DOS ain't dead

Roberto iw2evk (in the past he complained about being possibly banned from here, not completely excluding the possibility that he just forgot his PWD ... ) found out that the Win32 version of GrafX2 (DOS support got dropped 1999, last version unusably buggy) works in DOS. I tested a bit and it really works. From cca 10 supported image formats 9 are crap, but at least one is useful: BMP, no PNG support. Drawing seems to work, saving also.

http://code.google.com/p/grafx2/

The stable version works well, the latest alpha, doesn't:

dpmild32: import not found: GlobalMemoryStatuqEx
dpmild32: file KERNEL32.dll
dpmild32: c:\ge\zlib1.dll: cannot resolve imports

The one missing import seems trivial to fix BTW, it should be in GRAFX2.EXE, not ZLIB1.DLL ... bug of DPMILD32

@rr: please remove the "3-letter word from" the banlist - GlobalMemoryStatuqEx - we had this very same BUG 2 years ago at the forum of King Udo

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

> Roberto iw2evk (in the past he complained about being possibly
> banned from here, not completely excluding the possibility that he just
> forgot his PWD ... ) found out that the Win32 version of GrafX2
> (DOS support got dropped 1999, last version unusably buggy) works in DOS. I
> tested a bit and it really works. From cca 10 supported image formats 9 are
> crap, but at least one is useful: BMP, no PNG support. Drawing seems to
> work, saving also.

The Win32 verison had other developers, not the original ones. The latest/last version for DOS available online is 2b.965 (EDIT: Steve has both the binaries and the source code available on his site ). I used it some years ago and it worked fine, excepting the fact that some functionality is not implemented, it has no problems. If you need PNG support, the C source code is freely available so you can implement PNG support whenever you want.
EDIT: Which are the advantages of Win32 version over the DOS one?

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Glory to God for all things

> "DOS __DOES__ have a painting programm"

DOS has many painting programs.

> @rr: please remove the "3-letter word from" the banlist -
> GlobalMemoryStatuqEx - we had this very same BUG 2 years ago at the
> forum of King Udo

Done temporarily.

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Forum admin

Khusraw wrote:

> EDIT: Which are the advantages of Win32 version over the DOS one?

Chance to use a newer one with add text or PNG support ?

rr wrote:

> DOS has many painting programs.

Most of then are obsolete / buggy (OGE) / incomplete / unfree (Neopaint).

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

Deluxe Paint 3 was great for its time, although it used only PCX and LBM formats.

Symmetry, align to grid, advanced working with brushes, convenient keyboard shortcuts were its strong points.

Its weak points: 256 colors max, few formats, one undo level.

It would be nice to find good and open source DP3 clone, I would use it for pixel art.

> Deluxe Paint 3 was great for its time, although it used only PCX and LBM
> formats.

Did you try VGAPaint 386?

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Glory to God for all things

> > Deluxe Paint 3 was great for its time, although it used only PCX and LBM
> > formats.
>
> Did you try VGAPaint
> 386?

We are still looking for a maintainer!

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Forum admin

No, thanks!
VGAPaint is so unfinished (where's menus? Tools' options?).
And so buggy (when I tried to flip the brush, it made brush of memory trash. I tried a bit more, and it hanged).

> No, thanks!
> VGAPaint is so unfinished (where's menus? Tools' options?).
> And so buggy (when I tried to flip the brush, it made brush of memory
> trash. I tried a bit more, and it hanged).

I used only Amiga's Deluxe Paint (never tried the PC port) and that happened many years ago, most of my memories about it faded away. IIUC VGAPaint was intended to be a clone of the Amiga program, and it is true that its features are very modest in regard to Deluxe Paint's ones. But I don't know what features of DP3 it lacks, as from what I heard DP3 is itself modest comparing to Amiga's Deluxe Paint. Can you do more tests with VGAPaint and provide a list with all its missing features/bugs?

