What C compiler matches Borland Turbo Link 5.1?

Question

We have an environment built upon Borland Turbo Assembler 5.3 and Turbo Link 5.1. We have to maintain some hereditary code in it, so throwing them away is out of the question. Now I want to introduce some C into it.

Neither GCC, nor Microsoft C/C++ compiler provide object file in Borland format. That's understandable. But somehow even Borland C++ 5.5 and Turbo C 2.0 don't. I mean, linker does link these objects with no warnings or errors, but the executable linked just crashes. Tried this with mere hello world, still crashes or does nothing visible and exits.

Looks like there is severe difference between versions and there should be specific C compiler for Turbo Link 5.1. Is is so? If it is, what compiler should I take?

Or, which came to mind just now, maybe I should rather do some TASM translation with, for instance, BCC instead and then just TASM it?

Answer 1

Based on the copyright date in the output from TASM5.1 (spotted here ), and the dates on the wikipedia page, I'd try Borland C++ 3.1 or Turbo C++ 3.1

Answer 2

Have you tried to run the .exe file with "windows 95" compatibility? However, NASM is under the BSD License and has a -t switch for Borland's Tasm compatibility mode, maybe you want to try that?

Answer 3

I think Turbo Assembler 5.x and Turbo Link 5.x support only 16-bit apps. The last Borland C++ compiler that supported 16-bit is Borland C++ 5.02.

The newer ones, like BCC5.5 support only 32-bit, that is probably why the linked app crashed.