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BIG "C" compiler cmp | the "scientific" facts ore out DW (Developers)

posted by Rugxulo Homepage, Usono, 11.04.2008, 06:27

> Sounds to me that RMS (probably the one mostly working on gcc at that
> time) had no time or interest, or easier platforms to port too (a free
> extender didn't exist then either).
>
> The way you present it sounds like a conspiracy theory. I don't read that
> in DJD's words however. They just didn't plan it AT THAT POINT.

I'm not trying to skew the words, but it sure sounds like they never intended or wanted to port to DOS at all. I don't think they ever pretended to want to do so. They considered DOS inferior and wanted to write their own OS (HURD?). They basically said something like, "While *nix is imperfect, it's as good as we've found so far." It was what RMS was familiar with.

DJGPP is a huge achievement, and we're lucky someone had the guts and skill to do it. For sure, it was a huge amount of work. I'm not denying that. It just wasn't ever planned or desired by the FSF (AFAICT). Especially since DOS (at the time) was a proprietary OS with no "free" compatible alternative. I do know that CDs ("back in the day") with DJGPP on them sold quite well, raising lots of money for the FSF to continue their goal. And the FSF did (last I checked) have a link to FreeDOS on their site (well, it is GPL, how could they not like it?).

 

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