What does HackerNews think of open-watcom-v2?

Open Watcom V2.0 - Source code repository, Wiki, Latest Binary build, Archived builds including all installers for download.

Language: C

DOS/4GW made Windows 95 game compatibility easier, but with higher stakes | Aug 2023
> You will also want to start with a 16-bit C compiler like Borland Turbo C or Microsoft C

The parent post mentioned they're going to use OpenWatcom which is an actively developed[0] C and C++ compiler that targets 16bit DOS (among others).

[0] https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2

Win16 Retro Development | Dec 2022
I should note, that OpenWatcom 2.0[1] is far better for supporting more recent C and C++ code, modern hosts and tooling, but still able to compile into 16 bit code. It is also actively maintained. Instead of MASM I recommend JWasm[2] + Jwlink[3]. Back in time I did a fork[4] of JWasm that has cleaner build system (CMake).

[1] https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2

[2] https://github.com/Baron-von-Riedesel/JWasm

[3] https://github.com/JWasm/JWlink

[4] https://github.com/JWasm/JWasm

Turkey buys Delphi licenses for an estimated one million students | Jan 2020
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FWIW OpenWatcom v2 (a fork by one of the original developers who, at least according to the perforce logs, was the most active pre-fork anyway) https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2 should also support 8086.
Software Library: MS-DOS Games | Dec 2019
> I would like something that works uniformly across Windows, Linux desktop (such as XFCE, GNOME, KDE), and macOS.

Löve [0] has a great approach to cross-platform deployment [1]. It's not exactly constrained when you compare it to QBasic, but of course using only a subset of its modules is no problem :)

Of course the closest equivalent is … DosBox! Runs on basically every system, does graphics and sound and not much else :) Btw., Watcom in Open Source now [2]. IIRC Retro City Rampage 486 was made with that.

[0] https://love2d.org/ [1] https://love2d.org/wiki/Game_Distribution [2] https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2

Show HN: A simple way to write standalone C programs for i386 | Oct 2019
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You could also use OpenWatcom, I think. https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2
FreeDOS's Linux Roots | Jun 2019
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Check Open Watcom v2[1], which is still actively developed. Also the JWasm[2] - FOSS alternative to MASM.

[1] https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2

[2] https://GitHub.com/JWasm/JWasm
Project: 2ine – OS/2 emulator for Linux | Feb 2018
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There is also crossplatform and still actively developed OpenWatcom [1], which can generate code for DOS and runs from all mainstream operating systems.

[1] https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2