DOS ain't dead

Hello all, I fixed the nasty bug in FPC 2.x.x - the hidding mouse cursor in FreeVision (clone of Turbo vision) programs. Problem was only in units MOUSE and VIDEO but FV uses them so I had to rebuild it too.
download binary units:
http://laaca-mirror.ic.cz/units_b.rar
sources:
http://laaca-mirror.ic.cz/units_s.rar

unfortunately I wasn't successful with recompiling the FPC itself so IDE wasn't patched yet.

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DOS-u-akbar!

HURRAY !!!

I finally succeed to compile the Freepascal IDE with integrated compiler and debugger. So now you have the IDE with FPC 2.3.1 with fixed mouse cursor problem and with working DEBUGGER!
Download here: http://www.laaca-mirror.ic.cz/fp.rar

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DOS-u-akbar!

> HURRAY !!!
>
> I finally succeed to compile the Freepascal IDE with integrated compiler
> and debugger. So now you have the IDE with FPC 2.3.1 with fixed mouse
> cursor problem and with working DEBUGGER!
> Download here: http://www.laaca-mirror.ic.cz/fp.rar

I did download your compile, but since I'm not a FreePascal (or even Pascal!) programmer, I didn't have the correct setup (needs other files). Even what I thought was a working setup that I downloaded the other day (base_205, no IDE) apparently wasn't enough.

In other words, if you would be so kind, please specify what files are needed in order to have a working setup.

P.S. I think UPX is your friend here since even "--best" would decrease the size by quite a lot (-> 1.5 MB) unless you expect someone to debug it (!!).

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Know your limits.h

It is simple. Go the ftp site of Freepascal, download the 2.3.1 snapshot for GO32V2 target and install it. If there will be the mouse cursor problem in IDE replace the FP.EXE in \BIN\GO32V2\ subdirectory by mine and the binaries of units place into \UNITS\GO23V2\. But it shouldn't be necessary because my patched was already merged into CVS so in few days you can download already patched version.

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DOS-u-akbar!

> I finally succeed to compile the Freepascal IDE with integrated compiler
> and debugger. So now you have the IDE with FPC 2.3.1 with fixed mouse
> cursor problem and with working DEBUGGER!
> Download here: http://www.laaca-mirror.ic.cz/fp.rar

IDE gives RTE213 on first start under Windows 2000. Looks like it's related to creating fp.cfg file.
Also strip.exe doesn't work here ("rename: Invalid argument (EINVAL)").
IDE silently exists building on missing libs.

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Forum admin

Well, FPC manuals says (and I say the same) that GO32V2 target is aimed only for plain DOS or Windows 9x. It is not garranted at all to work under 2k/XP/vista.

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DOS-u-akbar!

> Well, FPC manuals says (and I say the same) that GO32V2 target is aimed
> only for plain DOS or Windows 9x. It is not garranted at all to work under
> 2k/XP/vista.

I see. Brain-dead >50M.

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Forum admin

> IDE silently exists building on missing libs.

Did you mean "exits"? Or does it really sit there and do nothing?

> > IDE silently exists building on missing libs.
>
> Did you mean "exits"? Or does it really sit there and do nothing?

I meant "exits". Sorry.

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Forum admin

> I finally succeed to compile the Freepascal IDE with integrated compiler
> and debugger. So now you have the IDE with FPC 2.3.1 with fixed mouse
> cursor problem and with working DEBUGGER!

Did you build this on Windows 9x or (Free)DOS + DOSLFN?

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Forum admin

> IDE gives RTE213 on first start under Windows 2000. Looks like it's
> related to creating fp.cfg file.

I'm investigating this now.

> Also strip.exe doesn't work here ("rename: Invalid argument (EINVAL)").

A work around is to "set LFN=n" before running.

Note: strip.exe is from very old GNU binutils 2.8 and hasn't been build with djdev203p2 to support Windows 2000. Later versions annoy you with warning messages "Unrecognized storage class 104", if you strip an application built with "-gl".

> IDE silently exists building on missing libs.

Not sure, that I'm smart enough to fix this.

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Forum admin

On windows 98

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DOS-u-akbar!

> On windows 98

I see. I already noticed that FreeDOS' FreeCOM doesn't support LFN very well. Now I installed MS-DOS 7.10 core files from Windows 98 to a VM on top of Windows 2000 and am able to build FPC natively. If anybody else is interested, I would reveal more details.

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Forum admin

> > On windows 98
>
> I see. I already noticed that FreeDOS' FreeCOM doesn't support LFN very
> well. Now I installed MS-DOS 7.10 core files from Windows 98 to a VM on
> top of Windows 2000 and am able to build FPC natively. If anybody else is
> interested, I would reveal more details.

0.82pl3 "stable" (Eric Auer's favorite) doesn't support LFNs, but current 0.84-pre2 XMS_Swap does (download link). I'm not saying it's perfect, but do check it out: LFNFOR, DIR /LFN, etc. (unless you have other reasons?). You could also try 4DOS, which supports LFN (although you may have to set the .INI value, I forget exactly, "Win95LFN=yes" or something like that).

> 0.82pl3 "stable" (Eric Auer's favorite) doesn't support LFNs, but current
> 0.84-pre2 XMS_Swap does

I already knew, but it doesn't seem to be stable.

