On 04/11/2012 12:37 AM, Alex wrote: > Hi > > This topic is not about DOS vs other operating systems, or the fact > that users tend to gradually abandon DOS. It's about the survivability > of DOS vis-a-vis hardware. > The starting point for my reasoning is: what will happen with the > future development of the hardware architectures? So far DOS has fared > relatively well, in the sense that it can still run even on 32bit and > 64bit architectures, despite the fact that it does not fully support > them. Now the question is: will it always be like this? Or will there > come a point when, due to a radical CPU redesign, we won't be able to > even use DOS any longer on newer machines? What are the chances of > this happening? > > Related questions are: how adaptable would the (Free)DOS codebase > prove, in the event of this happening? How much manpower would be > required to recode/adapt (Free)DOS to the new needs? In short, could > DOS survive such a situation? > > I know that this may look as an overly pessimistic scenario, but I > believe it's one we had better anticipate, rather than just assuming > that things will always be as they are now. I hope I am very wrong in > my reasoning, and I would be very glad if someone pointed it out. > Hi Alex, The problem for people like me, who program at a fairly low level, is that the programs won't run on emulators. Many of the real time tricks, like using the CMOS clock or taking over the keyboard interrupt, will be blocked as illegal instructions. I have been battling with this for some years, and my colleagues have to scavenge for old PCs that will run DOS natively. I think that at some point I will have to move to another OS if I can get the real time data acquisition.
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