There's... not really a whole lot of stuff left to do in terms of DOS utilities. Not to mention if you're looking for practical experience, coding for DOS isn't going to cut it anymore. You'll gain syntax experience for sure, but nothing in terms of working with the operating systems in place or in terms of things like TCP/IP networking or such. Heck, some of the things you have to worry about when writing DOS code are obsolete by today's standards, such as allocating near and far memory pointers.

If you're going to code for DOS, do it for fun, not for any practical reasons, and just code something you yourself would want to have. There may be some other people who'd enjoy what you make too, but do it because it's something you want, not because it's something everyone else wants.

Otherwise, if you're looking at programming as a career potential, stick with modern operating systems and coding languages/environments.

I always thought a DOS cataloguing utility would be nice. Something where I could enter data and a brief description to keep track of all my books. Also an additional stipulation would be that it has to run on a PCjr which has a 4.77mhz 8088 cpu and 640k ram.

I was specially happy with myself because everyone disliked pointers so much and i absolutely love them, and my program uses them extensively. I

That's pretty funny. It seems like most people always struggle with pointers but I picked them up pretty quick.
Anyway, if there is something needed, it will probably end up being something you need yourself

King_Corduroy wrote:

I always thought a DOS cataloguing utility would be nice. Something where I could enter data and a brief description to keep track of all my books. Also an additional stipulation would be that it has to run on a PCjr which has a 4.77mhz 8088 cpu and 640k ram.

I could do that. Problem is that i don't own a PCjr and i would have to use an emulator. But thanks for the idea.

Gemini000 wrote:

If you're going to code for DOS, do it for fun, not for any practical reasons, and just code something you yourself would want to have. There may be some other people who'd enjoy what you make too, but do it because it's something you want, not because it's something everyone else wants.

Otherwise, if you're looking at programming as a career potential, stick with modern operating systems and coding languages/environments.

The whole idea was doing it for fun, but at the same time to do something that would be somewhat useful so to speak. I would probably stick with C and i can't do any x86 assembly. Far too complicated for me.

Maybe consider command-line Unix stuff instead of just DOS? Unix and C/C++ go together like peas and carrots.

That will certainly open up more job opportunities. I mean, do the DOS stuff if you like but it is not going to be marketable.

As far as your motivation, it sounds like you have it but maybe you've just hit a slump. It seems like you have a real passion for it, and everyone has to start somewhere. Don't let the lack of credentials stop you, programming is one of the few areas where what you can do matters more. Granted, you will face an uphill battle but you can still make your own way.

Oh and if you want to do a DOS app, what about a spreadsheet? Or DOS screensaver? Or you could do a day planner type app.

snorg wrote:

Maybe consider command-line Unix stuff instead of just DOS? Unix and C/C++ go together like peas and carrots.

Many or most DOS programs are developed in C

how about vb.net (just remembered there is also c++.net)
you can create cli applications with it plus if you do decide to do gui programing its easy everything is visual want a scollbar drag one onto your form
a cli hello world program (in vb.net)

Module Module1

Sub Main()
' The classic "Hello World" demonstration program
Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!")
End Sub

End Module

plus its free
http://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/downloa … nloadFamilies_4

If i start to learn a new language the choice is gonna be C#.

The full version of Visual Studio 2013 was recently released as "freeware", check out the Community edition.
If you're going VS then have a look at C# too. I think it's pretty awesome.

One reason to shy away from C# is poor portability

smeezekitty wrote:

One reason to shy away from C# is poor portability

True. That said i fuckin' hate Java. I admit Java is awesome for OOP but i hate its syntax. Verbose piece of crap.

There are lots of different types of code that one can get paid to write. I've been paid to write Java, C++ for the internals of an operating system, C++ for firmware, a little FORTRAN, assembler, etc. And then I write code at home for DOS.

To me, writing code for DOS is very similar to writing code in an embedded environment. A real embedded environment, not one where you are given Linux as a base. When you write for DOS you get full control of the machine and its resources. Which means that anything that if anything goes wrong, it was your fault. It is a challenging environment to debug in too.

You are not going to get a paying job with DOS projects on your resume. But the skills that you use doing DOS projects certainly are usable elsewhere. So yes, do a DOS project for fun. But think of it as general brain training.

I don't have a suggestion for a specific utility to write. I write DOS networking utilities (mTCP) for my projects. (Somebody earlier said you would be missing out on TCP/IP - I beg to differ.) The best projects are those that people think are crazy; there is where you have to be clever and really stretch the brain.

Graphics card speed benchmark that will work on vga cards as well as cga/ega/hercules cards so we can compare them. That would ofc require different program settings. Only one i found is Diag which can do these tests, but nowhere any info what these results mean.
So benchmark with basic settings working on all cards except text only MDA - if you separate tests then it could be run even on MDA (text speed + basic color tests for all cards - emulating basic games, something like 3dbench - could be 2d) and advanced tests for vga and never cards (256colors, hi color, higher resolutions). best will be with ability to write results to txt file.

Disk image mounter?

Skoynay wrote:

Disk image mounter?

That's a good idea for a DOS tool. Would cerainly be very useful. Probably too hard for me.

Disk image mounter gets my upvote! No idea how that's done though. Maybe you could take a RAMdrive program (like RDISK) as example?

There must be a reason why one is not readily available for DOS. My bets are on difficult

There's one here
Active@ Disk Image 2.1 for DOS
http://lsoft.net/diskimage.aspx