DOS ain't dead

Okay, so FreeDOS 1.0 was released a year ago today. And it's still being updated (so put those rumors to rest, DOS ain't dead). In fact, they even updated the .LSMs on the site (thanks to Fritz).

Anyways, I've mentioned my silly little FreeDOS distro before. If you want to try it, I did update it again a few days ago. I also mirrored it to Google Pages (b/c Geocities is so wimpy re: bandwidth). Still a work-in-progress, though (i.e. no third disk yet, not all of BASE covered, etc).

http://rugxulo.googlepages.com/
http://www.geocities.com/snoopimeanie/freedos.htm

* Disk one contents (list of files w/ descriptions)
* Disk two contents

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Know your limits.h

> Okay, so FreeDOS 1.0 was released a year ago today. And it's still being updated

COOL. Time to fix some kernel bugs.

> they even updated the .LSMs on the site (thanks to Fritz).

COOL. Much better now, but a few are still bad.

FreeDOS server is frequently dead, like now ... no details available

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> COOL. Time to fix some kernel bugs.

Don't just speak, do it!

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Forum admin

> > COOL. Time to fix some kernel bugs.
>
> Don't just speak, do it!

You can easily compile the kernel (2036, newer is in SVN) with TC (2.01, free version) and FreeCOM (0.84-pre2) too if you have the precompiled SUPPL.LIB from SourceForge (I personally can't seem to get SUPPL to build from source).

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Know your limits.h

Updates:

Devel:

CC386 3.55

FASM 1.67.23

FreeBASIC 0.18.1

FreePASCAL 1.0.10 or 2.1.4 or ask Laaca, but 2.0.4 definitely should get erased ASAP, it's the biggest crap

> NASM (NETWIDE ASSEMBLER)
> 0.98.39 (stable) 0.99.01 (development)

Here the "stable" version should be sufficient, the "development" is no longer for DOS

WATCOM 1.7 (reportedly good again )

Edit:

Hey, Blocek 1.32b is already in

Base:

CTMOUSE: both 1.9.1a1 and 2.1 are "required"

JEMM&JEMMEX: 5.66

Util:

UDMA update

Add DISPLAY

Add LXPIC

UNRAR 3.78d already in

Sound:

Update LAME

Add Vorbis & FLAC (yeah ... DOS ports are no longer up to date )

-----------------------------------

And fix the links:

"http://www.freedos.org/cgi-bin/lsm.cgi?mode=dir&dir=util"

->

"http://freedos.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/lsm.cgi?mode=dir&dir=util"

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> Updates:

Did you expect somebody here to take care of them?

> And fix the links:
>
> "http://www.freedos.org/cgi-bin/lsm.cgi?mode=dir&dir=util"
> ->
> "http://freedos.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/lsm.cgi?mode=dir&dir=util"

No need - not broken.

And please do not doublespace long lists. My mouse-wheel finger is tired.

> No need - not broken.

Doesn't work for me, at least today (and frequently in the past).

> My mouse-wheel finger is tired.

More motorized wheel needed

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> > Updates:
>
> Did you expect somebody here to take care of them?

Anything updates for the official website has to go through Jim Hall. But don't worry, I'm privately up-to-date for the mini distro.

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Know your limits.h

> > NASM (NETWIDE ASSEMBLER)
> > 0.98.39 (stable) 0.99.01 (development)

Development is at version 0.99.02.

> Here the "stable" version should be sufficient, the "development" is no
> longer for DOS

Build your own.

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Forum admin

> > > NASM (NETWIDE ASSEMBLER)
> > > 0.98.39 (stable) 0.99.01 (development)
>
> Development is at version 0.99.02.

And "stable" is at version 0.98.40, build 11:

http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/tarballs/other/nasm-11.tar.gz

> Anything updates for the official website has to go through Jim Hall. But
> don't worry, I'm privately up-to-date for the mini distro.

Allright!

> > Here the "stable" version should be sufficient, the "development" is no
> > longer for DOS
>
> Build your own.

DJGPP works, last I checked (although you may have to tweak the makefile a bit). I think it currently needs a C99 compiler, though.

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Know your limits.h

> Add DISPLAY

BTW, I recently found a "newer" build than I previously was using: dispt5.exe (.UC2 sfx, 1.90-t5 beta, DJGPPv2 compile, DISPLAY.EXE dated May 11, 1998)

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Know your limits.h

> BTW, I recently found a "newer" build than I previously was using:
> ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/graph/dispt5.exe
> UC2 sfx, 1.90-t5 beta, DJGPPv2 compile, DISPLAY.EXE dated May 11, 1998

I'll test

BTWW, I still haven't found any valid PNG not displaying correctly in DISPLAY

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

rr wrote:

> Build your own.

No need

Lucho wrote:

> And "stable" is at version 0.98.40, build 11:
> www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/tarballs/other/nasm-11.tar.gz

Seems to be for AppleDarwin, not DOS

Anyway, missed the point: I was not asking for a newer NASM for DOS, was pointing that 0.98.39 can be considered as "final" for DOS

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> > Build your own.
>
> No need

I don't need Free Pascal, but I do the DOS release.

> > And "stable" is at version 0.98.40, build 11:
> > www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/tarballs/other/nasm-11.tar.gz
>
> Seems to be for AppleDarwin, not DOS

That doesn't matter, but it seems to have Mach-O related changes only.

