Windows 9x requires CRLF for batch files to work at all. While Windows
XP and later appear to work with LF line endings, they introduce
devious glitches with certain commands:
https://www.dostips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8988
However, we still want to use LF endings in the repo to prevent the
annoying ^M whitespace errors.
Part of P0002, funded by GhostPhanom.
So yeah, that'll be our build environment - just plain batch files calling the
Borland command-line assembler, linker, and eventually C compiler. These are
the exact tools that ZUN used as well. There certainly are other assemblers,
compilers and linkers that could compile this code into 16-bit DOS
executables; Open Watcom is the only free one I know, and the master.lib
manual also mentions C compilers by Microsoft and Symantec. However, I favor
having one clear build path for a single toolchain that will, with the correct
command-line switches for each game, create builds that are bit-perfect to
ZUN's original ones over the possibility of cross-platform builds and the
maintenance nightmare they add.
So, Borland-only it is.
(Also, no Makefile, due to our messy build setup. I think I still prefer this
solution though, as we can have these really nice error messages that double
as build instructions without any dependencies on installed software.)
nmlgc