DOS ain't dead

"SST - Seek Stopper Hard Disk Optimizer" found

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:36:06 GMT

Post by rr, 08.03.2010, 22:36:

On Wikipedia I found a link to the "SST - Seek Stopper Hard Disk Optimizer", a very early defrag utility, which has been released to the public domain in 2005 (?).
It was written in Turbo Pascal 3.0, but, due to its age, only supports partitions <32 MiB. So be careful!

I didn't try running or building this tool. Maybe it's useful to someone.

Homepage w/ sources: http://www.spectrum-research.com/V2/projects_sst.asp
Shareware binary: sst201.zip

AHCI projects?

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:41:09 GMT

Reply from Laaca, 08.03.2010, 09:41:

This weekend I tried the AHCI.SYS driver from Hewlett packard with my new notebook HP Pavilon dv6 and it didn't worked :confused:
In BIOS I can't set almost nothing so it is very bad.
Now I want to try to modify the BIOS with Phoenix Bios Editor

HX 2.17 quirk -- R4 (REXX) only accepts uppercase words

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:07:58 GMT

Reply from Rugxulo, 02.03.2010, 04:07:

> presumably also with FreeDOS)

Apparently not! It seems to work there fine. So I dunno why. Weird. :-|

GZIPDATE.REX (uses TOUCH)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:22:13 GMT

Reply from Rugxulo, 02.03.2010, 01:22:

And here's why I'm using TOUCH at all:



/* REXX */



if arg() = 0 then do

say ''

say 'GZIPDATE.REX -- view or touch .gz file''s stored internal *nix date'

say '( requires Regina or BRexx )'

say ''

say 'gzipdate [-t] myfile.tgz'

say ''

say '-t   touch (else only views internal date; uses external TOUCH.COM)'

say ''

exit 255

end



parse arg option filename

parse version ver



if pos('Regina',ver) = 0 & pos('brexx',ver) = 0 then do

say ''

say 'Regina or BRexx required!'

exit 1

end



if option \= '-t' then filename = option



if filename = '' then do

say ''

say 'No .GZ file specified!'

exit 2

end



ch = charin(filename,1,2)

if ch \= '1f'x || '8b'x then do

say ''

say 'Not a valid .GZ file!'

exit 3

end



ch = charin(filename,5,4)

mydate = c2d(reverse(ch))



if pos('Regina',ver) \= 0 then ,

newdate = date('U',mydate,'T')     /* Unix->USA, not ANSI !! */



if pos('brexx',ver) \= 0 then do

if import('dates.r') = 0 then do

newdate = GMTime(mydate)

newdate = delstr(newdate,pos(' ',newdate))

parse var newdate year 5 6 monthday

newdate = monthday'/'year

end

else do

say ''

say 'Can''t find BRexx''s dates.r'

exit 4

end

end



say newdate   /* Regina: 02/21/10  BRexx: 2/21/2010 */



/*

using Kris Heidenstrom's TOUCH.COM for FreeDOS

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/...

      /1.0/pkgs/touch[xs].zip

*/



if option = '-t' then do

'dir' filename

'touch' newdate filename

'dir' filename

end



/* EOF */

TOUCH.COM 1.4.3 (minor fix: debug script)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:10:44 GMT

Post by Rugxulo, 02.03.2010, 01:10:

FreeDOS' TOUCH.COM works fine and is well-written (IMHO) although it still needs some tweaking (e.g. convert to NASM or FASM, add LFN support).

However, the main issue I have with it (among other touch utils) is that none seem to allow touching a read-only file! Why? I can't imagine that's really a worthwhile protection. At least two (DR-DOS' TOUCH.EXE and 4DOS's built-in TOUCH) support overriding it (/R or /F, respectively) but most others don't (even Charles Dye's improved version).

There's also no common way to easily preserve file attributes before touching in order to be restored afterwards either, so that's bad for .BAT files. Anyways, in the interest of simplicity (and because it's a minor fix), I wrote a debug script instead of updating the TASM srcs. In short, if not creating a new file (which -C forbids), why open for read/write (3D02)??

