First post, by noshutdown
with compilers supporting protected mode, one can simply use large amounts of ram in the program without any effort, leaving everything to the dos extender to handle, and the program can even work without anything in config.sys. which compilers other than the infamous watcom and djgpp would do this?
and before dos extenders became available, real mode programs can make access to extended memory through xms interface like himem.sys, although only for data storage and leaving all conventional ram for code. but what does one have to do to access xms? and does it need compiler support?
also, does floatpoint operations(accessing fpu rather than cpu interrupt) need any compiler support? when did that come up?