It’s written in x86-16 real mode because all immediates are smaller and switchin... | Hacker News

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		xorvoid on May 25, 2023 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes It’s written in x86-16 real mode because all immediates are smaller and switching to 32-bit mode takes a fair amount of code. I would have preferred 32-bit mode because real mode is awkward with its seg:off addressing scheme. Using the bios functions just allows it to have “not-boring” examples easily.

mjevans on May 25, 2023 [–]

That's true, but it's still a sort of library dependency. Even for very tiny computers with a lot of hardware assistance, the basic ROM for communicating with the world in a useful way is bigger.

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