OSDev.org

On the Wiki there is a comment to the effect that Visual C can be used in OS development; the only problem being that it produces PE files. However there is a utility here, called objconv, which could solve that problem.

http://www.agner.org/optimize

I have only just found it, so I haven't tried it yet. Personally, the lack of a 64 bit Windows compiler which can create ELF files is the only reason I would even think of programming under Linux.

Well it's not really a problem developing an OS with PE instead of ELF. It's just that most people prefer ELF because of GRUB.

mathematician wrote:I have only just found it, so I haven't tried it yet. Personally, the lack of a 64 bit Windows compiler which can create ELF files is the only reason I would even think of programming under Linux.

Erm... you know, there's GCC...

Love4Boobies wrote:Well it's not really a problem developing an OS with PE instead of ELF. It's just that most people prefer ELF because of GRUB.

mathematician wrote:I have only just found it, so I haven't tried it yet. Personally, the lack of a 64 bit Windows compiler which can create ELF files is the only reason I would even think of programming under Linux.

Erm... you know, there's GCC...

I would prefer ELF because it strikes me as being easier to write a loader for it, and Microsoft's documentation of PE isn't as clear as it might be. Yes I have heard of gcc, but it can only be used with something like Cygwin, and I don't particularly want to make Windows look like Linux. The ideal would be Watcom, if only they would release a 64 bit version.

Personally, the lack of a 64 bit Windows compiler which can create ELF files is the only reason I would even think of programming under Linux.

Whoa, flamebait. You might want to be careful throwing things like that around, there are a lot of linux users on this forum.

it can only be used with something like Cygwin, and I don't particularly want to make Windows look like Linux.

IIRC you can make a cross-compiler gcc without cygwin. Is there any reason you need to use the Visual C compiler for your OS? It makes it much harder for anyone else to compile your OS and test it (though you could release it in binary form only).

JohnnyTheDon wrote:

Personally, the lack of a 64 bit Windows compiler which can create ELF files is the only reason I would even think of programming under Linux.

Whoa, flamebait. You might want to be careful throwing things like that around, there are a lot of linux users on this forum.

it can only be used with something like Cygwin, and I don't particularly want to make Windows look like Linux.

IIRC you can make a cross-compiler gcc without cygwin. Is there any reason you need to use the Visual C compiler for your OS? It makes it much harder for anyone else to compile your OS and test it (though you could release it in binary form only).

Well I'm only really writing it for my own amusement. In any case, C is C, no matter what the compiler.