DOS ain't dead - Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S")

Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") (Announce)

posted by Paul, 18.07.2009, 21:48

> BITDISK (from
> TurboDisk)
> is pretty small, 10k UPX'd. Okay, not that small, but it's also open
> source and can handle kilobytes. You're using an XMSv2 driver anyways, and
> your computers are max. 32 MB, so you don't need the massive power of
> RDISK (gigs). Besides, you apparently have 30k free space left anyways.
> But yeah, RDISK is definitely cool. ;-)

Tried Bitdisk briefly. Also used DR-DOS's VDISK for a bit. Not open source, but freeware, I think, although the licensing around DR-DOS is confusing. RDISK beats them all for size.

Don't let that 30k free space fool you... I've got lots of ideas for educational programs to wedge in there.

> Yeah, I see an OpenWatcom-built 7.EXE that uses D3X, nice idea! :-P :-D
> :-D Although just FYI, the
> 9.04 one also handles
> unpacking dirs ('x').

It helped that someone anticipated my "idea" and compiled it for me! :-) I'll probably stick with my non-beta version for the time being, although having subdirectories would help me keep my sanity.

> > I would love to see this option implemented in the next version of the
> > real RDISK!
>
> That's up to Jack Ellis. I think he still reads (but doesn't post) here
> occasionally. ;-)

I also emailed him before I started modifying the source. If he can't squeeze it in, no problem. I know he's keen on the exactly-1.5KB file size, but it would be cool if he could make it work.

> P.S. I noticed you used (and semi-worried) about PC-DOS 3.30 COMMAND.COM
> for its small size. Just for comparison, you could consider FreeDOS' old
> GCom
> 0.85. It's approx. 12k UPX'd, but it lacks FOR, IF, SHIFT. Still,
> it's quite small, so if you don't need complex .BATs, it might do what you
> want.

More on that in my response to roytam.

> P.P.S. As much as I typically shun overformatting, I don't see how you can
> get around that without using stronger, more memory-intensive compression.

I drew the line at overformatting to 1680k. 2M was really tempting but I wanted to people to be able to make the disks with a Windows machine with no extra steps. Even with 1680, it doesn't work on USB floppies, but that's why I have USB stick and CD options as well.

I tried really hard to get Uharc to work on a machine with 8MB RAM, but it just wasn't going to happen. Nevermind Paq8o8.

If I de-UPX all the EXEs in the 7z file, it actually compresses a lot better, but then the ramdrive needs to be a lot bigger, so it ends up being counterproductive. Ah, the endless cycle of optimization!

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Complete thread:

New UIDE Available - rr, 28.04.2009, 09:56 (Announce)
- New UIDE Available - Rugxulo, 28.04.2009, 22:43
  - New UIDE Available - sol, 29.04.2009, 00:37
- New UIDE Available - rr, 29.04.2009, 22:40
  - New UIDE Available - Ninho, 01.05.2009, 13:09
    - New UIDE Available - Khusraw, 01.05.2009, 15:04
      - New UIDE Available - Ninho, 02.05.2009, 11:06
        New UIDE Available - Khusraw, 02.05.2009, 14:36
        New UIDE Available - Ninho, 02.05.2009, 23:23
        New UIDE Available - rr, 04.05.2009, 22:52
        New UIDE Available - Ninho, 05.05.2009, 10:52
        New UIDE Available (May 6) - Rugxulo, 10.05.2009, 03:29
        New UIDE Available (May 15) - Rugxulo, 17.05.2009, 01:10
        New UIDE (May 15) - Does this work for anyone at all ??? - DOS386, 17.05.2009, 05:26
        New UIDE (May 15) - Does this work for anyone at all ??? - sol, 17.05.2009, 20:03
        New UIDE (May 15) - Rugxulo, 17.05.2009, 22:58
        New UIDE4W98SSE (May 15) R.P. - DOS386, 18.05.2009, 06:16
        New UIDE4W98SSE (May 15) R.P. - Rugxulo, 18.05.2009, 08:34
        New UIDE Available (May 15) - Zyzzle, 18.05.2009, 03:58
        New UIDE Available (May 15) - rr, 19.05.2009, 13:49
        New UIDE Available (May 15) - Zyzzle, 20.05.2009, 00:07
        New UIDE Available (May 15) - Rugxulo, 18.05.2009, 08:40
        RDISK test - small bugfix. - Japheth, 19.05.2009, 12:22
        RDISK test - small bugfix. - rr, 19.05.2009, 16:30
        New UIDE Available (May 27) - Rugxulo, 28.05.2009, 22:13
        New UIDE Available (June 1) - Rugxulo, 03.06.2009, 16:13
        New UIDE Available (June 9) - Rugxulo, 11.06.2009, 04:03
        New UIDE Available (June 23) - Rugxulo, 24.06.2009, 22:54
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - Paul, 16.07.2009, 23:18
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - Rugxulo, 17.07.2009, 08:50
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - roytam, 17.07.2009, 13:12
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - Paul, 18.07.2009, 21:48
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - roytam, 19.07.2009, 03:55
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - Paul, 19.07.2009, 18:44
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - roytam, 20.07.2009, 12:23
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - Paul, 21.07.2009, 23:38
        Custom RDISK Build ("RDISK-S") - Paul, 18.07.2009, 21:48