DOS ain't dead

I found this today:

http://tippach.business.t-online.de/wdosx/

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this looks like you
need to bind the executable with their stub.

How much effort would be required to get it to
do the same thing as HX and not require any
change to the executable you are trying to run?

I haven't yet confirmed whether the Phar Lap
TNT Dos Extender is the same as HX.

Note that the only win32 executables I care about
are ones that were built with PDPCLIB - so normally
only using msvcrt.dll, but sometimes kernel32.dll too.

And note that I have my own msvcrt.dll.

And note that HX has some bugs that affect me, so I'm
looking for other options.

This would be for running under Freedos, not PDOS.

Thanks. Paul.

> I found this today:
>
> http://tippach.business.t-online.de/wdosx/

Last updated in 2005. Works pretty well, though, for what it does.

> Correct me if I'm wrong, but this looks like you
> need to bind the executable with their stub.

Yes, that's one big downside to it. (It's also a bit tricky to shell out to other apps, and it has some minor incompatibilities with CWSDPMI.)

There's actually several stubs: Watcom/LE, DJGPP/COFF, and PE/Win32.

> How much effort would be required to get it to
> do the same thing as HX and not require any
> change to the executable you are trying to run?

One guy, Veit Kannegieser, back in 2008 (?) or so was using it for his unofficial DPMI target of Virtual Pascal. I can't find the file online, but he had some attempt at what you're mentioning in WDSX.ARJ. I might have a backup somewhere.

> I haven't yet confirmed whether the Phar Lap
> TNT Dos Extender is the same as HX.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phar_Lap_Software

>> Later on the TNT DOS extender was created, which was a version of
>> 386|DOS-Extender that emulated the Win32 environment, complete
>> with flat address space and threading. Again this DOS extender
>> was often bound to existing Win32 applications. MASM 6.1 and the
>> 16-bit version of the Visual C++ 1.0 compiler were Win32
>> applications written for a beta version of Windows NT that was
>> bound with the TNT DOS Extender

> Note that the only win32 executables I care about
> are ones that were built with PDPCLIB - so normally
> only using msvcrt.dll, but sometimes kernel32.dll too.
>
> And note that I have my own msvcrt.dll.

WDOSX needs relocations, which mainly means old .EXEs. Things like Delphi 4 (and a few others) were supported, though.

> And note that HX has some bugs that affect me, so I'm
> looking for other options.
>
> This would be for running under Freedos, not PDOS.

Nothing's perfect. Don't get your hopes up too high.

> One guy, Veit Kannegieser, back in 2008 (?) or so was using it for his
> unofficial DPMI target of Virtual Pascal. I can't find the file online, but
> he had some attempt at what you're mentioning in

> I might have a backup somewhere.

Thanks. I have emailed him. Don't bother looking for
a backup as that is one of two things I am now trying.

> > I haven't yet confirmed whether the Phar Lap
> > TNT Dos Extender is the same as HX.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phar_Lap_Software
>
> >> Later on the TNT DOS extender was created, which was a version of
> >> 386|DOS-Extender that emulated the Win32 environment, complete
> >> with flat address space and threading. Again this DOS extender
> >> was often bound to existing Win32 applications. MASM 6.1 and the

Yeah - but what I don't know is whether you actually
need to bind it, or whether it is like HX and just
intercepts DOS.

> > And note that I have my own msvcrt.dll.
>
> WDOSX needs relocations, which mainly means old .EXEs. Things like Delphi 4
> (and a few others) were supported, though.

I believe new EXEs are built with relocations to allow
address space randomization.

Regardless, I don't use virtual memory, so all of my
executables have relocations.

> > And note that HX has some bugs that affect me, so I'm
> > looking for other options.
> >
> > This would be for running under Freedos, not PDOS.
>
> Nothing's perfect. Don't get your hopes up too high.

No - I have no expectations. Especially not for
something obtained for free.

Just looking.

Also conceptualizing the state of play when Win 95 was
released. E.g. I have been buying stuff from ebay from
around that time.

I'm looking to see whether my executables could run on
win32s too, so I ordered Windows for Workgroups too.

I have had great success with 3.5" floppies from decades
ago still being readable, mostly.

BFN. Paul.