On 3/9/2018 6:00 AM, Patrick wrote:
Hi Everyone
I fooled around with FreeDos years ago. I have always loved the logo !
I didn't see any reason to move from Linux but now I see reasons to
use both.
IMHO, nowadays, they simply serve different purposes. As things have
advanced in the 20+ years since DOS got superseded by Windows (as well
as OS X/macOS, Linux), it just isn't that suitable as an "everyday" OS...
I don't want to overrun the mailing list so I have multiple topics in
this one post, sorry in advance if this is not what I should have done.
1)I want to program on FreeDos, I want to use GCC ad I want to port
over GnuCOBOL. Are there any books or resources you could recommend, I
haven't found much on the wiki.
My condolences on both counts.
GCC isn't really a DOS based compiler, it is a Unix/Linux based compiler
system that carries a lot of Linux/Unix related quirks with it. For uses
on DOS, you can use DJ Delorie's DJGPP version of GCC, to be found at
http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/. Get ready to enter a world of hurt if you
have never done DOS development...
2)I love and hate old PCs. Specification-wise, they are all I need but
the PC industry is so cut-throat and has been for so long that PCs
were low quality even when new and something 15-20 years old is going
to have a lot of hardware issues. I know we are not on Raspberry PI
etc but is there another modern SBC or small inexpensive PC that you
could recommend for use with FreeDos ?
Well, yes, no, maybe. At least it will be hard to find something that
fits that "inexpensive" tag. One catch 22 is that DOS (any DOS) heavily
relies on the presence of an (IBM PC compatible) BIOS. Without that, you
will be of to a very rough start...
3)I use vim on Linux, has anyone ported this over? It looks like there
is FreeMacs, is this my best bet for a Unix like editor ?
There should be several versions of vi/vim for DOS out there...
4)Does FreeDos have a fixed limit in terms of resolution. The font is
large for me and I would like a lot more lines of code per screen. Is
there any information on adjusting screen settings?
No, just as any DOS, FreeDOS doesn't have any fixed limit in terms of
resolution, as it just gives a rodent's posterior about resolution. DOS
is completely text based, it doesn't even know what "resolution" means...
5)Rather then develop right on FreeDos, do you guys cross compile from
Linux ? Do you have any examples of this?
Maybe. I personally never had a reason to do so. If I would develop for
FreeDOS, I would do it on FreeDOS or at least on any of the Windows
based hosts that I have in ample supply.
NOT developing on (Free)DOS certainly makes it extremely difficult to
debug at least...
6)Can I confirm that FreeDos is in real mode and that the user logged
in can do anything? If I want to write to a parallel port can I just
assign a pointer to it's address and write to it? There is no
protection correct?
Yes. No. Yes. You do have in real mode direct access to the hardware in
terms of access via the x86 "ports". No "pointers"
required/necessary/available...
7)Similar to above, can I confirm that FreeDos has no threading. If I
write a program and it's running, it has 100% of the CPU correct? Does
this mean that a program is basically deterministic and might be
suitable for soft real time requirements? I am in the scientific
equipment business and I actually wonder if labs might like FreeDos
for experiments and data collection. They don't need portability and
cost(as in +/- $200) isn't so important.
What's threading? Sorry, but people these days have forgotten (never
knew) that DOS is from an area where you have single core, single
tasking processors. You need to really get yourself acquainted with the
processor architecture of those 16bit CPU days, or it will just increase
the level of hurt...
Ralf
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