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Ñuño_Martínez

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DOS wiki page
« on: April 07, 2021, 12:40:06 pm »
I'm doing some DOS development lately, and today I've looked at the wiki DOS page and it is highly outdated.  For example, it says 16bit compiler needs Watcom linker, but readme file of 3.2 compiler says it is no needed anymore.

I was wondering about trying to update and clean it up, but I don't know how to start.  What I'm thinking is to have various pages:

  • DOS explaining what DOS is, versions available, emulation, etc... and brief description of what FPC have for DOS and relation with Turbo Pascal.
  • DOS 16bit explaining this is the original version, where to find and install the snapshots (and/or how to build the cross-compiler by yourself), the quirks of the system (i.e. file name limitations, memory models and such) and an introduction of Assembler and BIOS stuff.
  • DOS 32bit with description of DPMI, Go32V2 and some Assembler/BIOS stuff (differences with 16bits version).

Problem is that my DOS 32bit programming skills are not too good (I did 16bit a lot of time ago, and using Turbo C only) so I have more questions than answers.

Do you think it is a good idea?
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marcov

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Re: DOS wiki page
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2021, 01:08:57 pm »
Is dos really a sane target for people that don't already know it?

Probably some restructuring is fine, but it doesn't really have to be totally introductory. Some basic knowledge can be assumed

trev

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Re: DOS wiki page
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2021, 01:09:31 pm »
Any updates to out of date information are a good idea.

The page appears to be up to date as far as FPC 3.04; the note about trunk mentions no longer needing the Watcom linker, so perhaps it's just a matter of updating it for the FPC 3.2.0 release.

Nickysn appears to be the main contributor to the page up to the start of 2018 so it may pay to have a chat with him too.

Ñuño_Martínez

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Re: DOS wiki page
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2021, 12:26:54 pm »
Is dos really a sane target for people that don't already know it?
Maybe not, but people is still creating new stuff for old systems.  I know most of it is for C64, BBC-Micro, MSX, NES and such, but DOS is also there, and since Free Pascal is a Turbo clone (or it was) I think it is a good tool for it, so the more information, the better.

Quote from: marcov
Probably some restructuring is fine, but it doesn't really have to be totally introductory. Some basic knowledge can be assumed
Yes, that's the minimal thing to do.  Maybe you're right and it is too soon to split it in different pages.

Nickysn appears to be the main contributor to the page up to the start of 2018 so it may pay to have a chat with him too.
I'll send a message to him.
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lucamar

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Re: DOS wiki page
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2021, 02:32:48 pm »
Quote from: marcov
Probably some restructuring is fine, but it doesn't really have to be totally introductory. Some basic knowledge can be assumed
Yes, that's the minimal thing to do.  Maybe you're right and it is too soon to split it in different pages.
Isn't it already split in (at least) two pages? There is DOS for 16 bit  and GO32V2 for 32 bit, thought this last is rather "thin".
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(K|L|X)Ubuntu 12..18, Windows XP, 7, 10 and various DOSes.

Ñuño_Martínez

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Re: DOS wiki page
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2021, 06:40:52 pm »
Quote from: marcov
Probably some restructuring is fine, but it doesn't really have to be totally introductory. Some basic knowledge can be assumed
Yes, that's the minimal thing to do.  Maybe you're right and it is too soon to split it in different pages.
Isn't it already split in (at least) two pages? There is DOS for 16 bit  and GO32V2 for 32 bit, thought this last is rather "thin".
I didn't know there were two pages.  Much better.

I'm still gathering information and making tests (well, actually I'm still trying to make FPC for DOS 16bit work on my system).
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