FreeDOS 1.0

[TroyW]

Ok, I wasn't sure where this belongs, so apologies in advance if it needs to be moved.

As some of you may or may not be aware, Yes, the FreeDOS Project has reached the "1.0" milestone.

I was just wondering if anyone has tried it out, and if so, did you like it, hate it, found it wasn't compatible with your hardware or software?

http://www.freedos.org/

I'm just getting it now, going to try it out as soon as the download finishes.

 

[DoctorPepper]

I've been running FreeDOS for a while now. Not a bad piece of work. I haven't downloaded the "official" 1.0 release yet, I think my last download was 0.98 or 0.99.

There are several MS-DOS alternatives out there, including DR-DOS. The one thing FreeDOS has going for it, besides the fact it is still being maintained, is it is open source. If you wanted to learn a bit about OS programming, without getting lost like you would with Linux or the BSD's, just download the FreeDOS source and poke around in it.

All you need to start playing around is a C compiler (or an Assembler) to poke around. I think FreeDOS will compile with Borland C 3.1, Turbo C and C++, Watcom C and some of the older Microsoft C compilers. You can get more info on this from the FreeDOS FAQ:

http://fd-doc.sourceforge.net/faq/cgi-bin/viewfaq.cgi?faq=Kernel_and_Drivers/31

 

[rmay635703]

On an offthread topic one link from freedos eventually ends up here

http://www.japheth.de/

his site has a win32 emulator for regular dos, supporting Directdraw and other goodies. Anyone try this?

 

[DoctorPepper]

On an offthread topic one link from freedos eventually ends up here

http://www.japheth.de/

his site has a win32 emulator for regular dos, supporting Directdraw and other goodies. Anyone try this?

Whew! This guy is indeed intense! MASM include files for Win32? Heck, when I moved from MS-DOS to Windows 3.1, I finally gave up assembly language programming and moved to C full-time. Just the thought of writing assembly language Windows programs should scare the heck out of any sane programmer! His include files are pretty cool though.

Wow, look at some of the examples he has: DB access with ADO, all in assembly. Same for the other Windows examples. I must say, it does stir the geek in me! ;-)

I never got into "hard-core" Windows programming. I did write Windows programs in C, which I still think is fun, but I'm getting older, and have way too many things to do, so I now prefer to code my GUI programs like this:

#!/usr/bin/python
from Tkinter import *
w = Label(text = "Hello World!")
w.pack()
w.mainloop()

(Of course you can use other widget sets (GUI libs) in place of Tk, if you so choose. I use it because it is widely available (the ActiveState Python install for Windows includes Tk, and it is installed by default with most Linux distros), and works just fine for simple programs.)

 

[chuckcmagee]

Adding nonstandard compression clauses to IBM 1130 COBOL compiler in assembler for 6 months and disassembling Space Invaders in 6502 machine code was enough for me as far as assembler goes.

I looked at some IBM 360 BAL in a 3270 emulator a few days ago --- too much work for the old guy. I did a "branch and link register" right out of that web site.

 

[DoctorPepper]

Hehehe.

I used to love writing 8086 assembler programs that ran under MS-DOS. I taught myself assembler from scratch. It all began with the first assembly language utility I saw in PC Magazine. I typed it in using WordStar (non-document mode), then spent the next couple of days debugging it. I finally got it to assemble (using MS Macro Assembler 2.0 (the Navy bought it as part of the package deal)), then I bought some books so I could figure out how it worked. I ended up purchasing MS Macro Assembler 5.0, in order to assemble the programs in the books. That is the one and only compiler/assembler I've ever paid full-price for! The rest have been upgrades or competitive upgrades ;-)

I did probably 85% of my programming in assembler, from the mid 80's, through 1992, when I bought my first 486 system. It came with Windows 3.1, and when I started using it, I totally switched to C as my "language of choice". I still use C a lot, but mostly for Linux console apps. Any major development I do now is in Python.