DOS ain't dead

GNU Automake to drop DJGPP support (Announce)

posted by bocke, 14.01.2013, 23:05

I don't think that Linux is any kind of priority for GNU. :) Their projects on Linux yes. It's kind of a test case for Hurd.

> Though the GNU Coding Standards
> doc does say
> this:
>
> "In particular, don?t reject a new feature, or remove an old one, merely
> because a standard says it is 'forbidden' or 'deprecated'."

Well, it depends on the project. GCC is known to conform to the latest standards. That means the old code (especially true of 1990's C++) might not compile with a new compiler. Also, if you want to compile the pre-standard C (k&r), you have to use the specialized tools (or convert them manually).

> But, face it, when the heck was the last time a GNU maintainer (or any *nix
> or Windows user) gave a crap about anyone else?

Me? :) I have a wide experience with different OSes, including the current "big-three" (Windows, OS X and Linux) and BSD derivatives. :) Only area I'm lacking is CP/M. Was to young at the time and never got hooked while trying under CP/M emulators.

And DOS was the first, so it has "the special place". 1992. 386sx with 1mb ram and HGC. Ah... The good times. :)

> Automake requires Autoconf,
> which assumes a POSIX shell plus lots of POSIX utils. Usually it "barely"
> works in other places, e.g. DJGPP with ancient Bash 2.x (under DOSEMU or
> NTVDM).

Well, it wasn't originally concieved to be run on anything else than *nix. On some level it really is cross-platform. It makes porting the software between different Unices easy. That was a big time problem in the 80ies. Before POSIX there were much greater differences between different Unices (for example: BSD, AT&T, OSF).

> None of the *nix nerds even bother testing with DJGPP (though it's
> freely available), so I'm not really surprised. Plus most projects have
> long ago dropped working (much less non-working) DJGPP support.

That's also true for most of the Windows based projects, isn't it? Not fair to point the finger only in one direction. ;) Microsoft was the first to kill DOS by promoting other solutions and not improving it since the first half of the nineties. Only support stem from the need they had for it, since both Win 3.x and Win 9.x used it underneath.

> So yeah, we know DOS is cool, but most people want shinier, newer bullcraps
> to mess with (OpenGL? HTML5? Unicode? SMP? x64?).

Not all of that is bad. The problem is, bringing them to DOS would make DOS being something else. It won't be "DOS" anymore. :)

Well, it's a simple 16-bit OS. Still usefull for RT development and embedded uses where Linux and/or *BSD are overkills. It's also very usefull for the retro-computing buffs. Either for old computer collectors, either for the new generation of emulation buffs.

I'm somewhere in the second category and would like to see DOS last for the ages. I'm sad to see anything DOS related die out.

Complete thread:

• GNU Automake to drop DJGPP support - bocke, 12.01.2013, 20:27 (Announce)
  • GNU Automake to drop DJGPP support - RayeR, 12.01.2013, 21:39
    • GNU Automake to drop DJGPP support - Rugxulo, 13.01.2013, 21:07
      • GNU Automake to drop DJGPP support - bocke, 14.01.2013, 23:05
    • GNU Automake to drop DJGPP support - bocke, 14.01.2013, 22:30
  • GNU Automake to drop DJGPP support - marcov, 16.01.2013, 15:12
    • GNU Automake to drop DJGPP support - RayeR, 16.01.2013, 17:42
    • GNU Automake to drop DJGPP support - bocke, 18.01.2013, 16:22
      • GNU Automake to drop DJGPP support - Rugxulo, 18.01.2013, 17:43
        • GNU Automake to drop DJGPP support - bocke, 19.01.2013, 10:02