I don't use DOSBOX for games

Then nobody cares, and be happy that you don't have to pay for it.

I am, of course, very happy that it is a free application, and a great one, as I have said.

I take it your answer to my question is 'no'?

It's not planned, right.

Thank you for the clarification.

Outside of some of the embedded or industrial specialty DOS applications I don't really get the appeal of old DOS apps. Most have modern Windows/Linux versions that are most likely far better than their old DOS counterparts. Old classic DOS games are a different beast. There are far more differences between old and new games than just graphics/interface/features.

collector wrote:

Outside of some of the embedded or industrial specialty DOS applications I don't really get the appeal of old DOS apps. Most have modern Windows/Linux versions that are most likely far better than their old DOS counterparts. Old classic DOS games are a different beast. There are far more differences between old and new games than just graphics/interface/features.

Yeah...most new games are boring as hell but filled with eye candy and selling points for Havok, PhysX, et al 😜 (though, I've been sold to Euphoria...I do like that thing), maybe fun is now an obsolete feature 😜
That complaint aside, there's also a THEORETHICAL HAL (if it was real...there wouldn't be so much problems when switching from ATI to NVidia or the other way around with certain games...)
Anyway, isn't the whole point of freedos to cater to people that need such specific things?

To 'wd' and 'collector'

DOSBOX with (of course) real printing facilities can be seen as a universal embedded OS environnement

As Java or the .NET platform

You can develop for this platform with very simple and free tools like Turbo Pascal.

For your information, i continue to update - and sell - new versions of my dos softwares (see http://www.milec.com).

DOSBOX is already a fantastic application, it become the only practical way to run DOS software on all future versions of Windows.

Why refusing to be more universal and to see anything else than games ?

That's why forks exists.

DOSBox team decided that they want a project to play DOS games in modern computers, and they've done an impressive work. The fact that DOSBox can execute Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and DOS applications is a plus they didn't look for.

There are alternatives for applications: you may use FreeDOS, dosemu, VMWare, Virtualbox, qemu, bochs... those alternatives may be more suitable.

Also, you may email Microsoft and tell them why they are "refusing to be more universal" and ask them to give support to 16 bits executables in Windows. You've paid for your Windows OS, so they're supposed to give you technical support.

ddfan wrote:

Why refusing to be more universal and to see anything else than games ?

Why refusing to be more universal and still code for DOS when modern OS's don't support it natively?

Don't blame DOSBox for your own laziness.

DOSBOX with (of course) real printing facilities can be seen as a universal embedded OS environnement

Plain speaking this is an extraordinarily stupid assumption. An emulator that
doesn't give any guarantee about fpu correctness (besides in 90% the cases
it gives a close-enough feeling for GAMES) is NOT any sort of "universal"
embedded OS environment. Printing on or off doesn't change that.

If you feel like running your business app in dosbox, go ahead but don't be
surprised if your nice printouts have hidden errors ranging from 10^-10 to 10^10
which is YOUR problem to explain to your customers or wherever you're using it.

And no, a fork won't change this.

@wd

For legacy applications like basic invoice, general ledger, payroll softwares whose usage simplicity and reliability is crucial for the user (not as 'games') you do not need to use and thus to pay for the 'usage cost' of such enormous pieces of software that modern operating systems are now

Imagine that your job is to repair cars and that you are not a 'geek': 'fpu correctness', what is that !!!!!

Beleieve me, there is a need (but unfortunately, for the moment, not a very high demand) for such applications...

Most big, modern general ledger sofwares using last up-to-date technologies are bugged despite the fact that general ledged programs where the most ancient business application ever installed on computers (computers where invented for it)

Sorry for my bad english...

Imagine that your job is to repair cars and that you are not a 'geek': 'fpu correctness', what is that !!!!!

That's EXACTLY why you are told to NOT use it for anything else than games.
If you don't know what you're doing, don't do it. If you know nothing about cars
and somebody tells you that this car shouldn't be used to drive on an official road,
for hell's sake DON'T DO IT.

@ddfan: "no guarantee for FPU correctness" means "it might or it might not do the math correctly". It might, simply, calculate false dollar amounts.

It might even work 99.9% of the time and then be slightly wrong, or quite wrong, the next time. Which will be a problem when you're dealing with real money, real contracts, real lawyers, etc.

For very geeky-nerdy-technical reasons, your chances in this area will probably be better with the standard 32-bit x86 version of DOSbox and core=dynamic, but still there is no guarantee.

Note: I am not a DOSBox developer, and I'm not a lawyer at all, so don't take my word for this.

Do you a screwdriver to hammer in a nail?

Plain and simple, Dosbox is not the right tool for your particular use. It may work to some degree, but the authors have repeatedly stated their intent and direction with the code, and it's not what you are doing.

There are a variety of free, even open source, implementations of highly accurate full simulations of earlier generation hardware (Bochs, VirtualBox, etc). These platforms are intended to run exactly your kind of apps. You should probably use them.

-Frob

@Tearex

Thank you for your 'comprehensive' reply

I do not really need FPU correctness because all calculus (+, -, *, /) are on large integers (48 bits), Real numbers are never used.

@all

I must say that all my printing problems (even with USB only printers) seem now 100% solved using the MB5 version.

Big thanks to all DOSBOX developpers (particularly 'h-a-l-9000') for their great job.

ddfan wrote:

@Tearex

Thank you for your 'comprehensive' reply

I'm sorry you didn't find it comprehensive. What else should I have written?

I do not really need FPU correctness because all calculus (+, -, *, /) are on large integers (48 bits), Real numbers are never used.

Did you analyze the assembly code? Are you sure it doesn't use FPU instructions? Remember the x86 is a 32-bit machine in its integer units, integers larger than that are handled through the FPU in some programs, since that is easier than using two 32-bit values per integer and having to do stuff like carry, large multiplication factor handling etc. in your own code.

Still, my belly tells me that the chance of FPU screw-ups in DOSBox is probably much lower as long as it is only used for integer stuff up to 53 bits. I can't quite be sure though.

The fpu has integer functionality as well, and certain compilers as well as
currency-aware applications use that (some like to format their output using
the fpu), but any way there's nothing to argue about. If somebody thinks it's
safe he shall know that it's not but any complaints about fucked up stats that
are or are not immediately visible are not our problem. Have fun printing them!