Programming for DOS

[Ruud]

Hello,

Almost for 30 years I created most of my programs using (Turbo) Pascal. I have thought about switching to C quite often but now I have a good reason to do so: my two sons have to learn C at school. So daddy cannot stay behind :)

But a lot of my programs have to run under DOS. I mean real DOS, like MS-DOS 6.2 and the real DOS of Windows 98. Thus not a DOS box under, for example, Windows XP. So I am looking for a compiler, preferable an IDE, that can run from an USB stick under Windows 7 64 bit.

Codeblocks can but its EXEs won't run under DOS. Same for Borland's Turbo C for Windows 4.5. (unless I missed a setting)
Borland C++ 3.1 generates the right EXEs but won't run in W7-64.

Any advice is welcome, many thanks in advance!


FYI, two projects where I need it:
http://www.baltissen.org/newhtm/cbmhd.htm
http://www.baltissen.org/newhtm/cbmpc.htm


Kind regards, Ruud Baltissen
www.Baltissen.org

[o3hC5Di1]

Hi Mr. Baltissen,

Unfortunately I don't have any experience developing for DOS myself, but I found some resources online which may interest you:

- http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/
- http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15096609/c-compiler-for-ms-dos

Hope that helps.

All the best,
NwN

[Ruud]

Hello NwN,

Thank you for your reply. I have djgpp as well but forgot about it. I don't know if it has an IDE but that can be overcome: I develop it in Borland C and compile it with djgpp at the end :)

Kind regards, Ruud

[Catfish4]

Using one operating system (for example Windows) to build software for a completely different operating system (such as DOS) is always messy.

First I would suggest that you stop developing for DOS.
Then you could simply use an excellent IDE such as Pelles C, for Windows.
http://www.smorgasbordet.com/pellesc/

Otherwise, my second suggestion would be to develop for DOS from inside another DOS.
A "modern" version that is open-source is FreeDOS:
http://www.freedos.org/
http://www.freedos.org/software/?cat=devel