Thread: Open Watcom C/C++....

I've downloaded Open Watcom C/C++, and I'm having a bit of trouble....

1) I've no idea how to use the graphics library.
2) I want to call a DLL file, but I dunno how...(the help ennunciates on this pretty good, but you'd have to be a guru to understand)
3) Are Watcom's .LIB files the same as VC++'s .LIBs?

I was using MinGW(Dev-C++) but I switched to this, hoping for better.... er......... results. But all I've found is that most source/people don't support Watcom.... So along with these questions, should I even continue to use Watcom?

I suggest you take a look at Digital Mars C++. It has much better compatibility than Watcom C++.

<www.digitalmars.com>

As far as using it (and any other set of development tools for that matter)... no one every said it was going to be easy!

Good Luck!

I probably should have qualified my statement... Digital Mars has very good source compatibility with Visual C++. If you are only interested in the Windows platform it is worth a good look.

Well, I ditched watcom... lol
I've reinstalled Dev-C++(4, because it has less bugs)...
I guess I'll check out Digital Mars, since we are all MS slaves.

thanks for all your help

I agree with XSquared. It is a good idea to use something popular like Dev-C++ because you are more likely to find someone to help you with it. (You write "portable code" by writing to the ANSI/ISO standard. Then you can compile it on any compilant compiler for any platform... in theory.)

The free Borland compiler is also very popular. I saw a survey once showing it as the most popular free compiler. I assume that MSVC++ is the most popular commercial compiler.

One good thing about the Watcom compiler is that you can download PDF versions of all 8 books that used to come with the packaged-commercial version.

I've used the Watcom compiler a couple of times, but it was pre-installed and configured for the particular embedded-processor system I was compiling for... And, it still took about a day to get it figured-out and working! (So, I wouldn't be any help getting you system configured.)