On Sat, 13 Jan 2001 10:31:21 +0000, Howard Schwartz wrote:
> There are a fair number of programs (e.g., arachne) and a few development
> libraries that will run a perfectly fine GUI environment directly from
> DOS. Of course, there are few programs that have been ported to the
> newer DOS gui environments.
There's no reason dos can run a gui. DR-DOS comes with a gui file
manager and app launcher if you want to use it, windoz like icons,
the whole 9 yards.
DR-DOS can also task switch, with virtual dos machines which work
to the user just like a mickysloth multi-tasker.
Phar Lap and similar tools can provide a 32 bit address space if
an application needs it, and can be launched from a 16 bit os CLI.
But if not, 16 bit really runs fast on pretty mediocre hardware.
Windoz was once advertised because it could run a fax in the background.
You can do that with dos if you want. but hardware is so much cheaper
these days, it makes more sense to setup a cheap fax server, and not
complicate the operating system with trying to handle the com port
interrupts while trying to serve keyboard and mouse commands.
There is the expectation of home networks. Again it makes more sense
to have a cheap server on the net (and hence vulnerable to lightning,
net crashes, and hack attacks), and leave your personal system with
private data on a _personal_ computer. With additional personal
systems for the kids so that some game crash does not overwrite your
critical personal or business records.
Which means that your _personal_ computer is only doing what you tell
it, when you tell it, and dont need to be a _multi_tasking_ OS doing
stuff you dont know about to your .INI files.
DOS may only do one thing; but it doe it well, and it dont do what
you dont tell it to. A personal firewall.
All this suggests to me that the true functionality of dos will have
it around for a long time, with software continually developed for it.
uncopywritten- do what you will with it.
-- Arachne V1.68, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/
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