Feedback welcome. :-)



@echo off

if not exist %0 %0.bat

if not exist touch.com goto end

if not exist touch2.com copy /b touch.com touch2.com

attrib -r touch2.com

debug touch2.com < %0

goto end



; patch for Kris Heidenstrom's TOUCH.COM 1.4.3 (for FreeDOS)

; Monday 01 March 2010, rugxulo _AT_ gmail _DOT_ com



; what it does: lets -C also permit touching readonly +R files

; int 21h,3D '02'h (read/write) fails to open on +R files



; TODO: convert whole program from TASM to FASM; fix this; add LFN support



;NewCall=09C0

;NewEOF=0145h

;Patch=0146h

;CFlag=058Eh

;ret=0151h



; (only if you want to bump the version number to 1.4.'4' for -F)

;e 127

;34



a 09C0

; former home of "mov ax,3D02", patched with call to fix

call 0146



a 0145

; = 13 bytes below

; (1Ah = EOF / Ctrl-Z marker for "type")

db 1A

mov ax,3D02

test byte ptr [058E],1

jz 0151

; salc

db D6

ret



w

Q

Q



:end

for %%a in (touch touch2) do if not exist %%a.com goto bye

dir touch*.com | find /i "com"

echo on

REM ... generate an error (to prove it didn't work before)

attrib +r touch.com

touch2 touch.com

REM ... try again with -C (to prove it works now)

touch2 -C touch.com

@echo off

dir touch*.com | find /i "com"

:bye

EDIT: Changed ".com" to "com" for some DOS shells.

HX 2.17 quirk -- R4 (REXX) only accepts uppercase words

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:43:55 GMT

Post by Rugxulo, 02.03.2010, 00:43:

R4 (REXX) on Win32 behaves normally. But in DR-DOS + HX 2.17 (and presumably also with FreeDOS), it seems to only work with uppercase. (DOSBox isn't a problem either, so it's not a valid comparison there, sadly.)

echo parse version ver ; say ver > test.rex
echo PARSE VERSION VER ; SAY VER > test2.rex
r4 test.rex

REXX-r4 4.00 28 Jan 2007

http://www.kilowattsoftware.com/r4Page.htm

WDE in NTVDM

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:32:48 GMT

Reply from Japheth, 22.02.2010, 09:32:

> ... it runs in NTVDM now ( exception: CDROM raw mode ). ...

CD-ROM raw mode is supported now. Also, there was an error message if the drive to access was an USB memory stick - apparently NTVDM doesn't like DOS lock commands for such drives. This has also been fixed.

DUGL PLayer 0.4 alpha4

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:29:47 GMT

Reply from DOS386, 22.02.2010, 08:29:

> any revision/update is welcome.

Let me know when preparing next release ;-)

> This mainly mean using a higher resolution or scrolling,

Scrolling would be cool, higher resolution would mean painful mode switch after opening the file and parsing the headers. Or just let the user select manually (as long as available) 640x480 (default) or 800x600 or 1024x768.

> I'm waiting for your feedback ;-)

No thorough test but seems to work well :-)

Shadow AKA Ombra

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:24:00 GMT

Reply from DOS386, 22.02.2010, 08:24:

> So will you ask him?

Maybe one day ... my prefetch queue is crowded (ToDo, ToFix, ToTest, ToDocument, ToReport, ToBrew, ToAsk, ToUpdate, ...) :-|

COOL (?) DOS (?) page discovered

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:22:40 GMT

Reply from roytam, 22.02.2010, 07:22:

> http://a.hatena.ne.jp/lukewarm/?gid=43554
>
> Anyone is able to decrypt the text also ? Me not :-(

BizLingo did better job.
http://excite.co.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http...rm%2F%3Fgid%3D43554&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2

and this is a News aggregation service by hatena.jp.

P.S.: lukewarm is a DOS/V(Japanese localized version of *DOS(FreeDOS/DR-DOS/etc.), and /V means VGA(640*480) mode) developer and wrote DOS/V Extension drivers.

