DOS ain't dead

As Japheth extended the syntax for call INT 15h/AX=87h it is needed to be well documented. The Bible for DOS programmers is the Ralf Brown's interrupt list. The current version was released in july/2000.
At the present days we usually use the HTML version here.

I am not sure who is the maintainer and whether is he active or not but this API extension should be tracked at least into this HTML version.
And maybe it should be extended much more - for USB API from Bret Johnson's package and maybe many other things. (from hardware topics at least some basics of ACPI)

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DOS-u-akbar!

Good idea, did you tried to contact Marc via mail?

---
DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> As Japheth extended the syntax for call INT 15h/AX=87h it is needed to be
> well documented. The Bible for DOS programmers is the Ralf Brown's
> interrupt list. The current version was released in july/2000.

Note: RBIL, also, was distributed into TechHelp format.

TechHelp - hypertext help system (propriertal). File format is binary, seems like early HTML (have cross-links between articles). Have comfortable resident viewer.

---
Make DOS great again!
Make Russia small again!

> As Japheth extended the syntax for call INT 15h/AX=87h it is needed to be
> well documented. The Bible for DOS programmers is the Ralf Brown's
> interrupt list. The current version was released in july/2000.
> At the present days we usually use the HTML version
> here.
>
> I am not sure who is the maintainer and whether is he active or not but
> this API extension should be tracked at least into this HTML version.
> And maybe it should be extended much more - for USB API from Bret Johnson's
> package and maybe many other things. (from hardware topics at least some
> basics of ACPI)

Interesting, I was thinking myself about some way of using RBIL programmatically, say as a tooltip in a debugger. Perhaps some easily maintainable intermediate format could be used both for that and to generate documentation? I wonder what the best format would be, XML?

This could open up a really big can of worms. We owe a great debt to Ralf Brown (and all the others who helped him put the list together and maintain it). If it weren't for RBIL, DOS/FreeDOS would not be nearly as far along as it is. RBIL is the "Bible" that everybody uses to write their programs. It is BY FAR the most accurate and complete source of information there is even though it hasn't been updated in a VERY long time. There is even a LOT of information in there that people found by trial-and-error (bugs, secret/hidden functions, etc.) and not just reprints of the "official" documentation.

The can of worms is going to be finding a person or group of people willing to maintain the data. That is a HUGE commitment. I would definitely like to see it happen, but the amount of work required to just gather the missing years of data is far more more than I think most people even realize. In addition to the few things you mentioned, there really needs to be information on all the technology changes and "standards" that have been developed over the last twenty years (CPUs, disks & disk formats, memory, BIOS & EFI & UEFI, virtualization, networking, etc.), just to name a few.

If someone wants to take the lead on this, I'm sure many others would be willing to help, including me to at least a small extent. But I think this really needs to be almost a religious commitment on somebody's part (like it was for Ralf) and not just limited to a few items that one particular person would like to see.

I think that it doesn't need to be filled by all the info about UEFI nad latest CPU regs. because they are covered in its standards. Question is how many DOS programmers would need interact with UEFI, probably not many and they sould kow about uefi.org. But if someone, e.g. Japheth, creates some INT services extension that is not covered by big organisation specs then other DOS programmers may not get know about them, so in this case it would be helpfull to have it documented in RBIL.

---
DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> > As Japheth extended the syntax for call INT 15h/AX=87h it is needed to
> be
> > well documented. The Bible for DOS programmers is the Ralf Brown's
> > interrupt list. The current version was released in july/2000.
>
> Note: RBIL, also, was distributed into TechHelp format.

Yeah, there were several formats. Does sb know what the master format is?

> TechHelp - hypertext help system (propriertal). File format is binary,
> seems like early HTML (have cross-links between articles). Have comfortable
> resident viewer.

A conversion app to .CHM maybe could be done from html or a more abstract master.

Hello marcov,

> > Note: RBIL, also, was distributed into TechHelp format.

> Yeah, there were several formats. Does sb know what the master format is?

Ralf Brown's web site at CMU has a page with the latest version (16 July 2000) of the Interrupt List: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ralf/files.html .

The master format is plain text, but laid out in a special way, presumably to make automatic processing easier. You can read the master format directly (which I do).

I am not sure if the good Doctor will still be willing to accept change requests for the RBIL, after all these years.

Thank you!

