nanogui: Thread: FreeDOS

Hi you all,

I am a newbie to this list and i don't know a lot about programming linux.

That doesn't mean that i am unfamiliar with free software since i am an
active developper for FreeDOS where i am the maintainer for the diskcopy
program and to last night was still working on programming a free version
of defrag.

So what am i doing on this list, am i not like 10000 miles of course? I
guess not since i am interested in moving microwindows to my favorite
operating FreeDOS. I would like to make it 32 bit using djgpp as the
compiler and using some free dos multitasking kernel, preferably ctask
(but it could allso be the other multitasker from dj delorie itself (they 
where working on porting X windows to dos but there project never got
finished)). 

The reason for making it 32bit would be obvious if you knew that there
allready was an other GPL'd GUI for dos, allowing among others fully
preemptive multitasking for both GEM and dos applications, called GEM/XM 
that is incredibely well suited to run on 8086 hardware but does have a
rather old-fashened looking interface (look at http://www.deltasoft.com
for details).

So i still have a lot of questions regarding microwindows. The first
of which is wether microwindows allows for the loading of external 
microwindows applications (like x-windows and windows applications). I
suppose this is the case since otherwise there wouldn't be an api. But
than how is this implemented in ms-c. How do dos programs contact the
api's and can those programs be multitaked (i guess not with only normal 
ms-c). 

Of course i have some good ideas on how to make a multitasking environment
in DOS using a multitasking kernel, but i am not all that sure wether it
can be done without changing the way the dos microwindow applications join
into the system.

Imre

 The first
: of which is wether microwindows allows for the loading of external 
: microwindows applications (like x-windows and windows applications). I
: suppose this is the case since otherwise there wouldn't be an api. But
: than how is this implemented in ms-c. How do dos programs contact the
: api's and can those programs be multitaked (i guess not with only normal 
: ms-c). 

Currently, Microwindows doesn't have any tasking or program loading
built-in.  I've been tempted, but the Linux answer, used for Nano-X,
is to run separate processes and use a unix socket (similar to a pipe)
to send graphics commands from the application to the server process,
which is Nano-X.  In the MSDOS environment, each application
is compiled into the server, for both the Microwindows and Nano-X
API.  This at least allows graphics applications to be built.

I have a working relocatable loader that I've been playing with for
a while, which is well suited to the business of loading programs
into address spaces without much operating system underneath
it.  One loader, cross-elf, will load 32-bit bit Linux-created ELF .o files
on Linux and MSDOS under a DOS extender.

I have also created a 16-bit relocateable object file loader,
used for object files created with the bcc toolkit, which could
run under ELKS and MSDOS, but it requires some special
OS support to setup the CS register properly.

Either of these could be used for program loading, but they're
certainly not "DOS-Compatible (tm)"


Of course another idea is to implement processes any way
you like, and use named pipes or unix sockets, just like Linux
does now...

Greg