When I first started using DOS, I enjoyed writing games and other interesting programs using BASIC, which DOS included. Much later, I learned the C programming language.

I immediately loved working in C! It was a straightforward programming language that gave me a ton of flexibility for writing useful programs. In fact, much of the FreeDOS core utilities are written in C and Assembly.

So it’s probably not surprising that FreeDOS 1.3 RC4 includes a C compiler—along with other programming languages. The FreeDOS 1.3 RC4 LiveCD includes two C compilers—Bruce’s C compiler (a simple C compiler) and the OpenWatcom C compiler. On the Bonus CD, you can also find DJGPP (a 32-bit C compiler based on GNU GCC) and the IA-16 port of GCC (requires a '386 or better CPU to compile, but the generated programs can run on low-end systems).Programming in C on FreeDOS is basically the same as C programming on Linux, with two exceptions:

1. You need to remain aware of how much memory you use. Linux allows programs to use lots of memory, but FreeDOS is more limited. Thus, DOS programs used one of four memory models (large, medium, compact, and small) depending on how much memory they needed.
2. You can directly access the console. On Linux, you can create text-mode mode programs that draw to the terminal screen using a library like ncurses. But DOS allows programs to access the console and video hardware. This provides a great deal of flexibility in writing more interesting programs.

I like to write my C programs in the IA-16 port of GCC, or OpenWatcom, depending on what program I am working on. The OpenWatcom C compiler is easier to install since it’s only a single package. That’s why we provide OpenWatcom on the FreeDOS LiveCD, so you can install it automatically if you choose to do a “Full installation including applications and games” when you install FreeDOS 1.3 RC4. If you opted to install a “Plain DOS system,” then you’ll need to install the OpenWatcom C compiler afterward, using the FDIMPLES package manager.

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