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https://codeberg.org/tkchia · https://disroot.org/tkchia · 😴 "MOV AX,0D500H+CMOS_REG_D+NMI"

> I am not sure if the good Doctor will still be willing to accept change
> requests for the RBIL, after all these years.
>
> Thank you!

Well, we will see. I just send emails to Ralf Brown and to Marc Perkel and we will wait for their responses.

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DOS-u-akbar!

> > I am not sure if the good Doctor will still be willing to accept change
> > requests for the RBIL, after all these years.
>
> Well, we will see. I just send emails to Ralf Brown and to Marc Perkel and
> we will wait for their responses.

Jerome Shidel (of FreeDOS fame) has been working on his own RBILtoHTML, if anyone is curious. I don't know if it's truly finished, but he did email a few of us, roughly two months ago, about it.

> > > I am not sure if the good Doctor will still be willing to accept
> change
> > > requests for the RBIL, after all these years.
> >
> > Well, we will see. I just send emails to Ralf Brown and to Marc Perkel
> and
> > we will wait for their responses.
>
> Jerome Shidel (of FreeDOS fame) has been working on his own
> RBILtoHTML, if anyone is curious. I
> don't know if it's truly finished, but he did email a few of us, roughly
> two months ago, about it.

Oh, and in Lazarus even. Looks pretty solid.

Probably could be easily modified to output CHM. Thing is, I reacted a bit quick. CHM is particularly good if you have a big index that you use a lot (e.g. context info in the IDE or context sensitive help). RBIL has multiple indexes etc, and keyword based help is not very useful.

That would mean it would be hard to integrate in IDEs with the standard support, and you'd need extensions.

> > As Japheth extended the syntax for call INT 15h/AX=87h it is needed to
> be
> > well documented. The Bible for DOS programmers is the Ralf Brown's
> > interrupt list. The current version was released in july/2000.
>
> Note: RBIL, also, was distributed into TechHelp format.
>
> TechHelp - hypertext help system (propriertal). File format is binary,
> seems like early HTML (have cross-links between articles). Have comfortable
> resident viewer.

Some online copy is at http://www.techhelpmanual.com/ or https://dos4gw.org/

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Forum admin

> Oh, and in Lazarus even. Looks pretty solid.
>
> Probably could be easily modified to output CHM. Thing is, I reacted a bit
> quick. CHM is particularly good if you have a big index that you use a lot
> (e.g. context info in the IDE or context sensitive help). RBIL has multiple
> indexes etc, and keyword based help is not very useful.
>
> That would mean it would be hard to integrate in IDEs with the standard
> support, and you'd need extensions.

Don't forget Part F of RBIL: https://github.com/cirosantilli/ralf-brown-interrupt-list/tree/master/inter61f

IL2ME102.ZIP    convert list into Multi-Edit help database
INT2RTF.ZIP     Slava Gostrenko's converter
INT2WHLP.ZIP    converter by Christian Müller-Planitz / Bent Lynggaard
INT2GUID.ZIP    convert list into TurboPower GUIDE or POPHELP database
INT2HLP.ZIP     convert list into QuickHelp database
INT2IPF.ZIP     convert list into OS/2 .IPF file
INT2QH.ZIP      convert list into QuickHelp database
INT2TPH.ZIP     convert to Borland THELP/Borl.Pascal help file (.TPH)
RB2NG116.ZIP    convert list into Norton Guides database

All except IL2ME come with sources.

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Forum admin

> > Jerome Shidel (of FreeDOS fame) has been working on his own
> > RBILtoHTML
>
> Oh, and in Lazarus even. Looks pretty solid.

I don't remember any of the URLs offhand, nor which email pointed to some of them, but Jerome is a Pascal fiend! So he has lots of cool code lying around. Try checking his Github (or email him), if morbidly curious.

> Good idea, did you tried to contact Marc via mail?

Assuming you mean Marc Perkel, I think trying to contact him would be pointless, for the following reason.

I was going to write him about something, but while investigating, I came to learn that he passed away from lung cancer on 1 Aug 2018.

hXXps://eideard.com/2018/08/27/remembering-marc-perkel/
https://www.dvorak.org/blog/2018/08/27/remembering-marc-perkel/

I doubt he appointed anyone to continue maintenance of his RBIL site.

On another note, I e-mailed Ralf Brown recently, but I have not received a response.

