From: james.harris.1@gmail.com   
      
   On 19/07/2021 11:32, muta...@gmail.com wrote:   
   > On Monday, July 19, 2021 at 3:37:38 AM UTC+10, James Harris wrote:   
   >   
   >>> I'm running 8086 programs in PM32.   
   >>   
   >> Maybe I've not got to it yet but can you say why?   
   >   
   > What do you suggest I run my 8086 programs on?   
   > I don't know of anything better than an 80386 to   
   > do that. It gives my 16-bit programs access to   
   > 512 MiB of memory.   
      
   I'd suggest /compiling/ your 16-bit programs to run in PM32. You can   
   still keep them doing what they do in 16-bit mode with all the 16-bit   
   limitations, if you like, but they would have access to more memory via   
   bigger pointers. I know you already plan to use bigger pointers so I   
   don't see why those pointers cannot be flat. Instead of segmented 16:16   
   why not use flat 32? Is there something about your C source code which   
   requires the presence of near and explicitly far pointers? Does   
   something in your source code explicitly manipulate segment registers?   
   If so, maybe it's not your preferred language C90.   
      
   Watcom C, IIRC, had explicit support for segmented pointers but I'd say   
   Watcom C was C-like; it was not C.   
      
   C is a brilliant programming language. It should be enough to do the   
   Turing-complete stuff you want to do in great and /native/ ways.   
      
   If it's building a lowest common denominator exe file that's the issue   
   your build tools can create a dual-mode executable which runs   
   8086-native code if it finds itself on an 8086, and runs 80386-native   
   code if it finds itself in PMode. You could even have it run AMD64-mode   
   code if it finds itself in an LMode environment. In all environments the   
   executable would behave as a 16-bit piece of code, if that's what you   
   want it to do, but it would run natively in those environments.   
      
      
   --   
   James Harris   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)