His site (Japanese):
http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA003720/lpproj/

[BUG] forum BUG with links to multipage threads

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:55:25 GMT

Reply from rr, 21.02.2010, 22:55:

> Here msg=3997 --> 3997 should be page 3 and post "Steve(R)
> 03.05.2008, 08:16" of "BIG "C" compiler comparison thread" but it doesn't
> work in board mode :-|

Confirmed. But I have no idea how to fix it easily. ({msg} is no official feature.)

Shadow AKA Ombra

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:37:32 GMT

Reply from rr, 21.02.2010, 21:37:

> > Back in 2007 I wrote to Rick, but never got any response.
>
> Thanks ... as with Mik :-|

I'm not sure. Maybe he just didn't check his old mail account or my message went to the junk folder undiscovered.

So will you ask him?

DUGL PLayer 0.4 alpha4

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:23:26 GMT

Reply from FFK, 21.02.2010, 17:23:

> http://freefile.kristopherw.us/uploads/temp/dplay044.zip 0.44
> latest

I will add this link to the project page. Thanks for the mirror :)

> http://freefile.kristopherw.us/uploads/temp/dplay043.zip 0.43 for
> regression tests
>
> > Added documentation DUGLPLAY.TXT contributed by DOS386
>
> Written 1/2 years ago, needs updates and fixes :-)

I have updated it according last version, but any revision/update is welcome.

> > - Reduced B L O A T of the EXE (UPX'ed) from 156 KiB to 146 KiB

This is mainly thanks to UPX option "--ultra-brute". But maybe the removal of the fast yuv2rgb, and the fact that the new mmx routine is smaller by 100 bytes contributed also on this.

> FFK wrote (long ago):
>
> > - playing video at full res : currently high-res videos are downsampled
> to 640x480

This mainly mean using a higher resolution or scrolling, but you are right no solution for 3'000x2'000 video.

>
> But other related idea: add option "Don't ZOOM up video if too small" - so
> if smaller than 640x480 (full) or cca 620x390 (unfull) then show it 1:1
> centered in the area ;-)
>

Yes good idea to disable fitting, specially for small video.

> I haven't tested 0.44 yet (untested mirror again) ... but I will :hungry:

I'm waiting for your feedback ;-)

COOL (?) DOS (?) page discovered

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:51:49 GMT

Reply from RayeR, 21.02.2010, 14:51:

> http://a.hatena.ne.jp/lukewarm/?gid=43554
>
> Anyone is able to decrypt the text also ? Me not :-(

Did you tried google translator? Helps little bit
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&pre...lukewarm%2F%3Fgid%3D43554&sl=auto&tl=en
But I don't see nothing exciting just a few links to well known dos projects/sw/forums...

DUGL PLayer 0.4 alpha4

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:14:35 GMT

Reply from DOS386, 21.02.2010, 14:14:

> [deadlink=http://www.mediafire.com/?jtgkjjgxq44]DUGL PLayer 0.4 alpha4[/deadlink]

http://freefile.kristopherw.us/uploads/temp/dplay044.zip 0.44 latest

http://freefile.kristopherw.us/uploads/temp/dplay043.zip 0.43 for regression tests

> Added documentation DUGLPLAY.TXT contributed by DOS386

Written 1/2 years ago, needs updates and fixes :-)

FFK wrote:

> What's new :
> - Faster YUV2RGB16 assembler MMX routine

COOL, but:

FFK didn't write:

> - Reduced B L O A T of the EXE (UPX'ed) from 156 KiB to 146 KiB

FFK wrote (long ago):

> - playing video at full res : currently high-res videos are downsampled to 640x480

What exactly do you mean with "full res" ? Imagine a 3'000 x 2'000 video, how to get "full res" ?

But other related idea: add option "Don't ZOOM up video if too small" - so if smaller than 640x480 (full) or cca 620x390 (unfull) then show it 1:1 centered in the area ;-)

I haven't tested 0.44 yet (untested mirror again) ... but I will :hungry: