DOS ain't dead

This is the third RxDOS version I'm releasing, though still only as a Mercurial repository on bitbucket.org. For the preparation of this version, I "identicalised" RxCMD to its previous incarnation (RxDOSCMD), meaning I adjusted things so that the build is almost byte-identical. (It is presumed that all remaining differences are due to either very minor changes (eg, DEFAULT_MINENVIRONMENT changed), or the assemblers' differing choice of synonymous opcodes.) Although I closed that branch and didn't continue its history, the actual changesets show that only several NOPs and word-width specifiers were needed, which proves to me that the port at the branching point was perfect.

Further, I implemented a flat NASM-only build of RxCMD, with an MZ .EXE header created by the assembler instead of an external linker. This means that WarpLink is no longer required to assemble everything; and this also means that running the make script doesn't require neither NTVDM nor dosemu2 any longer, as no DOS-only programs are used. (Only mak.sh is currently kept up to date, so should be the reference to building.)

Get it at https://bitbucket.org/ecm/rxdos-7.2x/downloads/?tab=branches

ETA: Note that this is still in an early stage beyond the mere porting to NASM. I do not recommend its use for anything.

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l

> Get it at https://bitbucket.org/ecm/rxdos-7.2x/downloads/?tab=branches

Any description of what this is?

> > Get it at https://bitbucket.org/ecm/rxdos-7.2x/downloads/?tab=branches
>
> Any description of what this is?

It's the branches tab of the download page. It allows you to load the branches' pages, and provides the option to download a branch's files in an archive. Another option is to simply clone the repo with hg (Mercurial).

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l

> > > Get it at https://bitbucket.org/ecm/rxdos-7.2x/downloads/?tab=branches
> >
> > Any description of what this is?
>
> It's the branches tab of the download page. It allows you to load the
> branches' pages, and provides the option to download a branch's files in an
> archive. Another option is to simply clone the repo with hg (Mercurial).

I should've quoted less (that is, nothing) or elaborated. :)
What is this RxDOS 7.22? I see no description of it in the post or on bitbucket.
Other than something DOSy, well, duh, the name isn't telling. DOS software to run in a pharmacy? Software radio for DOS? :)

> I should've quoted less (that is, nothing) or elaborated. :)
> What is this RxDOS 7.22? I see no description of it in the post or on
> bitbucket.
> Other than something DOSy, well, duh, the name isn't telling. DOS software
> to run in a pharmacy? Software radio for DOS? :)

It's a DOS kernel that is meant to support FAT32 and LFNs natively (it is broken though), and is FLOSS (GPL any version) and written in assembly language. I believe "Rx" originally stood for "Real time" but that isn't exactly accurate. It's just a name now. I became interested in RxDOS in 2009 or so.

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l

Thanks!

> This is the third RxDOS version I'm releasing, though still only as a
> Mercurial repository on bitbucket.org. For the preparation of this version,
> I "identicalised" RxCMD to its previous incarnation (RxDOSCMD), meaning I
> adjusted things so that the build is almost byte-identical. (It is presumed
> that all remaining differences are due to either very minor changes (eg,
> DEFAULT_MINENVIRONMENT changed), or the assemblers' differing choice of
> synonymous opcodes.) Although I closed that branch and didn't continue its
> history, the actual changesets show that only several NOPs and word-width
> specifiers were needed, which proves to me that the port at the branching
> point was perfect.
>
> Further, I implemented a flat NASM-only build of RxCMD, with an MZ .EXE
> header created by the assembler instead of an external linker. This means
> that WarpLink is no longer required to assemble everything; and this also
> means that running the make script doesn't require neither NTVDM nor
> dosemu2 any longer, as no DOS-only programs are used. (Only mak.sh is
> currently kept up to date, so should be the reference to building.)
>
> Get it at https://bitbucket.org/ecm/rxdos-7.2x/downloads/?tab=branches
>
> ETA: Note that this is still in an early stage beyond the mere
> porting to NASM. I do not recommend its use for anything.

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