> Anyway, missed the point: I was not asking for a newer NASM for
> DOS, was pointing that 0.98.39 can be considered as "final" for DOS

I prefer NASM over FASM, because I get a 1:1 output. An assembler directly supporting EXE creation is suspicious to me.

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Forum admin

> I prefer NASM over FASM, because I get a 1:1 output.

Please elaborate a bit more why you think you don't get a 1:1 output with FASM!

> An assembler directly supporting EXE creation is suspicious to me.

it's not suspicious, it's inevitable for FASM since it has no idea how to output 16-bit object modules.

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MS-DOS forever!

> I prefer NASM over FASM, because I get a 1:1 output. An assembler directly
> supporting EXE creation is suspicious to me.

FASM just chooses shorter encodings by default since 99.99% of people want it that way. As far as direct .EXE creation, how is that suspicious? It's only a header with relocs or whatever, not exactly rocket science (although Tomasz is a pretty smart guy, duh). Besides, FASM is smaller and faster than NASM. Actually, both are good (duh) but at different things.

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Know your limits.h

> FASM just chooses shorter encodings by default since 99.99% of people want

I always knew, that I'm different.

> it that way. As far as direct .EXE creation, how is that suspicious? It's

An assembler is an assembler and a linker is a linker.

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Forum admin

> An assembler is an assembler and a linker is a linker.

It's not uncommon to combine multiple functionality into one .EXE: GNU Emacs, VIM, FAR, NDN, etc. are good examples.

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Know your limits.h

> BTW, I recently found a "newer" build than I previously was using:
> dispt5.exe (.UC2 sfx,
> 1.90-t5 beta, DJGPPv2 compile, DISPLAY.EXE dated May 11, 1998)

Good program, good package - has some fonts (formerly only in a separate package) and FPU emulator for 80386-only machines. Uses CWSDPMI, includes v0.90r3, which could be (should be?) replaced with 0.90r5: Download http://clio.rice.edu/cwsdpmi/csdpmi5b.zip

Limitation: Age - doesn't support the latest AVI and MOV formats.

rr wrote:

> I prefer NASM over FASM, because I get a 1:1 output.

I do get 1:1 with FASM, if it doesn't work for you then you are doing something wrong

> An assembler is an assembler and a linker is a linker.

Very true It's documented here: http://flatassembler.net/docs.php?article=faq

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> Uses CWSDPMI, includes v0.90r3, which could be (should be?) replaced with 0.90r5

YES. Even better, HDPMI32 or WDOSX.

> Limitation: Age - doesn't support the latest AVI and MOV formats.

And no OGG Theora

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> > Uses CWSDPMI, includes v0.90r3, which could be (should be?) replaced with
> 0.90r5
>
> YES. Even better, HDPMI32 or WDOSX.

Or PMODE/DJ (or even D3X, ever heard of that? Me either until recently.)

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Know your limits.h

> Anyways, I've mentioned my silly little FreeDOS distro before. If you want
> to try it, I did update it again a few days ago. I also mirrored it to
> Google Pages (b/c Geocities is so wimpy re: bandwidth). Still a
> work-in-progress, though.
>
> http://rugxulo.googlepages.com/
> http://www.geocities.com/snoopimeanie/freedos.htm

Updated this again on 2 October 2007. (See CHANGES.TXT for specific info.)

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Know your limits.h

This one is for OS/2 ("a better DOS than DOS") Warp4/eComStation.
By Andy Willis, 2007-01-21.
* fix (?) bug in outobj.c - every 256th "extern" caused Nasm crash
Download (219K): ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/dev/asm/nasm-0_98_40.zip
or http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/dev/asm/nasm-0_98_40.zip

> This one is for OS/2 ("a better DOS than DOS") Warp4/eComStation.
> By Andy Willis, 2007-01-21.
> * fix (?) bug in outobj.c - every 256th "extern" caused Nasm crash
> Download (219K): ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/dev/asm/nasm-0_98_40.zip
> or http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/dev/asm/nasm-0_98_40.zip

Yeah, that bug has been fixed for a while, but they never updated the binaries officially (until recently). Just use 0.99.04 if you really need it fixed.

This OS/2 .EXE doesn't work for me at all (at least on Vista or even in DOSBox), just prints out a simple DOS stub message regardless of cmdline options used: "OS/2 executable module built with InnoTek GCC". And README.OS2 says it needs LIBC061.DLL.

(Yet another reason why DOS is good: binaries run in DOS, OS/2, Windows, DOSBox, etc.)

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Know your limits.h

> This OS/2 .EXE doesn't work for me at all (at least on Vista or even in
> DOSBox),

It wouldn't work under any Windows - emx is incompatible with DPMI environments, among other reasons. (Some OS/2-emx progs do, however, run in a DOS/VCPI environment, and some other DOS-OS/2 compilations run under Windows [but don't ask how well]).

> just prints out a simple DOS stub message regardless of cmdline options used

Typical for OS/2 progs.

I don't suppose you'd be interested in getting eComStation for only US$259.

> I don't suppose you'd be interested in getting eComStation for only
> US$259.

What a bargain! (Seriously, how do they expect to "compete" with Windows when they're no cheaper?! Wow, high price and less compatibility, w00t! I'm all for OS/2 being further developed, but this is ridiculous.)

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Know your limits.h