Re: [Freedos-devel] Fastest way to start programming for DOS

[Jim Hall]

Depends on what programming languages you already know. From your email,
it's been a while since you did any programming in anything other than Qt
designer.

You could learn C. For me, that's not a bad intro programming language -
but I probably say that because I am self-taught in C so it doesn't seem
that hard to me. You can do a lot of great programs in C without stretching
yourself too far.

If you have some familiarity with other programming languages, also try the
FreeBASIC compiler, or the FreePascal compiler. Depending on your
background, those might be easier to write new programs.

Jim

On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 4:18 AM Michal Kochman 
wrote:

> Hi,
> Recently I have installed freeDOS on 20yrs old PC with the idea of
> letting my now 2yrs old nephew play the "games of my childhood" (word
> rescue etc.) when the time will be right. However, he loves to find
> letters on the keyboard right now - "M for Mum", "D for Dad" etc. So I
> am thinking of writing a simple program which would display a photo and
> waited for the right key. I have never before worked with DOS, it's been
> a while since I wrote in anything else than Qt designer...
> What's the best way to achieve this, is there some nice crosscompilation
> chain to use? What aproach would you suggest?
> Thx.
>
>
>
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Re: [Freedos-devel] Fastest way to start programming for DOS

[David McMackins]

There really isn't going to be anything Qt-like for DOS. Qt is built around the 
existence of a display server which isn't really a concept in DOS. 
Theoretically it could be done in protected mode, but I don't know of anything 
that does this.

Your best bet is going to be C or C++ and just do some basic graphics 
programming. If your machine is 20 years old, it most certainly has VGA 
available which is pretty easy to program for in plain old C. It'll be a good 
learning opportunity for you, since it seems like you have yet to dip your feet 
into low level development.


Regards,

David E. McMackins II
www.mcmackins.org www.delwink.com

On 4/12/20 12:45 PM, Michal Kochman wrote:
> Thank you for your answers, I really do.
> I started coding the same functionality for Ubuntu in QtCreatotr with Qt 
> libraries, just to clarify what exactly I want 
> (https://github.com/MichalKochman/pictureGame). My sister saw it and was 
> quite excited, so I'm gonna firstly finish a little different version (so I 
> am afraid that as soon as the second commit I will be in a territory I would 
> not even think to attempt for freeDOS) there for any ubuntu/windows PC and 
> then I will reconsider my freeDOS dream. Have anyone ever tried to 
> crosscompile in Qt with Qt libraries for DOS? I would probably end with 
> bigger app than the whole OS, but I am a lazy guy and if it would work for a 
> while I would be OK with it. :D :D
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [Freedos-devel] Fastest way to start programming for DOS

[Michal Kochman]

Thank you for your answers, I really do.
I started coding the same functionality for Ubuntu in QtCreatotr with Qt 
libraries, just to clarify what exactly I want 
(https://github.com/MichalKochman/pictureGame). My sister saw it and was 
quite excited, so I'm gonna firstly finish a little different version 
(so I am afraid that as soon as the second commit I will be in a 
territory I would not even think to attempt for freeDOS) there for any 
ubuntu/windows PC and then I will reconsider my freeDOS dream. Have 
anyone ever tried to crosscompile in Qt with Qt libraries for DOS? I 
would probably end with bigger app than the whole OS, but I am a lazy 
guy and if it would work for a while I would be OK with it. :D :D




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Re: [Freedos-devel] Fastest way to start programming for DOS

[Eric Auer]

Hi!

> That will be my point too. Problem on developing for DOS is usually
> you are not allow to debug, unless in DOS. Exception is OpenWatcom,
> which will be my choice.

What do you mean by that? You can debug everything everywhere,
but if you have cross-compiled a DOS program using a compiler
for Linux or Windows, you will of course need DOS, for example
in a dosbox, dosemu or virtual machine window, to try it out :-)

Eric



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Re: [Freedos-devel] Fastest way to start programming for DOS

[Guti]

That will be my point too. Problem on developing for DOS is usually you are not 
allow to debug, unless in DOS. Exception is OpenWatcom, which will be my choice.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Remitente:Robert Riebisch 
Destinatario: freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net 

Fecha:domingo, 12 de abril de 2020, 17:31:00
Asunto:   [Freedos-devel] Fastest way to start programming for DOS
Archivos: 
--===--
Hi Michal,

> Recently I have installed freeDOS on 20yrs old PC with the idea of 
> letting my now 2yrs old nephew play the "games of my childhood" (word 
> rescue etc.) when the time will be right. However, he loves to find 
> letters on the keyboard right now - "M for Mum", "D for Dad" etc. So I 
> am thinking of writing a simple program which would display a photo and 
> waited for the right key. I have never before worked with DOS, it's been 
> a while since I wrote in anything else than Qt designer...
> What's the best way to achieve this, is there some nice crosscompilation 
> chain to use? What aproach would you suggest?

