atcom C/C++ v10.6 is Powersoft's latest entry into the compiler wars, and, while it is obviously a competent compiler, the OS/2 functionality of the compiler seems to be just tacked on as an afterthought.

When I purchased Watcom C/C++10.5, I was informed by Powersoft that, upon registration of my version 10.5 product, I would receive the free upgrade to10.6 when it became available. While it was made plain that the 10.5 to 10.6 upgrade was primarily Windows 95-oriented, I was hoping against hope that they would throw the OS/2 crowd a bone with an updated SOM kit, or maybe even Direct-To-SOM capability, or Open32 (DAX or DAPIE) capability, or... The list of what they could have put in goes on and on. In fact they did not update any piece of the OS/2 portion of the compiler from version 10.5 to 10.6 that I was able to find.

The Nitty Gritty

Watcom C/C++ v10.6 also includes an ability unique among C/C++ compilers currently available: The ability to compile just about any type of binary file for just about any operating system available for the Intel x86 chip today. The following operating systems are supported:

• Standard 16-bit DOS
• 32-bit Extended DOS (using DOS4GW, Phar-Lap, or proprietary Watcom extenders)
• 16-bit standard Windows 3.1
• 32-bit Windows for Windows 95 or Windows NT
• 32-bit Windows using Win32s or proprietary Watcom extenders
• 16-bit OS/2 1.x
• 32-bit OS/2 2.x, 3.x
• Novell NLM's
• Autocad executables

What is not in Watcom C/C++ v10.6?

As I noted above, Direct-To-SOM is also missing, along with Open32 support and OpenDoc support. While I have not checked their web site recently, I have not, as a registered licensee, received any notification of any upcoming inclusion of any of these items in a future version of Watcom's compiler. But, given the age of their currently included Programmer's toolkit, I'm not holding my breath for an upgrade of the OS/2 components any time in the near future.

On a far less serious note, there are some minor quirks and flaws in the development environment in OS/2 that really give one the feeling that OS/2 support was tacked on at the last minute. For instance, programmers editors are included for the DOS, Win3.x, Win95, and WinNT environments. In OS/2 there is a character mode editor that was meant to be a VI emulator and actually falls halfway between DOS's EDIT and VI, with the annoyances of both, but the good points of neither. If you want to use a PM editor, Watcom does not include one. They only have a .DLL that calls EPM.

They also did not reprogram all of the accelerator tables from the Windows source code for the Windowed Debugger. You are supposed to be able to use F10 to step through lines in the debugger, but since OS/2 uses F10 to activate the pull-down menus, you have to use the mouse to hit the step through button on the tool bar.

The bottom line

Watcom C/C++ v10.6

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