leopard" (apologies to Douglas Adams if I got that
wrong). I have heard that some companies using open source software
will state that the source is available on request for a "reasonable
charge" and then consider that it is going to take some engineers many
hours to assemble the sources, so it may cost hundreds of dollars or
more. What I'm trying to get at is that there may be "workarounds"
that make it possible to comply with the license that will most likely
not require much effort except in the unlikely event that someone
requests the source code, and for the cases that I gather people are
concerned about - internal/private use - one would expect that the
source code would not be requested.
Perhaps if it was seen as particularly beneficial to use OpenWatcom
(probably not so likely now that gcc-ia16 is available) then this
could be looked at further.
By the way, I found some more interesting information about this new
GCC:
https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/62sqe6/gcc_for_8088808680286_cpus/
- appears to be from the author (see also the GCC mailing list posts)
and discusses some future plans, such as support for other memory
models. That points to https://github.com/crtc-demos/build-ia16
(saying "there are some differences between those and the ones used
for the Mentor toolchains"); https://github.com/crtc-demos/gcc-ia16
seems to have GCC 6.3 and 7.1 branches too. Also it sounds like the
author was involved in the 8088 MPH demo, so he's certainly very much
into old PCs!
Thanks!
David
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