Hi!
[Note, list below is far from completion: this is first review of OW14 and
many issues of OW12 are awaiting to retest (for example, bugs in WMAKE and
MS2WLINK).]
OpenWatcom 1.4 wishes, issues, troubles and bugs
------------------------------------------------
-! bug or critical flow
-+ wish
-? question/wish
+ fixed in next version
Distributive
------------
- no possibility to install under DOS (automatically or manually).
- installer shows: "KB"/"MB" instead "kb"/"Mb";
"2,047MB available" when more than 2Gb free;
"Setup needs to modify AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.S".
- installer creates directories and file names in lower case.
- installer removes command "win" from AUTOEXEC.BAT and creates
CONFIG.W95, equal to original CONFIG.SYS.
- distributive doesn't contains RTL sources.
- lack of descriptions for executables (what is CVTAGS.EXE?) and other
files (what is C.PRS?).
- lack of "Installation guide" (which components to select and where to
place them), "Examples of use" (how to compile fastest/smaller code,
how to get listings with source lines), FAQs and HELP.ME.
Utilities
---------
-! WHELP: moving mouse cursor in windowed mode under W9x draws garbage.
-! WHELP: after exit mouse cursor injured and font not restored.
- WHELP: help file header (eg., "Open Watcom C/C++ Getting Started") not
showed in Contents.
-+ WHELP: preserve one line from previous screen when scrolling text by
PgDn/PgUp; reduce space for Back/Search/Cancel buttons.
-+ WHELP: remember last position in Contents.
-+ WHELP: remember last pressed button (after pressing ">>" it should
remain selected).
-+ WHELP: add fast lookup (seeking text in topic when letters typed).
- WDIS: lines with instructions contain trailing space.
- WDIS: lines (for which code generated) from #include files are not showed.
Command line
------------
- WCL: /? option ignored when WATCOM environment variable not defined.
- WCC/WPP: /? option complained.
- Ctrl-Break and Ctrl-C abort WCC/WPP without options only after next
key press; WPP aborted only by two Ctrl-C (and next key).
- WCC/WPP: wildcards (*.c) not processed.
-! WCC/WPP: option sets are different (eg. WCC complains -ew, -oi+, -zmf,
-zv options); this prevents making common batch files and configs.
- WCC/WPP: help screens are different:
h -> enable expensive optimizations
h -> enable repeated optimizations (longer compiles)
n -> allow numerically unstable optimizations
-oc disable call/ret optimization -on numerically unstable
floating-point
-! WCC/WPP: -mt option rejected and __TINY__ macro (for TINY memory model)
not defined.
- no option-counterpart for "#pragma on (reuse_duplicate_strings)".
- WCL: -oz option not supported.
-+ WCC/WPP: some text file (eg. WATCOMC.CFG) should be searched in current
directory (in startup directory, if no such file in current directory)
and parsed before command line.
-! WCL searches WCC/WPP/WLINK only in current directory and in PATH;
WLINK searches WLINK.LNK only in current directory and in PATH.
Proposal: only startup directory should be searched (this allows
remove Watcom directories from PATH).
- WCL: not possibile to pass extra options to WCC/WPP through text file
(WCC/WPP allow this through @ prefix).
-! WLINK: "opt el,vfr" in command line is diagnosed by "E3033: directive
error near 'vfr'", but accepted from file (by "@somefile").
Language and libraries
----------------------
- predefined macroses include MSDOS, but not __MSDOS__.
- in* and out* functions declared in CONIO.H instead I86.H.
- DOS.H: absent definitions for FCB related structures.
-+ FCNTL.H: O_* constants (except O_RDONLY, O_WRONLY and O_RDWR) should
be enumerated after 0x100 (to allow combining them with SH_* constants).
-+ FCNTL.H should define O_DENYALL, O_DENYWRITE, O_DENYREAD and O_DENYNONE
constants, equal to SH_* constants (for compatability with Borland C);
SHARE.H should define SH_DENYNONE (for compatability with MS).
- startup supports (undocumented) _stacklen variable only for .COM files
and there no possibility to define stack size in source for other memory
models. Proposal: startup should always check _stacklen (or _stklen for
compatability with Borland C) and increase stack size, if checked value
bigger than stack segment size (if present).
Code generator
--------------
- WCC and WPP are different - sometime one is better, sometime other.
Help
----
- WCC:
-adhp[=<file>]set default for no header path
>-------------------------------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ?
- WPP:
-adhp[=<file>] specify path for headers with none.
>-----------------------------------------------------^^^^^ ?
- no help topics for -za0x option.
- c_readme.ihp/DOS Developers: URL at ftp.intel.com is invalid.
- c_readme.ihp/Extended DOS Developers: URL at ftp.intel.com is invalid.
- c_readme.ihp/OS/2 Developers:
H.M. Deitel and M.S. Kogan; Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1992.
>------------^----------------^
- cguide.ihp/oi:
abs _disable div _enable fabs _fmemchr
_fmemcmp
_fmemcpy _fmemset _fstrcat _fstrcmp _fstrcpy _fstrlen inpd
(2)
inpw inp labs ldiv (2) _lrotl (2) _lrotr (2)
memchr
>-------^^---------^^ ...
memcmp memcpy memset (1) movedata outpd (2) outpw outp
_rotl _rotr strcat strchr strcmp (1) strcpy
strlen
>-------^^^^
- cguide.ihp/adhp[=<path_name>]:
When including file with "" delimiters, the filename resulting in
makefile
type auto dependancy files will have no path. This allows these files
to be
>-------^^^^ "style"? --------------------------------^----^ "option"?
[...]
given a path, and said path will may be relative. This path_name is
>-----------------------------------^^^^^^^^^^^ ? --------^^^^^ "The"?
[...]
This rule can be consistantly generated by specifying -adhp=sourcepath/
.
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------^
Then when the header file is found in the current directory, especially
>-------^
when it is sourcepath, will not have had a path, and will receive the
default header path. The rule may then be processed from outside that
current directory. [ -ahdp=$(SOMEVAR)/ ] may be specified... this will
>--------------------------^---^^^^ "adhp"
result in output as $(SOMEVAR) which make may expand ]
>------------------------------------------------------------^
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