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First post, by Muz

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What were the programming tools that were used often during Windows 9x era? What kind of programs? For example, Java, C++, etc.

Reply 1 of 15, by gdjacobs

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Borland and Visual C++, a small amount of Delphi, and Java was beginning to show up. Assembly code was still used, usually inline fed through the compiler.

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Reply 3 of 15, by kjliew

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Unlike retro hardware, there is really pointless to be period correct for programming tools. I would always use the best tools available, and today it is MinGW.org/MinGW-w64/GCC. Visual Studio 6.0 and Watcom are horrible but probably the best available back then.

Reply 4 of 15, by BeginnerGuy

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I used Visual Turbo QuickBasic by Merlin when I wanted to do high level BASIC assembly on my Apple IV GX but I didn't have enough capacitors to generate the 1.21 jiga-watts of electricity needed to run an AMD Vega 64 fast enough to pack the binary coded decimal into the potato sheath.

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Reply 6 of 15, by GigAHerZ

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kjliew wrote:

Unlike retro hardware, there is really pointless to be period correct for programming tools. I would always use the best tools available, and today it is MinGW.org/MinGW-w64/GCC. Visual Studio 6.0 and Watcom are horrible but probably the best available back then.

I'd second to that!
Newer compilers also have better optimizations so writing your software with latest tools might lead to a better performance on older machines. 😉

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Reply 10 of 15, by Zup

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GigAHerZ wrote:
kjliew wrote:

Unlike retro hardware, there is really pointless to be period correct for programming tools. I would always use the best tools available, and today it is MinGW.org/MinGW-w64/GCC. Visual Studio 6.0 and Watcom are horrible but probably the best available back then.

I'd second to that!
Newer compilers also have better optimizations so writing your software with latest tools might lead to a better performance on older machines. 😉

Unless the compiler drop support for older machines (i.e.: try to make a Windows 95 executable using latest Visual C++).

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Reply 14 of 15, by Jo22

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spiroyster wrote:

Visual Studio 2005 is the last to support Win98 toolset, but can't run on Win 9x. Visual Studio 6.0 can.

Ironically, VS 6.0 ist also among the oldest programming environment current Win 10 still provides runtimes for out-of-box.
To this day, programs compiled with VB6 can run on Win 10 thanks to the inclusion of MSVBVM60.DLL (no support, but "it just works" status).
That's in contrast to VB5 programs, as far as I know. These require manual re-installation of that core runtime.
(Also, Wine projetc still refuses to offer MSVBVM compatible clone libraries, but MSVC++6 stuff, even though it's part of Windows since 9x.)

Edit: Sorry, for being a little bit off-topic. Delphi 2 to 7 also makes Win9x compatible code and requires no external runtimes for the usual programs.
Delphi 2, by accident, also can produce Win32s compatible code (to some degree),
whereas Delphi 7 kind of has extra support for XP (Manifest stuff, to use GDI+ style dialogs etc.)

Edit: Some typos fixed. Sorry. If Windows 3.x is also valid here, then MS Foxpro and CA DBFast can also be used for programming on 9x.
Last but not least, there's also Profan. A Win32/Win16 Freeware language that used to be Shareware/Commercial.

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In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 15 of 15, by oeuvre

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gdjacobs wrote:

Muz won't program until it's code attains complete self awareness.

🤣 🤣

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