Watcom used to have a reputation for generating fast code, but that was in the 1980s, early 1990s. The impression I got was that by the time I started working at that company, OpenWatcom was mostly around because it was very good for compiling code for DOS.
It supported all of those weird memory models from the days of segmented memory, it had its own 32-bit protected mode which I assume many programmers back then welcomed enthusiastically.
Plus, I read somewhere that OpenWatcom is practically the only compiler that can create DOS executables to be stored in ROM (for embedded / industrial applications, I guess). Or something like that.
Watcom used to have a reputation for generating fast code, but that was in the 1980s, early 1990s. The impression I got was that by the time I started working at that company, OpenWatcom was mostly around because it was very good for compiling code for DOS.
It supported all of those weird memory models from the days of segmented memory, it had its own 32-bit protected mode which I assume many programmers back then welcomed enthusiastically.
Plus, I read somewhere that OpenWatcom is practically the only compiler that can create DOS executables to be stored in ROM (for embedded / industrial applications, I guess). Or something like that.