DOS ain't dead - Problem using dos-app under WinXP

Willie

Netherlands,
28.09.2007, 10:28

Problem using dos-app under WinXP (DOSX)

Hello people,

I have problem and I hope someone has suggestions to help me.

Situation:
We have a program written in Pascal 7 which uses protected mode (rtm.exe and dpmi16BI.ovl). This program uses an isa card with dos-drivers. Software is a windows-like application (menu's, windows with mouse, etc). But it is a 16-bit DOS application.
Now the ISA-card is unsupported and only windows drivers are available for newer PCI-cards (or other cards).

Without the isa-card, the software runs under windows XP (in the XP DOS-box).
And I found a way to call 32-bits dll's in windows, so using the software with the newer card and newer drivers shouldn't be a problem. BUT:
This cannot be done, because the kernel functions to use the 32-bits dll's conflict with rtm.exe.

Can I get rid of the rtm.exe with HX and does that solve my problem? And how do I do that? I have all the source code for the application.

Regards,

Willie

Berlin, Germany,
28.09.2007, 10:47

@ Willie

Problem using dos-app under WinXP

Post reply

> Without the isa-card, the software runs under windows XP (in the XP
> DOS-box).

This forum is about real DOS. A DOS window in Windows XP is a stupid emulation only, which prevents direct hardware access.

> Can I get rid of the rtm.exe with HX and does that solve my problem? And
> how do I do that? I have all the source code for the application.

You may solve this by:
1) using real DOS or
2) converting your application to Win32 by using Free Pascal or Delphi.

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Forum admin

Japheth

Germany (South),
28.09.2007, 11:49

@ Willie

Problem using dos-app under WinXP

Post reply

> Without the isa-card, the software runs under windows XP (in the XP
> DOS-box).
> And I found a way to call 32-bits dll's in windows, so using the software
> with the newer card and newer drivers shouldn't be a problem. BUT:
> This cannot be done, because the kernel functions to use the 32-bits dll's
> conflict with rtm.exe.
>
> Can I get rid of the rtm.exe with HX and does that solve my problem? And
> how do I do that? I have all the source code for the application.

There is a substitution of rtm.exe and dpmi16bi.ovl available in HX, but this doesn't solve the problem you're describing. The purpose of the substitution is to overcome the 64 MB memory limitation of the original Borland extender.

If you really need to run your 16-bit application in NTVDM, a possible solution is to write a VDD (virtual device driver). A VDD is a standard Win32 dll, which uses some special services exposed by ntvdm.exe to communicate with the DOS binaries.

a VDD example is here: http://www.airborn.com.au/layout/vddtest.html

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MS-DOS forever!