I suggest implementing MouseKeys functionality for FreeDOS.
I.e. Give FreeDOS the ability to input mouse movements, clicks, and
drags via the keyboard.
MouseKeys (as it is known in the Windows and Linux
environments) functionality is essential on many old PCs - because a
mouse won't work on those PCs. Add to that the fact that many old
programs won't work without a mouse.
(Some pgms claim to work without a mouse by providing a
"keyboard only" mode. And, in many cases, 90%+ of the pgm *does*
work via a keyboard. But, when even one essential function does not
work via a keyboard, the pgm becomes unusable. "Master of Orion"
(MoO) and "1830" are two examples of that. E.g. can anyone tell me
how to place a tile via the keyboard in 1830?
)
Because FreeDOS lacks MouseKeys functionality (and because my
PCs are old (and no longer reliably support mice)), I had to stop
using many old programs for many years. Then I found DOSBox on
Linux. Joy.
MouseKeys let me use the keyboard to input mouse movements,
clicks, drags, etc. And DOSBox let me run DOS pgms. So I could
play 1830 and MoO again. Even Win3.11 works (though the X-axis
mouse coordinates seem to be doubled).
Sadly, none of that helps DOS users. And I often read in the
FreeDOS lists about users having problems getting USB mice to work
with FreeDOS on some PCs. That may force FreeDOS users to try to
use other types of mice.
But PCs with serial ports, PS/2 mouse ports, or dedicated mouse
ports seem to become scarcer every year. MouseKeys functionality
for FreeDOS would circumvent many of these problems.
I posted about this issue here in Nov 2007. ATT, CTMOUSE and
ADOS12 together seemed to *almost* provide MouseKeys functionality;
but CTMOUSE would not load in Microsoft Mouse or PS/2 mode unless an
actual mouse was connected to the PC. And, IIRC, ADOS12 did not
work unless a mouse driver (in Microsoft Mouse mode) was already loaded.
Now, almost 7 years later, AFAICS, nothing has changed. IIRC,
a few years ago, I even downloaded the latest 2 or 3 versions of
CTMOUSE that I could find (1.91?, 2.0?, and 2.1b4?) to see if one of
them would do what I needed. They didn't.
To be fair, IIRC, Eric Auer did send a direct email reply to me
about the CTMOUSE issue shortly after my posts in that thread. But,
unfortunately, I did not see that reply until ~2 years later -
because it did not get filtered into any of my FreeDOS mailing list
folders. I finally found Eric's old reply when I was cleaning the
files off an old hdd.
IIRC, in that email, Eric suggested some tests that I could do
to further isolate the cause of the problem. IIRC, I eventually did
those tests, but they did not yield any additional useful info
(AFAICS). So I didn't bother to post a reply to a 2+ year old
email. So, Eric, I apologize for not replying to that email.
To sum up, if you are looking for a project that will enhance
FreeDOS's usefulness, I suggest MouseKeys. You may not even have to
implement MouseKeys from scratch. It may be that, between CTMOUSE
and ADOS12, 75% or more of the work is already done.
--
Eddie
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