Open Watcom

Open Watcom is a complier program designed by an open community of developers and was first released in August 2003. This program is used to compile C and C++ programming languages and is used to produce a variety of executable programs. A program compiler is an application transforms a source code written in a programming language (source language) into another computer language. The resulting computer language is also known as the “target language”. Program compilers are often used to translate high-level programming languages into a much simpler programming language. In addition, compilers can perform any of the following operations: Lexical Analysis, Preprocessing, Parsing, Semantic Analysis, Code Generation, and Code Optimization.

Open Watcom provides resources such as tools, software development kits as well as programming libraries that can be used to develop executable programs that is compatible in most 16 bit and 32 bit computer platforms. Aside from developing, Open Watcom can be used to debug applications for DOS, extended DOS, Novell NLMs, 16 bit OS/2, 32 bit OS/2, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Win32s, and Windows NT. This program also enables users to perform remote debugging over a serial port, parallel port, and TCP/IP. The program features a simple interface that has two main parts. The main window contains three tabs where users can edit and preview the source codes. The left panel contains a directory tree where users can select pa particular part of the code they need to translate. Last part is the tool bar located on the top portion of the window. These provide users with tools that can perform different operations on the coding process.