DOS ain't dead

> > > DOSBox emulates DOS even on non-x86 platforms.
> > > Win 3.x was a GUI DOS shell / extender for DOS.
> >
> > Unrelated if he used the DOSBox built-in OS which is in no way DOS or
> > compatible.
>
> Well, it must be a little compatible, at least, to run such a
> nuisance as Win3x!!

See below. It might be compatible with old versions of MS-DOS if you assume you're running on one (and don't try to reboot the machine). Or he did in fact use a real DOS version to run it, and booted this DOS from an image after viewing the Windows directory.

> > > Besides, more DOSBox users means more DOS software users, which can't
> > > hurt.
> >
> > More DOSBox users only means more DOS game users, as long as the DOSBox
> > user doesn't run a real DOS inside DOSBox.
>
> It's not a real DOS, but it can run lots of DOS software.

All my software crashes. Because it often calls tries to call various newer Int21 services, and the DOSBox OS panics on any unknown function. Things like Int19 or jumping to FFFF:0000 also don't work and crash the Box. It is possible to detect whether the software runs in DOSBox, but (A) aborting when DOSBox is detected would also abort when running a real DOS inside DOSBox and (B) I'm certainly not going to include the detection code into every executable just to provide support for the DOSBox OS (either by aborting or not using functions DOSBox OS doesn't know).

> It's just the devs (wisely?) decided to focus only on gaming (for now?).

And this is exactly what troubles me. The DOSBox OS could, with presumably small changes, be a (more or less) compatible DOS but the devs decided against this.

---
l

> 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 ?