Yes, you can try MinGW-w64. It's a 64-bit distribution of GCC for Windows. I think you want mingw-w64-1.0-bin_i686-mingw_20100702.zip. This distribution is actively maintained, and GCC has quite good support for modern C.
Answer from Matthew Flaschen on Stack OverflowYes, you can try MinGW-w64. It's a 64-bit distribution of GCC for Windows. I think you want mingw-w64-1.0-bin_i686-mingw_20100702.zip. This distribution is actively maintained, and GCC has quite good support for modern C.
You could use the C compiler provided with Visual Studio 2010 (or probably 2008), just set your target type to x64 and compile .c files, you will get a 64-bit EXE.
Run Virtual XP or VirtualBox and install Borland C++ inside. BTW, there is version 5.02 with some fixes (in case your version is exactly 5.0).
If you can find an old Microsoft Compiler, like 16 bit C / C++ 1.52 (which is included on the 32 bit C / C++ 4.1 cd-rom), or C 8.00 or earlier, it runs using a dos extender or in a 32 bit dos console window.
Why can't you run the Borland compiler using FreeDOS?
You could try to create a virtual machine with MSDOS on it, but you'd have to find a way to install MSDOS 6.22 on the virtual machine. At Microsoft's support site, they have links to a bootable ISO file for MSDOS 6.22. I still have the original floppies and started with those on an old system that has a floppy drive. It's a bit awkward to import / export files to / from the virtual machine.
This is the config.sys that I use that seems to work with Win 7 virtual machine. I had to increase buffers, stacks, and files to avoid a stack overflow problem with this setup.
dos=high,umb
buffers=40,0
files=60
lastdrive=e
shell=c:\command.com c:\ /e:1024 /p
stacks=64,512
switches=/f
device=c:\dos\himem.sys /numhandles:64 /testmem:off
device:c:\dos\emm683.exe ram i=b100-b7ff i=c600-c7ff i=cc00-cfff i=e600-efff frame=d000 a=32 d=128 notr
devicehigh=c:vmadd\cdrom.sys /d:mscd001
This is the autoexec.bat that I use (smartdrv is a bit pointless in this case so I commented it out with "rem" prefix) .
c:\dos\emm386 auto
lh c:\dos\mscdex.exe /d:mscd001 /m:7
rem lh c:\dos\smartdrv.exe
lh c:\vmadd\mouse.com
set path=c:\dos
set blaster=a220 i5 d1 h5 p330 t6
prompt $p$g
Turbo C++ is very old, and the concepts and philosophies of IDE design as (as well as the language C++ compilers are compiling) have developed much further since.
You might try Code::Blocks or Eclipse, but I wouldn't expect a transition as smooth as going to the next version of Turbo C++. (Which weren't as smooth either, BTW. The latest of that series, BCC 5.0 was quite different to the old DOS TC environments, and even that got abandoned later in favor of the very different C++ Builder IDE.)
BTW, does it have to be GCC? Visual C++ Express is free also, the VC compiler isn't worse than GCC, and the IDE is quite good.
There are a few C++ IDEs with many features.
- Bloodshed Dev C++
- NetBeans C C++ IDE
- Eclipse CDT
- CodeBlocks
Also take a look at Cygwin which provides a linux like environment for Windows. If you are making console applications, using a good shell won't hurt.
EDIT Since not so recently by now, MinGW-w64 has "absorbed" one of the toolchain building projects. The downloads can be found here. The installer should work, and allow you to pick a version that you need.
Note the Qt SDK comes with the same toolchain. So if you are developing in Qt and using the SDK, just use the toolchain it comes with.
Another alternative that has up to date toolchains comes from... harhar... a Microsoft developer, none other than STL (Stephan T. Lavavej, isn't that a spot-on name for the maintainer of MSVC++ Standard Library!). You can find it here. It includes Boost.
Another option which is highly useful if you care for prebuilt dependencies is MSYS2, which provides a Unix shell (a Cygwin fork modified to work better with Windows pathnames and such), also provides a GCC. It usually lags a bit behind, but that is compensated for by its good package management system and stability. They also provide a functional Clang with libc++ if you care for such thing.
I leave the below for reference, but I strongly suggest against using MinGW.org, due to limitations detailed below. TDM-GCC (the MinGW-w64 version) provides some hacks that you may find useful in your specific situation, although I recommend using vanilla GCC at all times for maximum compatibility.
GCC for Windows is provided by two projects currently. They both provide a very own implementation of the Windows SDK (headers and libraries) which is necessary because GCC does not work with Visual Studio files.
The older mingw.org, which @Mat already pointed you to. They provide only a 32-bit compiler. See here for the downloads you need:
- Binutils is the linker and resource compiler etc.
- GCC is the compiler, and is split in core and language packages
- GDB is the debugger.
- runtime library is required only for mingw.org
- You might need to download mingw32-make seperately.
- For support, you can try (don't expect friendly replies) [email protected]
Alternatively, download mingw-get and use that.
The newer mingw-w64, which as the name predicts, also provides a 64-bit variant, and in the future hopefully some ARM support. I use it and built toolchains with their CRT. Personal and auto builds are found under "Toolchains targetting Win32/64" here. They also provide Linux to Windows cross-compilers. I suggest you try a personal build first, they are more complete. Try mine (rubenvb) for GCC 4.6 to 4.8, or use sezero's for GCC 4.4 and 4.5. Both of us provide 32-bit and 64-bit native toolchains. These packages include everything listed above. I currently recommend the "MinGW-Builds" builds, as these are currently sanctioned as "official builds", and come with an installer (see above).
For support, send an email to [email protected] or post on the forum via sourceforge.net.
Both projects have their files listed on sourceforge, and all you have to do is either run the installer (in case of mingw.org) or download a suitable zipped package and extract it (in the case of mingw-w64).
There are a lot of "non-official" toolchain builders, one of the most popular is TDM-GCC. They may use patches that break binary compatibility with official/unpatched toolchains, so be careful using them. It's best to use the official releases.
Download mingw-get and simply issue:
mingw-get install gcc.
See the Getting Started page.