I didn't try myself, but maybe you want to have a look at
.

Author SuperIlu writes:
###
It is basically a DOS/Javascript version of Processing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processing_(programming_language)
https://processing.org/

Processing (and p5js) is a system to create electronic art,
visualizations, etc.
You write a (short) programm called a "sketch" which creates a visual
effect.
###

Cheers,
Robert
-- 
  +++ BTTR Software +++
 Home page: https://www.bttr-software.de/
DOS ain't dead: https://www.bttr-software.de/forum/


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Re: [Freedos-devel] Fastest way to start programming for DOS

[Robert Riebisch]

Hi Michal,

> Recently I have installed freeDOS on 20yrs old PC with the idea of 
> letting my now 2yrs old nephew play the "games of my childhood" (word 
> rescue etc.) when the time will be right. However, he loves to find 
> letters on the keyboard right now - "M for Mum", "D for Dad" etc. So I 
> am thinking of writing a simple program which would display a photo and 
> waited for the right key. I have never before worked with DOS, it's been 
> a while since I wrote in anything else than Qt designer...
> What's the best way to achieve this, is there some nice crosscompilation 
> chain to use? What aproach would you suggest?

I didn't try myself, but maybe you want to have a look at
.

Author SuperIlu writes:
###
It is basically a DOS/Javascript version of Processing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processing_(programming_language)
https://processing.org/

Processing (and p5js) is a system to create electronic art,
visualizations, etc.
You write a (short) programm called a "sketch" which creates a visual
effect.
###

Cheers,
Robert
-- 
  +++ BTTR Software +++
 Home page: https://www.bttr-software.de/
DOS ain't dead: https://www.bttr-software.de/forum/


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Re: [Freedos-devel] Fastest way to start programming for DOS

[Rugxulo]

Hi,

On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 4:18 AM Michal Kochman  wrote:
>
> So I am thinking of writing a simple program which would display a photo and
> waited for the right key.
>
> What's the best way to achieve this, is there some nice crosscompilation
> chain to use? What aproach would you suggest?

The obvious choices are all based upon similar GNU tools:

1). FreeBASIC (which has partial lang QB compatibility among better
FBLITE and FB dialects)
* https://sourceforge.net/projects/fbc/files/
* https://freebasic.net/forum/
* http://games.freebasic.net/

2). Free Pascal (which has almost full mode TP compatibility, plus
obligatory newer Delphi)
* https://www.freepascal.org/
* https://www.lazarus-ide.org/

3). DJGPP (standard C and C++), Allegro 4.x is old but still works
* http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/
* http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/getting.html
* https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/comp.os.msdos.djgpp
* https://github.com/andrewwutw/build-djgpp/releases (N.B.
MinGW-hosted cross-GCC 7.2.0 standalone)
* https://liballeg.org/
* https://www.allegro.cc/

I wish it was simpler, but things are quite a mess! Quite fractured,
lots of legacy (abandoned) code, some things may not fully work
without some elbow grease, etc.
Still, it can be quite fun and rewarding! Good luck!


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Re: [Freedos-devel] Fastest way to start programming for DOS

[Eric Auer]

Hi Michal,

as you mention crosscompilation: DJGPP is a DOS version of GNU C,
but of course the big question is which programming languages you
speak and how much effort you want to put in the graphics. From a
low level perspective, switching to 320x200 MCGA mode (256 color,
default or custom palette) would be an easy option to display the
photos as you can access the screen as 320x200 byte array at some
easy-to-reach fixed memory address with basically all compilers,
including all classic 16-bit ones :-) Of course you could also go
for various graphics or GUI libraries for which DOS ports exist,
but that feels really bloated given the description of your plan.

Cheers, Eric



> Hi,
> Recently I have installed freeDOS on 20yrs old PC with the idea of
> letting my now 2yrs old nephew play the "games of my childhood" (word
> rescue etc.) when the time will be right. However, he loves to find
> letters on the keyboard right now - "M for Mum", "D for Dad" etc. So I
> am thinking of writing a simple program which would display a photo and
> waited for the right key. I have never before worked with DOS, it's been
> a while since I wrote in anything else than Qt designer...
> What's the best way to achieve this, is there some nice crosscompilation
> chain to use? What aproach would you suggest?
> Thx.





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