Node:DJGPP Fatware, Next:, Previous:Disk space, Up:Getting DJGPP

4.6 Can I get away with less megabytes?

Q: The above table means that I need more about 20 MBytes for C/C++ development environment; that's about 7 1.44MB diskettes to hold even the compressed archive!! Seems to me DJGPP is afflicted by the fatware disease....

Q: Pulling that many megabytes through the net from my overloaded SimTel.NET mirror is almost impossible. Can't you prepare a ZIP archive which only includes stuff I can't do without?

A: There are a number of shareware/freeware programs floating around which allow formatting DOS diskettes to almost twice their usual capacity, so you can use less floppies. One such program is 2M.

Also, with the proliferation of drives that can burn CD-ROMs and the availability of high-capacity removable media, like Zip drives, using floppies is no longer the only solution for a movable DJGPP.

To make downloading DJGPP easier, download and compile the BatchFTP program. It allows you to submit a script of FTP commands and will repeatedly try to login into the FTP site you specify until the script is successfully completed. It is smart enough to understand the messages which the FTP server sends to you (like login refused etc.) and also is nice to the remote server by sleeping for some time between login attempts. BatchFTP is free software and can be found on many FTP sites.

BatchFTP is a Unix program; those who access the net from their PC (not by dialing into some Unix host with a shell account), can use one of the available programs for automated FTP access.

As for the minimal DJGPP installation, volunteers are welcome to prepare such an archive and make it publicly available, in the same spirit as EZ-GCC did for DJGPP v1.x.