Hi tom.
I plan to use xp till I can't.
the fact is even if xp stops being updated security updates of the
critical kind for components at least may continue for some time.
there was one for 2000 last month just not that many.
Also I'd imagine updates which updated components for everything will
still be for xp.
I am not sure about the tiled win8 interface not that I will mind it
when I get into it.
My plan is to go to 7 which still has 8 years on it.
This is not long but enough for ms to iron the issues out of 8, and
to be frank I don't need anything over what 7 has.
Ofcause this depends if I get a hybreed unit.
A lot of my family are getting this sort of tech since its all going
to be mostly touch.
I must say it does appeal to me previded I can nivigate via touch the
os that is.
Keyboards, well I don't know it doesn't sound natural.
A lot of people say touch is good but myself its unknown, though with
the death of symbian I am going to have to bite the bullet and
actually go touch at some point.
As for the vertual xp vm there is a procedure outlined on vmware that
should allow you to make a vm using vm player.
on the eamon stuff tom its made in quickbasic.
so if there was a 32 bit interpreter that could run qbasic.exe then
there probably wouldn't be a problem.
dosbox.
Thats unknown, frank's last message last year to me basically said he
had put it down to the input method that stuff was put through and the output.
Something about stuff being output to the screen in some font other
than standard.
In theory it should all work but something is going on with emulation.
it does work for external synths ofcause and dos readers as the
readers understand this method, he reconed it would be easy enough to
handle once he got started.
However he doesn't know enough c to do it him self or at least right now.
Though he plans after eamon is done to try to get enough c experience
to code his own module.
He has talked to the dosbox dev on this but who knows.
the devs on dosbox are testing his games since dosbox is a major
component of his stuff.
Once xp support goes though it won't be a question if I go to another
system but when.
Invariably after an os drops off the market any new hardware well
any new hardware released won't have xp support.
And unless the libraries that support it dotnet etc excluded for
now, well all programs usually follow the same root.
If ms can be said to be doing something greatish its that every
system from 7 onwards is built from the vista code base.
So any program that runs on vista should run with reduced features
maybe on 8 and up.
Thats good to know at least.
and any 32 bit program will run on 64 bit code.
I am not sure about seperating the tablet and desktop code but to be
honest sharing aspects sounds interesting and also cloud access
though I'd like the ability to logon locally if you were out of range
of the net.
Myself I would have probably nver done all that but still.
I think though that tablets and desktop oses should be seperate.
You logon to your desktop to use that.
and if you are a home user you don't need all the extra network
security businesses use unless you do need it.
xp is quite simple to.
Its a pitty you can't have an os theme.
my plan is to go desktop with classic shell, some people on other
lists even say the app version of skype is not good but who knows.
Myself after looking at the confusing ribbons I find the menus crappy
and boring, a thing I thought I'd never find.
I was always told that touch was inaccessable and that ribbons were bad.
I got back to a menu and find something is lacking.
At 09:07 AM 2/2/2013, you wrote:
Hi Dark,
Sure, and as I've said before I know where you are coming from here.
Windows 7 isn't for everyone any more than Windows XP is right for
everyone. Last year I beta tested Windows 8 on one of my computers
found it didn't have anything I needed right away so chose not to
upgrade to it for a while, and I see your decision to stick with XP
for the time being rather than move to Windows 7 or Windows 8 in the
same light. If it doesn't serve a purpose why bother. I can understand
that perfectly.
However, as for Microsoft to be fair, which I am trying to be,
Microsoft did add a virtual machine to Windows 7 Pro and Windows 7
Ultimate that allows you to run XP under Windows 7 which resolves the
16-bit compatibility issue. Personally I feel VMWare Player is a
better alternative to Microsoft's XP virtual machine, but the point is
Microsoft did address the issue of 16-bit compatibility in the most
practical way they could. Weather they could or could not influence
Intel, AMD, etc to retain 16-bit compatibility is up for debate, and
regardless of how you or I come down on that issue the fact is
Microsoft chose a virtual machine to resolve backward compatibility
issues.
As for Eamon Delux I did not realize it was written in Basic, and that
explains the problem. It sounds to me like they are using an older
16-bit interpreter or compiler which would have to be updated to be
32-bit compatible. Either that or the Eamon games would have to be
converted from Basic to C/C++ and compiled using a 32-bit compiler.
Either way we are looking at a rather big undertaking if it is written
in Basic. I'll have to contact Frank Black and see what I can do about
getting the source code etc.
As for Dos Box I'm afraid there isn't much a person can do about that
problem. It has to do with the way the screen reader obtains its
onscreen information and the wy Dos Box and other emulators displays
the text. The only two solutions I can see is A, write a custom
emulator, or B, write a Dos screen reader that runs in Dos Box. Either
solution is a rather huge undertaking for one game.
On 2/1/13, dark <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Tom.
>
> i'm sorry if my message was a little short, I just get slightly sick of
> various people and the media talking about how great windows 7 is
when I can
>
> see no bennifit, ---- indeed if anything quite the opposite since I'd have
> to work my way around a less user friendly interface than xp,
which would be
>
> possible given time, but still a pain in the rear for little practical
> gain.
>
> in terms of microsoft and the hardware, well I don't really accept "that
> would be an expensive option" from the richest company in the world, since
> it's not as if they lack time or programmers to do those sorts of things,
> and since a company like microsoft is rich enough that hardware is built to
>
> run their os specifically, they have enough power to dictate to the
> manufacturers, heck they already did this in various ways, (I keep hearing
> people talk about how much better hardware would be if it didn't have to be
>
> designed to windows specifications).
>
> We'll save the fat cat bashing until I have bill gates and a
large hammer in
>
> the same vicinity however :D.
>
> To say something practical, actually Eamon is! and always has been open
> source, right from the early 80's, that is one reason it evolved so much as
>
> a system since it kept getting tweaked by different computer users, indeed
> if it weren't! open source eamon deluxe could never have been made.
>
> Apparently the problem is simply that the eamon games are written in apple
> basic, and thus the only way to convert these to a standard environment is
> to convert them to basic, thus short of rewriting the entire
engine, in C or
>
> similar, I'm not sure if there is a workable solution.
>
> I believe Eamon deluxe itself is also open source, at least there are
> actually commands within the program to view the basic source code. I'd
> therefore recommend that you contact Frank black the eamon deluxe developer
>
> on [email protected], since i think he'd be happy to
collaborate on this
>
> sort of project, indeed we've tested several alternatives to dosbox for a
> screen reader compatible program but haven't found one thus far, but maybe
> because you obviously know far more about A how windows screen readers
> interact with theon screen text and B, programming in general you could
> suggest something.
>
> Myself, I actually find it quite loopy that I can bring up the one of the
> .bas eamon program files in notepad, read all the descriptions, rooms,
> objects and even the proramming code for special effects with no trouble,
> but as soon as dosbox is run the text is unreadable, it just seems loopy to
>
> me for all that I do understand the reason why.
>
> Beware the Grue!
>
> Dark.
>
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