DOS ain't dead - GhostScript 8.71 for DOS

GhostScript 8.71 for DOS (Announce)

posted by Rugxulo , Usono, 22.05.2012, 01:07

BTW, I hate to bump this thread for just a generic mention of memory woes, but I'd rather semi-document it here than totally forget about it.

I've more or less given up on using EMM386 (except in rare cases), e.g. default on at bootup. Despite the UMB advantage (which is fairly small for my uses), it just doesn't work well in some corner cases. This is not a fault of EMM386 or even JEMM386, almost definitely it's a fault of certain other tools (CWSDPMI, DOS32A). I can probably work around it, but it's not really worth the end-user confusion.

In other words, I was using "JEMM386 NOEMS MAX=0", which was not handled properly by DOS32A. I guess he was always trying to (exclusively?) malloc via EMS when no EMS nor page frame was available. Default for JEMM386 is "MAX=120000" (120 MB) of EMS. Unfortunately, we all know that some tools use more than that, sadly, so that's not reliable either. And I tried setting it to "MAX=520000" (good enough for 99% of potential uses, I thought), but that just shows a persistent CWSDPMI "reg dump / won't run" bug (which is already semi-reported from months ago, though CWS is ultra busy these days). So I dunno, it's kinda a mess.

In short, it's easier to my uses, esp. since FreeDOS is already pretty efficient in conventional memory (560 kb free?) to not need UMBs to maximize that. So I can just "JEMM386 LOAD" at runtime when EMS is necessary for something.

P.S. Perhaps I should've taken a text screenshot of the CWSDPMI regdump, which was a killer bug, and who knows why exactly it fails (not me!). But anyways, better play it safe, I suppose, and go XMS only. I guess I was naive in thinking all extenders were smart about being totally configurable or preferring XMS over EMS/VCPI or that EMM386 always shares total RAM between XMS and EMS (not true for old MS-DOS versions, right??). Bah.

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Complete thread:

FlWriter version 1.1 available - georgpotthast, 05.05.2012, 13:32 (Announce)
- FlWriter version 1.1 available - Arjay, 05.05.2012, 15:36
  - FlWriter version 1.1 available - georgpotthast, 05.05.2012, 16:30
    - FlWriter version 1.1 available - Arjay, 05.05.2012, 17:51
- FlWriter version 1.1 available - Wengier, 05.05.2012, 22:40
- FlWriter version 1.1 available - Doug, 06.05.2012, 20:34
  - FlWriter version 1.1 available - georgpotthast, 07.05.2012, 18:20
    - FlWriter version 1.1 available - Doug, 08.05.2012, 03:48
      - FlWriter version 1.1 available - Rugxulo, 08.05.2012, 05:44
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - georgpotthast, 08.05.2012, 21:45
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - Rugxulo, 09.05.2012, 06:51
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - Doug, 09.05.2012, 07:53
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - Rugxulo, 09.05.2012, 08:43
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - georgpotthast, 09.05.2012, 20:23
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - Rugxulo, 09.05.2012, 22:39
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - Rugxulo, 10.05.2012, 14:21
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - georgpotthast, 10.05.2012, 22:04
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - Rugxulo, 11.05.2012, 00:22
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - georgpotthast, 11.05.2012, 08:07
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - Rugxulo, 11.05.2012, 22:27
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - RayeR, 12.05.2012, 00:36
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - georgpotthast, 12.05.2012, 08:40
        GhostScript 7.05 for DOS - Rugxulo, 13.05.2012, 01:44
        GhostScript 8.71 for DOS - georgpotthast, 13.05.2012, 10:00
        GhostScript 8.71 for DOS - Rugxulo, 22.05.2012, 01:07
        GhostScript 8.71 for DOS - RayeR, 23.05.2012, 00:51
        GhostScript 8.71 for DOS - Rugxulo, 23.05.2012, 05:39
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - Doug, 10.05.2012, 18:02
        FlWriter version 1.1 available - georgpotthast, 09.05.2012, 08:29