makeing a .com file

[deoblo1]

Ok I read some place that dos uses .exe's and i dont want to have to use dos, so i need a .com file...well if i am doing asm or maybe even c++ is their a way to output a .com file that i could boot to?

[Sophtware]

You can make .com files from the debug command in your DOS ...I know you dont want to use DOS..but this is the only way i know how to make a .com file

If you want to make a .com file in DOS.. i can email you a .txt file that explains it..since i have too explain the process in detail...

[deoblo1]

Yeah e-mail me, umm [email protected]

All .exe is for is so that the o/s knows what to do with it. It could .any, as long as the o/s handled it the same way it does an exe, itll run fine. What do you mean by you dont want to use dos, so youll need a .com. Dos uses .com's too.

[Lord Orwell]

well that was partially correct. .com files have a fundamental difference between themselves and .exe files. They are smaller and are limited to one codepage. General info: They are loaded into memory at offset 0100. Command line parameters are in the 0080s above them. One area for capitalized, one for lowercase. .exe files load in a different memory address, can be any size (up to 512k without a memory manager).They also contain a dos 2.0 compatibility header info. This header is included in every .exe and .dll and .ocx made nowadays. Windows programs have a special entry point. There is a small dos stub at the beginning of each that basically says "program can't run out of windows" or something similar. There are a few different ways to exit a dos program. Interrupt 29, interrupt 20, and interrupt 21 with 4c loaded into ah. al will be loaded with an error return value (useful for batch files). I hope this helps explain what an .exe is and what a .com file is.