331 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
331 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
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Microsoft C Compiler Version 3.00
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Release Notes
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This document contains information related to Version 3.00 of the
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Microsoft C compiler and libraries for MS-DOS. This document
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contains information which is more up-to-date than the printed
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manuals. As a result, where information in the manuals conflicts
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with information in this document, this document should be
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assumed to contain the correct information.
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The drivers contain two new features which are not documented in
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the manuals:
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1. the addition of /help and /HELP options to both the CL and
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MSC drivers. If this option is specified, a list of the
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most commonly used options, together with a short
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description of their effect, is printed on the screen. The
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options are grouped together by general function, with
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headers to identify each group. Note that not all of the
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available options are given, only the most common ones. See
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appendices B and C of the Users Guide for a more complete
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list of the options available for MSC and CL.
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Following the list will be a line which says
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"type any character to continue"
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if you are using MSC, or
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"type any character to exit"
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if you are using CL. When using CL, after a character is
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typed, the driver returns to the DOS command level. Other
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inputs on the command line are ignored. When using MSC
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however, the driver will process all information on the line
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containing the /help (either the command line or a response
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line for one of the prompts), and re-issue the current
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prompt for further input if needed. Note that any input
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given up to this point has been processed so, for example,
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if you had typed a filename followed by the /help option,
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that filename will show up as the default value when the
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prompt is re-issued. The only exception to these rules is
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for source file names. If the source file name was given
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together with the /help option, the source file prompt is
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NOT re-issued, but instead the object file prompt will be
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the next one given after the help menu is listed.
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2. in the CL driver only, typing "CL <ret>" will cause CL to
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print a usage prompt indicating the general form of the
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input to CL.
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There are three undocumented object files on your diskettes.
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They are SVARSTCK.OBJ, MVARSTCK.OBJ, and LVARSTCK.OBJ. These are
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the small, medium, and large model versions of a routine which,
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when linked into your program, will allow the memory allocation
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functions (malloc, calloc, and realloc) to allocate items in
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unused stack space if they run out of other memory.
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Normally programs compiled and linked under Microsoft C run with
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a fixed stack size (default size is 2048 bytes). The stack
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resides above static data and the heap uses whatever space is
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left above the stack. However, for some programs a fixed stack
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model may not be ideal, and a model where the stack and the heap
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compete for space is more appopriate. Linking with the
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xVARSTCK.OBJ routine (where x is appropriate for the memory model
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you choose) gives you a similar environment. The heap can grow
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until it runs out of memory, then it will try to use unused stack
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space. If it runs into the top of the stack, it fails. The
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stack, however, cannot grow to an unlimited size, but only to the
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size it was given at link time.
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There is another undocumented file on your diskettes and that is
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sieve.c. This is a version of the standard Sieve of Eratosthenes
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benchmark program. We invite you to compile this program with
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Microsoft C Version 3.00 and compare the size and speed of the
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generated program with the executable program generated by any
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other C compiler for MS-DOS. We think you will be pleased with
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the results.
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There have been several recent changes to the behavior and
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capabilities of the EXEMOD and EXEPACK programs provided on this
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release which are not covered in the printed manuals.
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EXEPACK attempts to prevent you from compressing a file onto
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itself. It is not infallible - it can be fooled by a statement
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of the form:
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EXEPACK TEST.EXE .\TEST.EXE
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If it detects an attempt to compress a file onto itself it will
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issue the message:
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"exepack: cannot pack file onto itself"
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and exit with return code 1. Also, when using EXEPACK to
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compress an .EXE file with overlays, the compressed file should
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be renamed back to the original name of the linked file to avoid
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the overlay manager prompt (see Overlays in the User Guide).
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EXEMOD has an undocumented switch, /h, which can be seen in the
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usage prompt (it is not shown in the Users Guide description of
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the usage prompt). This option CANNOT be used with any of the
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other options, and it is equivalent to typing:
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EXEMOD PROG.EXE
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That is, it simply displays the header fields of the .EXE file
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without modifying them.
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EXEMOD has also been modified to work correctly on packed (via
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EXEPACK) files. When it recognizes a packed file, it will print
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the message:
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"exemod: (warning) packed file"
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If the stack value is changed, it modifies the value that SP will
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have AFTER expansion. If either min or stack is set, min will be
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corrected as necessary to accomodate unpacking or stack. Setting
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max operates as it would for unpacked files.
