Resources

From Open Watcom

Note: There is a separate section for Open Watcom contributors; some of the documents may be of general interest.

Contents 1 Frequently Asked Questions 2 Free online books, tutorials and references 3 Documentation 4 C source 5 C++ source 6 FORTRAN source 7 Tools 8 Binary packages 9 Personal Homepages

Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ's for Open Watcom

• Open Watcom FAQ
• Watcom C/C++ Programmers FAQ by Paul Hsieh.

FAQ's for supported languages

• comp.lang.c FAQ
• comp.lang.c Wiki FAQ
• C++ FAQ LITE

For experts, needing a break

• Infrequently asked questions in comp.lang.c - Not to be taken seriously ;-)

Free online books, tutorials and references

• For the C language
• For the C++ language
• For the Fortran language

Documentation

Documentation of general interest to developers using Open Watcom

• Open Watcom Reference Manuals - Documentation for the compilers and tools in Portable Document Format (PDF)

• Undocumented features in current release

• Target platforms documentation - Collection of external sources

• sandpile.org - source for pure technical x86 processor information

• Calling Conventions - Demystifying calling conventions

• Using wmake - differences between wmake and other make tools

• Advanced Debugging Techniques using the Open Watcom Debugger

• Performance Profiling using Open Watcom

• Performance tuning - notes on compiler performance

• Tutorials

• Open Watcom STL Notes, Usage, Issues

• Sybase Technical Articles - Mainly related to Watcom C/C++

• History of Open Watcom

• Exploring Windows 3.x - A technical introduction to the most hated "operating system" in the history of computing

• Math error handling on x87 - Some of the more obscure aspects of x87 FPU error handling

• A20 Line - The low-down on the infamous A20 address line

• Printable Reference Card - for ANSI C (PDF format)

• C coding tips - Useful tips for coding in C

• MSDN Library - Microsoft API Reference

C source

• Catalog - of small ANSI C programs, showing how to use many features of the language.
• Public Domain Curses - Portable text mode screen/keyboard/mouse library.
• Watt-32 tcp/ip - library for DOS, used by Open Watcom WD debugger for remote debug.
• The SNIPPETS C Source Code Archives
• SFL - Standard Function Library, documentation.
• libunicows - Alternative library for using Unicode on WIN32 (95/98/ME). (See also Opencow)
• bzip2 - ANSI C, compression, commandline & library. BSD license.
• TxWin - Text mode library with windows, menus, dialogs, buttons, entryfields and more. DOS32, NT, OS/2, Linux console & most XTERM env. LGPL license.
• The Better String Library - Abstraction of a string data type, including C++ wrapper. BSD License.
• nedmalloc - Fast alloc for WIN32 & unix systems. (boost license)
• malloc.c - malloc/free/realloc replacements written by Doug Lea. Public Domain
• BGET - Memory allocator. Public Domain
• shwild - Shell-compatible wildcard pattern matching library. (C++ wrapper avail.)
• SDL - The Simple DirectMedia Layer library (version>=1.2.10) can be built with OpenWatcom for Windows and OS/2. GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2.1
• Expat - XML parser library written in C. Open Watcom 1.5 changes and makefiles committed to cvs 6 Aug 2006 (OS/2, Linux, and NT/2000/XP)
• FreeGlut with OpenWatcom - Steps to configure OpenGL Freeglut library with OpenWatcom compiler
• POSIX Threads for Win32 (LGPL)

C++ source

• wxWidgets - Portable Graphical User Interface library.
• FOX GUI Library - Very portable GUI toolkit, was built with Open Watcom 1.0 (mentioned in installation instructions). Does not compile out of the box with Open Watcom 1.7 and FOX version 1.7.15, but that may be fixable for someone with C++ knowledge.
• The SNIPPETS C++ Source Code Archives
• Custom strsafe - Custom strsafe library is for non-Microsoft C and C++ compilers. It is partially compatible with strsafe.lib from Microsoft Platform SDK.

FORTRAN source

• FORTRAN/TK - an easy to learn, powerful cross-platform (OS/2 Warp and Windows 9x/NT) widget toolkit for the Open Watcom FORTRAN 77 compiler. It's a real FORTRAN implementation of the Tk-toolkit from Tcl/Tk (technically based on Rexx/Tk) including its own small API for additional functionality.
• Canabis - Open Source Canasta card-game for OS/2 Warp (including eComStation) and Windows 9x/NT. It's completely written in Open Watcom FORTRAN 77 using for instance FORTRAN/TK and EXPAT/77.

Tools

• HX DOS Extender - WIN32 API emulation, open source, Open Watcom WD(W) source level debugging supported.
• Code::Blocks - Free IDE built with wxWidgets (see C++ source section). Supports Open Watcom as one of several compilers. Some improvements to the Open Watcom support is needed. Open Watcom users have looked into it, and possible improvements could happen after Code::Blocks 1.0 is released.
• Zeus for Windows Editor/IDE - A commercial/payware compiler neutral IDE with features like syntax highlighting, code folding, version control, project/workspace management, class browsing, macro scripting etc. Can be easily configured to run the Open Watcom toolset.

Binary packages

• Programmers Fonts - In a GUI dominated world, a good monospaced font is necessary for a pleasant time in your favorite editor or in the WDW debugger.
• NAG - Numerical Algorithms Group, libs for C/C++/Fortran.
• PCRE (Perl Compatiable Regular Expressions)
• Alternative Open Watcom distribution

Personal Homepages

• Paul Hsieh's WATCOM C/C++ Page - Several source snippets made for the Watcom compilers.