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Glory to God for all things

> Can you do more tests
> with VGAPaint and provide a list with all its missing features/bugs?

Do you want to fix it and add new features?
Why don't you get DP3 and see for yourself?

Oh, and to avoid confusion, by DP3
I mean DeluxePaint II Enhanced v3.0.
It just was placed in "DP3" directory and I didn't look at the about dialog in the first time, sorry.

I've found it here:
http://old.ournet.md/~dpaint/

> Do you want to fix it and add new features?

Depending on my spare time, yes.

> Why don't you get DP3 and see for yourself?

If I would have had the disposition perhaps I wouldn't have asked you to do it. Besides, I don't know how legally is to downlod DP3 from that site (BTW I DID understand that you refer to Deluxe Paint II Enhanced 3.0 which AFAIK is the last version of the PC port). Considering that you are the one who has manifested the interest for using an 'enhanced' Deluxe Paint II Enhanced 3.0 clone (which you "would use for pixel art") and considering the experience you pretend to have with DP3, I think it spares me a lot of time if you would use that experience and write the requested list. Personally I could easily lose interest in this problem, if you understand what I mean.

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Glory to God for all things

> Besides, I don't know how legally is to downlod DP3 from that site

And I don't remember how did I get DP3 back in the time. Maybe copied from somebody.

> Considering that you are the one
> who has manifested the interest for using an 'enhanced' Deluxe Paint II
> Enhanced 3.0 clone (which you "would use for pixel art")

I stated my interest only in finding a similar program,
not raising from such featureless/buggy one.

> and considering
> the experience you pretend to have with DP3, I think it spares me a lot of
> time if you would use that experience and write the requested list.

95% of that list are obvious features that you could see for yourself in 5 minutes or less. I can write the remaining 5% when obvious features are working.

> Personally I could easily lose interest in this problem, if you understand
> what I mean.

And I don't have much interest in fixing VGAPaint.
Looks to me like finding similar program is easier.

> I stated my interest only in finding a similar program,
> not raising from such featureless/buggy one.

Actually VGAPaint is far from being as featureless/buggy as you pretend. At least comparing to the alternatives. We are talking about DOS painting programs here.

> 95% of that list are obvious features that you could see for yourself in 5
> minutes or less. I can write the remaining 5% when obvious features are
> working.

You should be more smart and try to understand the developer's point of view. For example not all the bugs are evident in any possible system configuration. And the developer works methodically, it doesn't do the patcher's work. He has to be informed about all the known problems before he decides which is the best way for getting rid of the "obvious" ones. I hope you have the capacity to understand.

> And I don't have much interest in fixing VGAPaint.
> Looks to me like finding similar program is easier.

Good luck!


If someone else could provide a list of VGAPaint's known bugs/lack of features comparing to DP3, it would be helpul. Thanks.

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Glory to God for all things

btw I like pixel32 ( http://www.kanzelsberger.com/pixel/?page_id=12 ), the imageditor for "odd" platforms, which is affordable shareware.

I never tried the dos edition though.

> I never tried the dos edition though.

Discontinued, too slow and buggy. Besides the program is rather a Photoshop clone than a pixel painting program.

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Glory to God for all things

After I did some more test I've concluded that VGAPaint 386 is too buggy to deserve the effort to be improved. To improve it would mean to re-write it. My own old real mode pixel painting program for 286 is by far better.

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Glory to God for all things

> btw I like pixel32 ( http://www.kanzelsberger.com/pixel/?page_id=12 ), the
> imageditor for "odd" platforms, which is affordable shareware.
>
> I never tried the dos edition though.

I have some old DOS shareware version and I think it is the best bitmap/photo editor for DOS I ever seen. Unfortunatelly the SW version is some way limited, I don't remember, cannot save?

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> > DOS has many painting programs.
>
> Most of then are obsolete / buggy (OGE) / incomplete / unfree (Neopaint).

Neopaint is shareware. I use it and think it is well worth its price.
Anyway, do you use only free software ?