Sun 2006-05-21 08:06, Bob Ackley (1:2905/3) wrote to Alan Ianson:   
      
    AI>> I'm hoping one day Squish can be updated but we'll have to see.   
    AI>> The Win32 & linux versions could likely be updated but it will be a   
    AI>> challenge to find devs who have the tools to compile new DOS & OS/2   
    AI>> executibles.   
      
    BA> If people would write (only) ANSI standard code this wouldn't be   
    BA> an issue as any compiler that conforms to ANSI standards (and    
    BA> AFAIK most do) on any OS would work just fine.   
      
   You make it sound so easy!  The Squish and Maximus code dates back to the   
   early 1990s.  It's a bit unrealistic to expect 15 year old DOS-based code to   
   be ANSI/ISO C standard conformant.  If they were to be rewritten from scratch   
   I suspect this would not be much of a problem, although they would probably be   
   rewritten in C++ or Python now.   
      
   In any case, there are some things you can't do solely with ANSI/ISO C/C++, eg.   
      
   - findfirst/findnext (eg. Squish processing *.PKT and *.pkt), although you can   
   do this with less-portable POSIX calls    
      
   - serial port I/O (OS dependant) (required for Maximus)   
      
   - enhanced text mode display (required for Maximus but not Squish) (OS   
   dependant - requires Curses, OS/2 Vio* or Win32 console subsystem calls)   
      
   - probably a few other things that don't spring to mind   
      
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    * Origin: Blizzard of Ozz, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (3:633/267)