-Albert.

Updated by rr on 2026-01-13: First URL points to a gambling site now -> added second URL.

> > Good idea, did you tried to contact Marc via mail?
>
> Assuming you mean Marc Perkel, I think trying to contact him would be
> pointless, for the following reason.
>
> I was going to write him about something, but while investigating, I came
> to learn that he passed away from lung cancer on 1 Aug 2018.
>
> hXXps://eideard.com/2018/08/27/remembering-marc-perkel/
> https://www.dvorak.org/blog/2018/08/27/remembering-marc-perkel/
>
> I doubt he appointed anyone to continue maintenance of his RBIL site.
>
> On another note, I e-mailed Ralf Brown recently, but I have not received a
> response.
>
> -Albert.

Yes, it seems that RBIL is dead. No Marc Perkel, no Ralf Brown haven't answered me to my email.
Why Marc haven't in now clear from your post. But neither Ralf Brown answered.
Now is here a risk that after Marc Perkel's death his HTML version will disappear because nobody will pay the payments for web hosting.
It is a topic for discussion whether the community around FreeDOS should move the HTML version of RBIL on the FreeDOS domain and in this new place to add a new extensions.

Updated by rr on 2026-01-13: First URL points to a gambling site now -> added second URL.

---
DOS-u-akbar!

Aha, I didn't know...
So then you can pick up the most recent RBIL version, migrate it to another web (could be hosted e.g. at freedos server?) and start with updates...

---
DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> Aha, I didn't know...
> So then you can pick up the most recent RBIL version, migrate it to another
> web (could be hosted e.g. at freedos server?) and start with updates...

Is there a HTML converter somewhere?

-Albert.

> > Aha, I didn't know...
> > So then you can pick up the most recent RBIL version, migrate it to
> another
> > web (could be hosted e.g. at freedos server?) and start with updates...
>
> Is there a HTML converter somewhere?

See aforementioned RBILtoHTML. Lazarus source code on: https://gitlab.com/DOSx86/rbil2html

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Forum admin

> This could open up a really big can of worms. We owe a great debt to Ralf
> Brown (and all the others who helped him put the list together and maintain
> it). If it weren't for RBIL, DOS/FreeDOS would not be nearly as far along
> as it is. RBIL is the "Bible" that everybody uses to write their programs.
> It is BY FAR the most accurate and complete source of information there is
> even though it hasn't been updated in a VERY long time. There is even a
> LOT of information in there that people found by trial-and-error (bugs,
> secret/hidden functions, etc.) and not just reprints of the "official"
> documentation.
>
> The can of worms is going to be finding a person or group of people willing
> to maintain the data. That is a HUGE commitment. I would definitely like
> to see it happen, but the amount of work required to just gather the
> missing years of data is far more more than I think most people even
> realize. In addition to the few things you mentioned, there really needs
> to be information on all the technology changes and "standards" that have
> been developed over the last twenty years (CPUs, disks & disk formats,
> memory, BIOS & EFI & UEFI, virtualization, networking, etc.), just to name
> a few.
>
> If someone wants to take the lead on this, I'm sure many others would be
> willing to help, including me to at least a small extent. But I think this
> really needs to be almost a religious commitment on somebody's part (like
> it was for Ralf) and not just limited to a few items that one particular
> person would like to see.

I found what I think is a really nice way of representing register expectations and returns here
Does anyone know if there's a generic term for these or software to produce them?

Thanks

> I found what I think is a really nice way of representing register
> expectations and returns here
> . Does
> anyone know if there's a generic term for these or software to produce
> them?

Sorry that the image wasn't rendered inline, here's the http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/doc/dpmi/api/310c00.html

Although I'm probably the only one on this planet, who still uses IntSum for viewing RBIL in DOS, I created an updated version (v1.7) now. See https://github.com/bttrx/IntSum

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Forum admin

> Although I'm probably the only one on this planet, who still uses IntSum
> for viewing RBIL in DOS, I created an updated version (v1.7) now. See
> https://github.com/bttrx/IntSum

Oh, neat, I may try that. I'm still using rbilview (a MSW 16 application, without sources I believe), and I've considered rolling my own viewer based on traclist. May use this one if it's good. Only downside is it (currently) needs a Microsoft compiler and assembler to build.

