Open Watcom C/C++/FORTRAN Version 1.3
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Welcome to the Open Watcom C/C++ and FORTRAN/77 version 1.3 release! This file contains information about the software package you are about to install. Please read this information throughly before installing this software package.

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Limited Distribution of Binary Installers
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Although Open Watcom is an Open Source project and freely available, SciTech Software has invested considerable time, energy and capital to make this project a reality. For this reason SciTech Software has retained the rights to the Open Watcom installer source code. Please read the license agreement on the following screen to understand your rights if you wish to re-distribute this binary package installer.

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Minimal Windows and OS/2 SDK support
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Due to the fact that the Microsoft owned Windows Platform SDK is not available for redistribution, it cannot be included with this compiler. We do however include a minimal Windows SDK (w32api) along with a minimal OS/2 Toolkit (os2api). These contain all the functionality required by the compiler to build itself on those platforms, along with extra functionality that is added over time. Although the SDKs included are far from complete, they are enough to build many simple and intermediate Windows and OS/2 applications. The API's are being extended all the time, so check back for newer updates in the future (or better yet, spend some time and contribute some updates yourself!).

Note also that the compiler can support building programs using the latest Microsoft Platform SDK with a few minor changes to the header files. We are working to get the compiler to build with the latest Platform SDK without requiring any changes. If you wish to help with this project, please get connected with the Open Watcom newsgroups and join in the effort.

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No Microsoft MFC support
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Since Microsoft owns the Microsoft Foundation Class components that were originally included in the Watcom C/C++ compiler, we are unable to include any MFC components with this compiler. If you do wish to develop MFC applications with Open Watcom, you will have to use the version that shipped with your original Watcom C/C++ 11.0 compiler (if you do not have an official copy of Watcom C/C++ 11.0, you are out of luck).

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DOS/4GW extender included!
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Tenberry Software has graciously allowed the Open Watcom project to include the commercial DOS/4GW extender. This makes the compiler fully backwards compatible with the older Watcom C/C++ 11.0 compilers. We are also including the freely available CauseWay DOS extender, which is a mostly drop in replacement for DOS/4GW.

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Full source code available!
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Open Watcom is an Open Source project, and as such complete source code to the entire product is available from the Open Watcom web site (or on the CD that this installer came on). The source code is distributed under the terms of the Sybase Public License, the text of which is included in this installer. An Open Watcom compiler is required to build the source code. To download the source code, please visit:

http://www.openwatcom.org/download/download_licenses.html

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Open Watcom on the web
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For more information please visit the Open Watcom website at:

http://www.openwatcom.org/

If you have any problems or comments, please let us know at the Open Watcom newsgroups which can be found on the Open Watcom website.
