The problems encountered strapping a GUI onto a DOS system are similar to the problems that were encountered when object orientation and classes were added to C to create C++. C++ is really a hybrid language, neither a strictly procedural nor a strictly object oriented language.
Any GUI strapped onto a DOS environment will seemingly make it a hybrid. All dos environments share the following problem: Multiple users requires permissions on individual files and resources to keep users from walking all over each other, if such a thing is wanted. DOS environments only have a superuser. So, DOS environments are single user environments. Change DOS so that there are permissions on files, FAT filesystems present a real problem since they predate permissions on files. Many programs that expect uninhibited access to everything and anything won't work. The best you can do is run Linux or something even more secure underneath DOS via DOSBox. Each user has his/her own DOS system. Nowadays with companies greedily protecting their intellectual property, can you access hardware directly if you don't know what's there? Can you use a software library to access that hardware via a well known interface from your favorite OS? Does it ever make sense these days to have direct hardware access without the user abstraction? If DOS itself is in ROM and you are building a kiosk... maybe then if you can directly access the hardware DOS does make sense. Even a GUI on a DOS kiosk might make sense. What doesn't make sense is a DOS system that is supposed to be usable by multiple strangers where the system is not in a ROM but on a writable hard disk. Insofar as a graphical user interface can limit what can be done and make it easier to do what is intended, such an interface will make sense. So a version of DOS with no command line per se outfitted with a GUI could make a nice kiosk system. But if direct hardware access is improbable or software library access of hardware is impossible outside of say Windows 7, you are in trouble even if the target system is a Linux system. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ridiculously easy VDI. With Citrix VDI-in-a-Box, you don't need a complex infrastructure or vast IT resources to deliver seamless, secure access to virtual desktops. With this all-in-one solution, easily deploy virtual desktops for less than the cost of PCs and save 60% on VDI infrastructure costs. Try it free! http://p.sf.net/sfu/Citrix-VDIinabox _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