---
l

> > Although I'm probably the only one on this planet, who still uses IntSum
> > for viewing RBIL in DOS, I created an updated version (v1.7) now. See
> > https://github.com/bttrx/IntSum
>
> Oh, neat, I may try that. I'm still using rbilview (a MSW 16 application,
> without sources I believe), and I've considered rolling my own viewer based
> on traclist. May use this one if it's good. Only downside is it (currently)
> needs a Microsoft compiler and assembler to build.

IntSum is a very basic viewer, but it works fine (and fast) for me. Never tried RBILVIEW.

Yes, toolchain is commercial, but it's probably not worth the efforts to convert to OW/(J)WASM.

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Forum admin

But we need not only viewer but a real editor.
Imagine that you want to extend a description of some INT by a new table. You have to ensure that all links in the document will remain untouched (without lot of manual editing)

---
DOS-u-akbar!

> But we need not only viewer but a real editor.
> Imagine that you want to extend a description of some INT by a new table.
> You have to ensure that all links in the document will remain untouched
> (without lot of manual editing)

One can still buy the Epsilon editor used by Ralf back in the days. 250 bucks only.

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Forum admin

> Although I'm probably the only one on this planet, who still uses IntSum
> for viewing RBIL in DOS, I created an updated version (v1.7) now. See
> https://github.com/bttrx/IntSum

v1.8 is out now.

Changes:
- Fix sometimes displaying garbage on "Enter filename to save to" prompt on startup.
- Make use of, so far unused, INI file BORDER setting.
- Add NC 3.0-inspired color scheme to INTSUM.INI.
- Exported topics will no longer have trailing blanks.
- Remove old license text from INTSUM.TXT and help screen. (Also fixes GitHub URL not showing on help screen.)
- Add section "Keyboard commands" to INTSUM.TXT.

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Forum admin

> > Although I'm probably the only one on this planet, who still uses IntSum
> > for viewing RBIL in DOS, I created an updated version (v1.7) now. See
> > https://github.com/bttrx/IntSum
>
> v1.8 is out now.

Updated to v1.9.

Changes:
- Change from custom public-domain license to public-domain-equivalent BSD Zero Clause license.
- Remake help screen accordingly.
- To have two more lines of space for displaying data from the Interrupt List, remove version/copyright banner + divider.
- Fix detail listing not printing filename after returning from help screen.
- Add short section "Technical support" to INTSUM.TXT.
- Convert dates to ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD) in INTSUM.REV.

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Forum admin

Hello awik,

> On another note, I e-mailed Ralf Brown recently, but I have not received a
> response.

"Mercury Thirteen" just shared some interesting news:

"A quick side-note; I sent Ralf a quick email a while back simply asking if he was still accepting updates to the RBIL and he kindly affirmed he was, although he did indicate slight surprise that anyone was working on new DOS applications these days and would be interested in contributing additional data . :)"

---
https://codeberg.org/tkchia · https://disroot.org/tkchia · 😴 "MOV AX,0D500H+CMOS_REG_D+NMI"

> Hello awik,
>
> > On another note, I e-mailed Ralf Brown recently, but I have not received
> a
> > response.
>
> "Mercury Thirteen" just
> shared
> some interesting news:
>
> "A quick side-note; I sent Ralf a quick email a while back simply asking if
> he was still accepting updates to the RBIL

unfortunately, he fails to mention what "a while back". last year or last century.

I am not aware of any update since 2000. and he has probably been asked often

> > Good idea, did you tried to contact Marc via mail?
>
> Assuming you mean Marc Perkel, I think trying to contact him would be
> pointless, for the following reason.
>
> I was going to write him about something, but while investigating, I came
> to learn that he passed away from lung cancer on 1 Aug 2018.
>
> hXXps://eideard.com/2018/08/27/remembering-marc-perkel/
> https://www.dvorak.org/blog/2018/08/27/remembering-marc-perkel/

Adding a copy of a post New spam fighting method? - hMailServer forum from 2016-08-16 18:39:

Well, this is kind of hard to say so just going to say it. I have stage 4 lung cancer and the probably spectrum is not good. I've been fighting spam for the last 15 years and I'd like to keep fighting spam from the grave. So I'm willing to share my technology with anyone interested.

