Need to optimize 8086 C code for size

[00704a-Liber]

I have a friend who is doing some development work for the 8086 PC market.
He needs to optimize for size, since the 640K limit is posing some almost
insurmountable problems.

Here are his experiences so far:

He is using Microsoft C 4.0 currently.  Unfortunately, when he turns the
optimizer on it produces incorrect (albiet shorter) code.  If he turns the
optimizer off the executable becomes too big.  He has tried Microsoft C 5.0,
but in his initial estimates 5.0 code optimized is about the same size as 4.0
unoptimized.  He is going to try Turbo C 1.5 to see if there are any
improvements.  BTW, he is using an 80386 machine for development, so size isn't
as important there; however, he needs to produce 8086 code that will run on a
640K PC.


What is the best C compiler on the market today for optimizing size?  Any
comparisons between compilers would be greatly apprieciated.

Thanks alot (in advance),
-- 
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