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If the header of a packed file is displayed, the CS:IP and SS:SP
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values are displayed as they will be after expansion, which is
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not the same as the actual values in the header.
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The compiler executable files (CL, MSC, P0, P1, P2, and P3) are
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not packed on the distribution diskettes. We recommend that when
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you set up your own diskettes (as recommended in the manual or
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otherwise), you run EXEPACK on all the compiler executable files.
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The savings is not great on most of them, but it is about 11K for
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P2.EXE!
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If your machine has an 8087 or an 80287, you should read this
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closely to see if this pertains to your hardware configuration.
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All Microsoft languages which support the 8087 need to intercept
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8087 exceptions in order to correct bugs with the chip to produce
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accurate results and properly detect error conditions. Most
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other languages vendors do not bother to correct or even detect
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these errors. The math libraries which contain the 8087
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exception handler and emulator (EM.LIB and 87.LIB) are designed
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to work without modification with the following machines:
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IBM PC family and compatibles, Wang PC, AT&T 6300
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(any machine which uses NMI for 8087 exceptions)
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Texas Instruments Professional Computer
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There is a source file EMOEM.ASM included with the release that
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can be modified. Any machine which sends the 8087 exception to
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an 8259 Priority Interrupt Controller (master or master/slave)
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should be easily supported by a simple table change to the
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EMOEM.ASM module. In the file there are further instructions on
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how to modify the file and patch libraries and executables.
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There are several issues which have caused some confusion to
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users which are not covered in the documentation. We will try to
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cover some of those here in order to (hopefully) save some time
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and frustration later on.
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1. When using the stat.h, utime.h, or timeb.h include files
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(all found in the SYS subdirectory), remember that types.h
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(also in SYS) must being included PRIOR to any of the three
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include files above.
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2. When passing standard device names, (e.g. CON or LPT1) to
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any of C runtime routines which handle device names (creat,
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open, sopen, fopen, freopen, or stat), trailing colons in
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the names (e.g. CON: or LPT1:) are NOT supported.
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3. Non-standard MS-DOS/PC-DOS environments (such as some
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commonly used networks) often intercept some/all DOS system
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calls and handle them themselves to provide some
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additional/different capabilities. When running the
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compiler under such environments, this different operation
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of the system calls may cause some functions to differ from
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their documented behaviour. For example, compiler temporary
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files may not always removed when you use ^C or ^BREAK to
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terminate a compilation. Changes in the way the PATH is
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handled, may cause open, for example, to find (or fail to
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find) a given file name where it would fail (or succeed) on
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a standard DOS environment.
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4. In order for some of the buffered file IO routines,
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primarily fseek and ftell, to operate reasonably on TEXT
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mode files (where carriage return-linefeed (CRLF) pairs are
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translated to linefeed (LF) only on input and LF is
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translated to CRLF on output), an assumption is made that
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TEXT files DO NOT contain stand-alone LF characters (0x0A in
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the ASCII table). If you have files which contain only LF
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characters as line separators you should either process them
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in BINARY mode, or you must write a filter which can read
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the file in BINARY mode, and write it back out in TEXT mode,
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which will expand the LF's to CRLF pairs on output. The
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resulting file can then be processed as a TEXT file. If you
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do not use fseek/ftell, this restriction is not required.
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5. If you use the system() library function to invoke a new
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COMMAND.COM and do a DOS SET command, a new environment
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variable ";C_FILE_INFO" has been created to pass open file
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information to child programs.
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6. The FP_SEG and FP_OFF macros in DOS.H have been modified so
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that they can be used to get or set the segment and offset
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portions of a far pointer.
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When reporting problems with the compiler we ask that you please
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provide the following information to help us in tracking down the
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problem:
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- the compiler version number (from the logo that is printed
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out when you invoke the compiler via CL or MSC)
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- the version of DOS you are running (use the DOS VER command)
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- your system configuration (what machine, total memory, total
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free memory at compiler execution time, etc.)
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- the command line used in the compilation
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- a preprocessed listing of the program (produced via any of
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the -E, -P, or -EP switches), or if the problem appears to
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be in the preprocessor, the C source(s) and ALL include
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files referenced
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- all objects/libraries (except standard ones, but please
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state which standard objects/libraries you are using) needed
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to link, if necessary
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Having that information will be of immense help to us in solving
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your problem quickly.
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