Several months ago I talked about a new trick I came up with to fight spam and also positively identify good email as good. I've been running it now for 7 months and it is a breakthrough. At the time I had intended to patent it just to get enough protection to license it to the big boys, but now it is unlikely I'll be around long enough for that. I have however noticed that because of my condition people are paying attention to me more now that there's a deadline.

Here's my spam filtering trick. It's something that can be easily integrated into SpamAssassin. Being that my programming is somewhat sloppy at times it can probably be done even better than what I did. The thing to keep in mind when reading this is that it's not bayesian filtering. Many people in the spam filtering community make that mistake. This is done with set operations using Redis. Here's the link.

http://wiki.junkemailfilter.com/index.php/The_Evolution_Spam_Filter

I'm still doing well for now and if not for this diagnosis I wouldn't know I was sick, And I want to get as much done in this window as possible. Since I live in Gilroy California I'm thinking I'd like to contact the spam filtering person at Google and let them continue to really develop what I started. So if someone could hook me up with the right person(s) there I would appreciate it. And I'm willing to work with anyone else that can make use of my work. (My way of cheating death.)

Below is a letter I wrote to EFF staff where I used to work. It summarizes my situation. I'm still doing well considering.


Hi Cindy,

Hate to ruin your Monday morning but I have some bad news. I have stage 4 lung cancer and the odds are not with me. I'm slowly telling the world and realizing the the problem with having so many friends is that I'm making a lot of people very sad. And that is very difficult for me to do.

I'm dealing with it about as well as can be expected, maybe a little better than that. My needs are covered for now, but dealing with rolling out the information. Please pass this email on to the staff there. I'm somewhat concerned about getting too much response at once. There is no specific time frame for me yet but stage 4 lung is almost always fatal and it's more likely months and not years.

I have a lot of friends who are offering to take care of me. I have a paid for house, some savings, and I'm still doing well off my spam filtering business. I am going to be looking for someone to take over my small techno empire in the hopes of keeping my web sites and the people who I host for online. While I plan to put up a good fight if I get 2 years that would be considered a win. Taking over my empire would be a great opportunity for the right person and I need to find someone to do that. I am unfortunately really good at what I do and might be tricky getting someone to take that over.

I have lived a good life. I have done more than most people have done in 100 lifetimes. At the age of 60 I was already down to my last 1/4 tank so if I don't get the last 20 years I really have little to complain about. At this point my goals are to upload what's left of me to the web, which is the afterlife in my world. I have to finish up certain philosophical projects with my Church of Reality, which, interestingly enough might lead to a solution for the control problem for Artificial Intelligence. (Something I need to finish writing up.)

Oddly enough the idea of being dead doesn't worry me. And that might be the denial speaking. However the process of getting there is going to be overwhelming. And it's been just a week since I found out. And I'm exploring the idea that there might even be an upside to being terminal. Maybe new opportunities will open up.

I do want to say that working at EFF was some of the best times of my life and I really appreciate having had that opportunity. The internet is the new nervous system of humanity and is therefore sacred space, not just in a religious sense, but in a Reality based sense. To protect it is to protect the essence of humanity itself. The Internet is our common mind and it is the core of who we are as a human species. (Note to legal team, I think there is a legal argument opportunity in this statement.)

A person's story is everything they do from the moment they are born to the moment they die. And then your story is the effect you had on advancing the evolution of life from what we were, to what we are, to what we will become. So my story will become part of the story of humanity, which is part of the story of life on this planet, and part of the story of the universe. And with the internet the essence of who I am and what makes my existence have meaning will be preserved.

I have always believed that if a person decides to "own their story" and choose to live a life worth living that when they are faced with the end of their personal existence it would be much easier. And now that I am there I can say it is definitely true. I have not lived a perfect life and looking back there are quite a few things where I could have made a better choice. But at this point I'm feeling unusually positive about my situation as my last adventures unfold.

While I have spent much of my life writing software for cyberspace I have also written quite a bit of software for meat space. This email is an example of that. Meat space is coded in ideas and philosophies and I'm hoping in the time I have left to see what else I can accomplish. Facing death definitely sharpens the mind so I'm going to take advantage of that.

I suppose I'll wrap this up here as I can ramble on forever. And forever isn't as quite long as it used to be.

Marc Perkel
/root

--
Marc Perkel - Sales/Support
support@junkemailfilter.com
http://www.junkemailfilter.com
Junk Email Filter dot com

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Forum admin