DOS ain't dead

All,

I'm working on a guide to compile DOSBox here:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=55706&p=620726#p609435

So far I've gotten DOSBox compiled with:

Mingw w/ gcc 4.7.2 (i586) NT3.51+
Mingw-w64 w/ gcc 7.1.0 (i686) NT3.51+
VS2008 (i586) NT3.51+
VS2017 (i686) XP+

I've tested the NT3.51 and 95 builds with HXRT 2.17 further down in the thread.

If anyone has any thoughts on improving the guide or thoughts on HXRT and DOSBox then they would be appreciated.

BTW is there some living DOSBox version yet?
I've been using this enhanced version http://ykhwong.x-y.net/ but last release was done more than 2 yers ago...
Are you going to do any improvements by yourself or why do you recompiling it?

---
DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> BTW is there some living DOSBox version yet?
> I've been using this enhanced version http://ykhwong.x-y.net/ but last
> release was done more than 2 yers ago...
> Are you going to do any improvements by yourself or why do you recompiling
> it?

Hijacking the thread...
I had to recompile DOSBox because the precompiled binaries had something messed up in the department of keyboard mapping. I could not enter some keys.

> BTW is there some living DOSBox version yet?
> I've been using this enhanced version http://ykhwong.x-y.net/ but last
> release was done more than 2 yers ago...
> Are you going to do any improvements by yourself or why do you recompiling
> it?

DOSBox is still actively worked on as you can see here http://source.dosbox.com/dosboxsvn.txt but there's been no official release for a couple of years.

The issue with software that maintains compatibility across operating systems is that not all patches can work on everything. The other issue is that even if the patch is supported across all operating systems then does it make sense to add it to mainline DOSBox if most people don't even use it.

Direct3D with pixelshaders - Windows Only
OpenglHQ - Dunno if this has been superseded by other shaders or scalers....
Innovation - How many games need this?
Glide - Still slow and buggy. Pcem emulation is superior.
zip/7z mount - How beneficial is this? Also likely "abandonware" contributor.
Beep - ?
NE2000 Ethernet - Not many games need it but would be a nice to have. Need to see if pcap supported still across linux,mac,windows
Graphical user interface (menu) - Likely not needed.
Save/Load states - buggy
Vertical sync - Is this supported across all OS?
CPU flags optimization - ?
Various DOS commands (PROMPT VOL, LABEL, MOUSE, etc) - What games need these?
CONFIG.SYS commands (DEVICE, BUFFERS, FILES, etc), Continuous turbo key, Core-switch key, Show details (from menu bar) - What games need these?
Nice DOSBox icon, Font patch (cp437), MAKEIMG command, INTRO, Ctrl-break patch, DBCS support patch, Automatic mount - What games need these?
Printer output - What games need this?
MT-32 emulation (MUNT) - Requires roland ROMs and most people don't have the original hardware.
MP3CUE - ?
Overscan border - Very few games utilize
Stereo-swap - ?
SDL_Resize - ?
Amstrad & PS/1 sound emulation - How many games need?
Fluidsynth soundfont support - ?
Timidity++ backend support - ?
CGA w/ Monochrome Monitor Support - ?
Improve PC Speaker emulation accuracy patch - ?
Pentium MMX - Not much of a point for DOS games
Dongle support - How many games need a dongle?
Secondary display - Not needed to play games.
DOSBox-X branch - Not for playing games.
File-locking support patch - Not needed for playing games
xBRZ scaler - Need to check hqx vs xbrz.


I'm creating the guide for learning purposes and to help people out with compiling DOSBox or other projects. I'd like to add third party patches to DOSBox as well but only when they maje sense to do so. So no kitchen sink approach like daum.

For the honour of DOS!

I think the most necassary patch would be a "passthrough" option for almost every function of DOSBox. It won't be released officially as they are not designing the software for DOS, but anything else. But we would need a version which is technically a Win32 version in order to make it usable with HX.DOS, but in functionality it is optimized for DOS so it wouldn't force the user to emulate every hardware and the whole operating system, and redundantly translating the API from DOS to Windows in order to translate it back to DOS just to get eg. sounds on modern chipsets. Instead it could just forward everything except the sound output. That is definitely something unusable on any other system :D but on DOS it would be one of the most useful ones. What do you think? Would it be a hard time to implement?

---
DOS isn't about why. It's about why not.

I've updated my guides and builds so ignore the above:

Guide thread
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=55706

Test Thread
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60096

I'm now offering mingw w/gcc 6.3.0 and mingw-w64 w/ gcc 7.x DOSBox builds that are compatible with NT3.51+ (recently figured out NT3.50 compatiblity so scroll down to the bottom of the vogons thread).

Recent improvements:
Removal of Active Desktop requirement for DOSBox compatibility with NT 3.50, NT3.51, 95 (without IE4), NT4 (without IE4)
Usage of SDL_net 1.2.9. Previously getlocaladdresses introduced IPHLPAPI dependency, this has been removed.
Usage of Winsock 1.1 for NT3.50, NT3.51 since they don't support Winsock 2
64bit build of DOSBox. Not recommended since only normal core can be used.
Usage of SDL 1.2.15 for NT3.50+ - Involved disabling fullscreen support for NT3.50, Fixing DirectInput for 9x, Disabling joystick and DX, Opengl support for NT 3.50 support
Identification of mouse issue with HX-DOS and DOSBox. Use SDL_Videodriver=Windib in DOS for a functioning mouse. Haven't included HX-DOS in the guide yet so scroll down in the vogons thread for HX-DOS otherwise DOSBox will be slow or not load properly.
Reviewed mingw and mingw-w64 guides and uploaded environments to Google Drive.

* https://www.dosbox.com/

* Windows 0.74-2 Win32 installer
* Mac OS X 0.74-2 dmg (Universal)
* Source 0.74-2 Source

Thursday, August 30th, 2018 - Qbix
DOSBox 0.74-2 has been released!

A maintenance release for DOSBox 0.74, which solves the following problems:

* Windows: Fix auto/max cycles algorithm on Windows 7, which helps with stuttering audio.
* Mac OS X: Bring a 64 bit version and improve performance.
* Linux: Fix the 64bit dynrec cpu core and a lot of compilation problems. Add patches for the WINE Team.


The game compatibility should be identical to 0.74.

We have saved all game fixes for the upcoming 0.75 release, which will enter regression testing soon. This release has been created so you can go back to 0.74-2, in case we happen to break your favourite game in 0.75.