Mail Archives: djgpp/2009/03/19/07:30:33
"Rugxulo" <rugxulo AT gmail DOT com> wrote in message
news:4f7b4d8f-fa46-43d0-813f-1f37466aa3ce AT v38g2000yqb DOT googlegroups DOT com...
>
> (or is outdated) making it not too useful anymore.
>
Is there any current DOS site not-dedicated to a specific project (e.g., a
version of DOS, a DOS compiler, a DOS graphics library)? Perhaps, DOS
Webring? AFAIK, those were the best of the best...
When I can, I program what I need for DOS. But, these are a few app's I've
been using that I think came from those sites:
486dis_c.zip by Robin Hilliard (and from code by DJ Delorie and Kent
Williams)
- table driven disassembler, C, GPL'd derived from DOS GNU C++ Debugger
- easy to modify, e.g., I've mostly converted it to NASM
- probably not easy to make workable with MMX, SSE instructions
fhard101.zip by Aaron L. Brenner
- driver to emulate a small HD using floppies, assembly, Public Domain
- DOS 16-bit character and block device drivers
- requires binary disassembly work to recreate missing constants and code
from missing includes (dd_def.inc, vhard.inc)
- e.g., I've reworked as a floppy driver - works in Win98SE too
ddl.zip by P. Frost
- command line device driver loader, copyrighted
- like devload, but I prefer it to devload. It has a couple of bugs and
quirks...
- small, easy to disassemble and modify (legal for personal use...)
x2b11.zip
- exe2bin replacement, assembly, Public Domain
- just noticed from one of your links...
Well, first, I haven't thoroughly combed through some of those website,
e.g., like the OS/2 sites. OS/2 users had to have produced some good DOS
stuff in their time that was little known outside the cult-like OS/2
community. That reminds me, I need to search for Amiga C code again...
IIRC, there are also some DOS file collections from other countries, e.g.,
Australia, that I didn't have links for. Or, was that Hobbes?... Second,
I've been collecting C code which is not-copyrighted (Public Domain) and
could be compiled for 32-bits. Many of the packages in these older DOS file
collections are copyrighted without source, or if they weren't, they had
code that was written in 16-bit assembly. While I do code in 16-bit and
32-bit assembly, I'm not that interested in porting from 16-bit assembly to
32-bit assembly as DPMI code to be used on a 16-bit DOS OS... So, for the
most part, I haven't been saving them. IMO, the open source, GPL'd, code
movement that benefitted Linux, bypassed DOS. Most of those DOS collections
had applications which are trivial programs (Sad!), pre-compiled executables
(Good!), usually lacked source (Bad!), shareware (Problematic!),
postcard-ware (Huh!), had copyright restrictions to personal, educational,
non-commercial, non-military, and non-government use, etc (No Big Brother!).
Those last "moral" restrictions aren't allowed in a modern open source
licenses... (Shock! Surprise! No government opposition allowed with
GPL...) Unfortunately, other old file collections - no longer available -
e.g., for DEC VMS, were just *understood* to be "Public Domain", but the
code they had never stated that it wasn't copyrighted by the original
author... (Uncertainty!) Anyway, I've still saved many DOS packages. Some
I've never used or opened. Periodically, I delete some - typically when I
can't figure out why I saved it. Crynwyr was the largest collection of DOS
packet drivers. But, numerous other DOS packet drivers, shims, network code
templates are on those sites. They should still work. So, you could make a
large collection of them. I'd suspect you could also build a large
collection of DOS text editors too. They should still work too. Much of
the other stuff is obsolete or trivial or copyright restricted or in
Pascal... etc.
Also, some stuff still on Ibiblio too:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/
Rod Pemberton
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