Running your builds on a much larger, higher performance server — using a real, decent, stable multi-user OS with proper networking — is a huge advantage.
Running your builds on a much larger, higher performance server — using a real, decent, stable multi-user OS with proper networking — is a huge advantage.
Yes, but the gains may be lost in the logistics of shipping the build binary back to the PC for actual execution.
An incremental build of C (not C++) code is pretty fast, and was pretty fast back then too.
In q1source.zip this article links to is only 198k lines spread across 384 files. The largest file is 3391 lines. Though the linked q1source.zip is QW and WinQuake, so not exactly the DJGPP build. (quote the README: "The original dos version of Quake should also be buildable from these sources, but we didn't bother trying").
It's just not that big a codebase, even by 1990s standards. It was written by just a small team of amazing coders.
I mean correct me if you have actual data to prove me wrong, but my memory at the time is that build times were really not a problem. C is just really fast to build. Even back in, was it 1997, when the source code was found laying around on an ftp server or something: https://www.wired.com/1997/01/hackers-hack-crack-steal-quake...
"Shipping" wouldn't be a problem, they could just run it from a network drive. Their PCs were networked, they needed to test deathmatches after all ;)
And the compilation speed difference wouldn't be small. The HP workstations they were using were "entry level" systems with (at max spec) a 100MHz CPU. Their Alpha server had four CPUs running at probably 275MHz. I know which system I would choose for compiles.
> I mean correct me if you have actual data to prove me wrong, but my memory at the time is that build times were really not a problem.
I never had cause to build quake, but my Linux kernel builds took something like 3-4 hours on an i486. It was a bit better on the dual socket pentium I had at work, but it was still painfully slow.
I specifically remember setting up gcc cross toolchains to build Linux binaries on our big iron ultrasparc machines because the performance difference was so huge — more CPUs, much faster disks, and lots more RAM.
That gap disappeared pretty quickly as we headed into the 2000s, but in 1997 it was still very large.