DOS ain't dead

MODE command (Developers)

posted by kerravon, Ligao, Free World North, 23.10.2021, 01:50

> (IMHO)
> If you want develop in modern way - you must extend MODE and invent
> something new for BIOS call.
> If you want develop in oldschool way - forget about MODE+BIOS and provide
> FOSSIL-driver api (MODE+FOSSIL ?).

> 000 = 19200 '' (Replaces old 110 baud mask)
> 001 = 38400 '' (Replaces old 150 baud mask)


Ok, what the OS does is transparent to the
applications. Applications just fopen("com1", "r+b")
and it is the OS that arranges the BIOS INT 14H call.
That can indeed be the Fossil-style of doing a blocking
read as opposed to the non-Fossil style of timing out.
Currently PDOS/386 has a loop so that apps block, with
the OS dealing with the timeouts. That hard loop can
be changed to an interrupt-driven routine at any point
in the future. Or maybe the BIOS setup in the future
will allow me to make the read call block (as well as
redirect to bluetooth or whatever).

So I'm only interested in what the user or apps see.
Unless you can see a problem with the fopen() above,
there is no need to change apps. Apps rely on the
COM port already being initialized correctly, although
I could change that string from "com1" to
"com1:19200,N,8,1". But I'm more inclined to keep
low-level details like what speed your modem is
(assuming it isn't bluetooth/wifi) outside of the
application (or application's config file). What do
you think?

And the user setting the speed of his modem is something
that should probably be done in the autoexec.bat rather
than every single comms program. In fact, even "com1"
should be abstracted and changed to perhaps
"external:eternal-september.org:119" and the OS is
responsible for realizing this is a request for an
external connection, and the OS knows that it has a
modem on COM1 and COM3, but the one on COM1 is
preferred, and is Hayes-compatible, so the OS issues
an ATDTexternal-september.org:119 which establishes
a connection one way or another, and finally the app
is given an NNTP data stream.

What do you think?

BFN. Paul.

Complete thread:

• MODE command - kerravon, 14.10.2021, 12:34 (Developers)
  • MODE command - bretjohn, 14.10.2021, 17:36
    • MODE command - kerravon, 15.10.2021, 00:29
      • MODE command - bretjohn, 15.10.2021, 07:29
        • MODE command - kerravon, 15.10.2021, 07:42
          • MODE command - bretjohn, 16.10.2021, 00:50
            • MODE command - kerravon, 16.10.2021, 02:07
              • MODE command - RayeR, 18.10.2021, 21:44
  • MODE command - DosWorld, 22.10.2021, 03:35
    • MODE command - kerravon, 23.10.2021, 01:50
      • MODE command - DosWorld, 01.11.2021, 19:05
        • MODE command - kerravon, 01.11.2021, 20:02
          • MODE command - tom, 02.11.2021, 18:53
            • MODE command - kerravon, 02.11.2021, 21:22