I''ve heard a lot about Watcom C/C++ compiler, but I still know nothing about it. It seems to be a mystic compiler, it is hard to find almost anything about it from the web. So if someone knows about it, please tell me: - Is is suitable for game programming? For example there are DX libs for Visual C++ and Borland but not for Watcom, is it compatible with same versions as Visual C++? - I''ve heard that version 11b was the last to be released but now it is going to be released as "open source". Does that mean that there will be new versions and one can get them for free? (like Linux)? I am looking for an alternative to Visual C++ as I don''t much like it, if someone knows about Watcom, please tell me all you know.....

i have also heard about watcom open sourcing the compiler. however, i believe what makes visual studio so powerful and so much better than the rest is the IDE. the abillity to easily icorporate dialog boxes and bitmaps as resources. as well the vast amount of help files. if watcom had that for free, that would be cool.

Back in the DOS32 days, Watcom was THE compiler of choice for game programming. But that was almost 5 years ago. Virtually every commercial DOS game in the mid-90s was compiled with Watcom. Back in those days Visual C++ was the red-headed stepchild of the compilers, and Borland was #2 to Watcom. Since everyone was eventually forced to move to Windows and DirectX, Visual C++ became the compiler of choice and Watcom fell off the face of the planet. Microsoft always ends up devouring the competition. I''m really not sure how good the current Borland, Watcom, or other compilers are. Most of the industry uses Visual C++.

I used Watcom some years ago for pmode dos programs.
I think this compiler was written especially for optimization. The assembly generated from those C(++) files looked just great.

If you''re goind to write some super optimized code, you''ll end up adjusting some assembly instructions, even with Watcom.
So to make good use of it, I think you also have to know some assembly.
If you don''t know any asm yet, it''s not really usefull anymore today. Well, it can never hurt, but I think there more interresting things to do than optimizing...
Perfect asm optimization will make you go insane...at least that''s the reason I started with C(++).

This is all an opinion, sorry I can''t say more. Maybe Watcom is just history...

I still like Watcom. It rocks for DOS, and it does produce very fast Windows code. The VC DX libs are compatible with Watcom. Watcom stinks for MFC and resource stuff, but for games it comes down to a matter of how you like the IDE interface. Most people prefer the VC IDE, but I like the Watcom editor better (I''m a freak!).

And I love the way Watcom passes arguments through the registers instead of the stack. Great for assembly, and usually very fast.

Rock

Like so many other I used Watcom C++ too when I programmed DOS. I still have Watcom C/C++ 10.0, 11.0 and 11.0a CDs on my shelf just beside me.

For DOS it is excellent and it can even do compilation for multiple operating systems such as both win32, win16, dos-com, dos-16-bit, dos4gw, win32s, OS/2, Novell Netware executables (the old server execuatable files) and a few more.

It was simply the fastest and the dos4gw support made it 32-bit on DOS which was so much easier to work with compared to 16-bit programs that has to mess around this expanded and extended memory allocation and far pointers.

But around 1998 I began to see tests that Microsoft compiler was getting faster than Watcoms and the Watcom compilers was getting more and more errors with every version and support decreased drasticly. More so, writing a MFC program with Watcom was a hell because all those little defines and parameters that visual studio does for you you had to do your self. It took me over 2 days to get my first Hello World program compiled with MFC on Watcom.

By the way, Watcom does come with a visual resource editor, so that not the reason to avoid it. And it does come with a IDE but it is not as good as that with MVC++ so most people just used the the command line compiler anyway.

Today, if you write program for Windows the compiler that is the fastest is MVC++. At least it produces better code than Watcom does. (i did a few informal tests myself) Second with MVC++ you are always sure that you have the newest in docs and API support. That was not the case with Watcom.

If you need to do a 16-bit program, a COM or a DOS-TSR or a dos4gw program, choose Watcom today. Otherwise I would stay clear.

Jacob Marner