> link). I'm not saying it's perfect, but do check it out: LFNFOR, DIR
> /LFN, etc. (unless you have other reasons?). You could also try 4DOS,

1) "/LFN" option didn't change "DIR"'s behavior. Do I need an LFN-aware kernel (I SYSed from your BARE_DOS image) or DOSLFN to make it work?
2) I don't like 4DOS at all.

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Forum admin

> > 0.82pl3 "stable" (Eric Auer's favorite) doesn't support LFNs, but
> current
> > 0.84-pre2 XMS_Swap does
>
> I already knew, but it doesn't seem to be stable.

0.84 has some bugs, but they are very very rare in my experience. However, if it acts up for you, best to avoid it.

> > link). I'm not saying it's perfect, but do check it out: LFNFOR, DIR
> > /LFN, etc. (unless you have other reasons?). You could also try 4DOS,
>
> 1) "/LFN" option didn't change "DIR"'s behavior.

What does it not do that you want it to?

> Do I need an LFN-aware kernel

There is no such kernel that I'm aware of. Only things like RxDOS (or Datalight ROM DOS??) support LFNs natively.

> (I SYSed from your BARE_DOS image)

The LFN-aware shell (0.84-pre2) is in \386\ as COMMAND2.COM (since it's not 8086 compatible, needs 186+ or whatever I dunno exactly).

> or DOSLFN to make it work?

Presumably not if you're using it on Win2k. Otherwise, in pure DOS, yes.

Okay, I just tried this WinXP computer: you need to type "LFNFOR on" (for using LFNs in "FOR %a ...") then "LFNFOR COMPLETE on" (for tab completion of LFN files). Just plain "dir" isn't doing anything special for me (SFNs only), but "dir /lfn" seems to basically work (although not with /B, and even when it does work, it's only this format: "SFN fsize fdate ftime LFN").

P.S. You don't have to use 4DOS, but it does support LFNs (not that I ever use it for that, though, honestly).

> Hello all, I fixed the nasty bug in FPC 2.x.x - the hidding mouse cursor in
> FreeVision (clone of Turbo vision) programs. Problem was only in units
> MOUSE and VIDEO but FV uses them so I had to rebuild it too.
> download binary units:
> http://laaca-mirror.ic.cz/units_b.rar
> sources:
> http://laaca-mirror.ic.cz/units_s.rar

Are these fixed in FPC SVN btw? I suddenly see some dos patches lately for FPC, so maybe there will be a 2.2.2 for dos, sb seems to be working on it

> > Hello all, I fixed the nasty bug in FPC 2.x.x - the hidding mouse cursor
> in
> > FreeVision (clone of Turbo vision) programs. Problem was only in units
> > MOUSE and VIDEO but FV uses them so I had to rebuild it too.
> > download binary units:
> > http://laaca-mirror.ic.cz/units_b.rar
> > sources:
> > http://laaca-mirror.ic.cz/units_s.rar
>
> Are these fixed in FPC SVN btw? I suddenly see some dos patches lately for

Yes. see Log of /trunk/rtl/go32v2/mouse.pp and Log of /trunk/rtl/go32v2/video.pp

> FPC, so maybe there will be a 2.2.2 for dos, sb seems to be working on it

Giulio Bernardi, Tomas Hajny, stupid little me , ...

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Forum admin

> > FPC, so maybe there will be a 2.2.2 for dos, sb seems to be working on
> it
>
> Giulio Bernardi, Tomas Hajny, stupid little me , .

I take it the three of you are getting it ready. Do you have shipping date yet?

> I take it the three of you are getting it ready. Do you have shipping date
> yet?

I'm just fixing a few things in FPC 2.3.1. So I don't really care about a FPC 2.2.x release.

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Forum admin

> > > FPC, so maybe there will be a 2.2.2 for dos, sb seems to be working on
> > it
> >
> > Giulio Bernardi, Tomas Hajny, stupid little me , .
>
> I take it the three of you are getting it ready. Do you have shipping date
> yet?

There is no schedule yet. (and the schedule always slips anyway if breaking bugs are found). Important fixes are still done, stuff is being merged, and documentation are being updated and proofread by a few native English speakers (I'm told the amount of Dutchisms in the docs was horrible)

Sometimes release building goes pretty smooth, and sometimes it slips months, so it remains hard to give a fixed date.

rr wrote: (about Laaca's compiling of FPC)

> > It is not garranted at all to work under 2k/XP/vista.
> I see. Brain-dead >50M.

Vista prevents from death ?

> > On windows 98
> I see. I already noticed that FreeDOS' FreeCOM doesn't
> support LFN very well. Now I installed MS-DOS 7.10 core
> files from Windows 98 to a VM on top of Windows 2000
> and am able to build FPC natively.

And D maintainers dropped DOS decades ago and build now on XP SP2 (Vista ASAP ?) ... that's what makes CC386 unique because it's the only HLL complier in the universe that can compile itself on DOS

PS: Congrats to Laaca for his (partial) success

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> And D maintainers dropped DOS
> decades ago and build now on XP SP2 (Vista ASAP ?)

Well, it's what people use, so building on XP isn't that uncommon. But no, Vista is completely ruled out, anything significant (e.g. GCC) needs > 32 MB of DPMI, which is the hardcoded limit to Vista (even SP1). Unless you want to run under QEMU, BOCHS, VMware, etc.

> Unless you want to run under QEMU, BOCHS, VMware

BOCHS is the way for DOS on XP/Vista

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***