DOS ain't dead

NE (Emulation)

posted by Rugxulo , Usono, 17.03.2009, 00:38

> > NE isn't a Windows invention. It's the file format for 16-bit
> > protected-mode binaries, used by OS/2, Win16 .... and HX's DPMILD16.
> IIRC
> > it was introduced with MS-DOS v4.0 ("European version").
>
> Even earlier indeed: It is discussed in the 1988 edition of "MS-DOS
> Encyclopedia" , but do you (or anyone else) know of any NE executable that
> runs under plain DOS ?

I've seen dual mode DOS/Win16 or DOS/OS2 binaries (e.g. some GNUish stuff). Some older MS DOS tools (Fortran???) also produced bound .EXEs that ran either with native OS/2 or real-mode OS/2 API emulation in pure MS-DOS.

What Japheth's apparently referring to (from a quick search) seems to be background processes for the (very) short-lived MS-DOS 4.0 European (not related to normal MS-DOS 4), which had to be in NE format. I think it was all real mode, though, and brief attempts at MS trying to add 286 support didn't work well. And with Win 3.0 coming around the corner with the 386's V86 mode, I guess they stopped caring since that worked better at multitasking DOS stuff anyways.

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Complete thread:

Win 3.1 on Nokia N95 (via DOSBox) - Rugxulo, 24.02.2009, 01:17 (Emulation)
- I see no relation to DOS - DOS386, 24.02.2009, 04:54
  - DOS? see DOSBox or Win 3.x (DOS shell / extender) - Rugxulo, 24.02.2009, 06:57
    - DOS? see DOSBox or Win 3.x (DOS shell / extender) - ecm, 24.02.2009, 12:09
      - DOS? see DOSBox or Win 3.x (DOS shell / extender) - Rugxulo, 24.02.2009, 20:00
        DOS? see DOSBox or Win 3.x (DOS shell / extender) - ecm, 24.02.2009, 22:30
    - DOS? seen and failed DOSBox or Win 3.x (DOS hell/extender) - DOS386, 25.02.2009, 03:25
  - I see no relation to DOS - marcov, 24.02.2009, 10:24
  - I see no relation to DOS - RayeR, 24.02.2009, 11:25
  - I see no relation to DOS - Japheth, 24.02.2009, 12:36
    - NE - DOS386, 25.02.2009, 03:10
      - NE - Japheth, 25.02.2009, 06:03
        NE - jassenna, 16.03.2009, 05:40
        NE - Rugxulo, 17.03.2009, 00:38
  - I see no relation to DOS - mr, 24.02.2009, 16:45
- Win 3.1 on Nokia N95 (via DOSBox) - RayeR, 26.02.2009, 02:20