Back to home page

DOS ain't dead

Forum index page

Log in | Register

Search:  
Back to the forum
Board view  Mix view

Device drivers: Changing the attribute word at install time? (Developers)

posted by tom Homepage, Germany (West), 04.10.2023, 23:43

> Hello mbbrutman,
>
> > The code you linked looks like it's a UPX device driver for whatever
> > OpenDOS is. (I'm familiar with UPX as a command line program, not as a
> > device driver.)
>
> UPX can apparently compress device drivers for MS-DOS; and the code is
> (part of?) the decompressor stub for device drivers.
yes. UPX can compress device drivers, and even dual .EXE and device drivers.

background: early versions of HIMEM were a dual .EXE and device driver.
you could load it as DEVICE=HIMEM.EXE, but also for command line like
HIMEM /T
would run a regression test. Japeth removed this later on, but this is as HIMEM started.

however dual mode EXE/DRIVER executables could only by compressed by my own, non
public, compression program (EXEPACK). so I (as the original master HIMEM author)
compressed HIMEM.EXE with my proprietary program and published it in this binary form. but nobody else was able to produce the same (compressed) binary.

Bart Oldeman was annoyed by that, 'reengineered' my code and integrated it into UPX.

fine with me.

Post reply
 

Complete thread:

Back to the forum
Board view  Mix view
22049 Postings in 2034 Threads, 396 registered users, 55 users online (0 registered, 55 guests)
DOS ain't dead | Admin contact
RSS Feed
powered by my little forum