Nice idea but as it is it can't be used on Dos. Filenames and directories are max 8.3 characters on Dos and in the installation zip there are files and a directory longer then that. Also if it is for Dos use pkzip or something like that as the zip file can't be unzipped in Dos with pkunzip (zip format to new).

Thankyou for the feedback, on pure DOS the file names are displayed in 8.3 format, the program is prepared to handle them.
You can browse your partitions (for example, your CDs) with long file names, the files will be displayed in 8.3 format, and they should be accessible without an issue (unless a file contains a non-ascii character, which may not work in the DOS version).

Well I can't ftp the files/directory as is as mtcp does not like that. I did rename them to standard 8.3 format and got it working. But it's way to slow on a 486/66 with 32Mb of ram. Mouse movement is unworkable slow. Also MP3 player is hanging with loading in the statusbar. Other things like calculator, editor, viewing pictures etc work ok but also a bit to slow. Anyway, I know it's pre-alfa so will try again with a later version. Would be nice if you got the network part working. 😀

Thankyou for testing the program. I acquired a 486 motherboard with two different type of 486 processors a month ago, just for the sake of testing and optimizing this program on it. I will build it to a case, and with the help of that board, i will be able to measure which functions consume too much time, and optimize them to reach better experience when moving the mouse around. This will however not happen before winter, as when next time i will develop Xcom, i will focus on major bugs, missing features, missing hotkeys, and stability related problems instead. Once i am done with those, i will do the profiling on 486 and make it faster.

Processing a 1 minute long mp3 file will require about 2 minutes on the 486-DX66 (the processor cant do it faster) but then it should play it back without too much hickups.

The networking part - i have fully implemented it, sadly the compiler i use (DJGPP) doesnt supports networking (TCP/IP) under DOS according to the official manual, so i had to cut it out from the DOS version. Maybe there are solutions to work around this - or maybe i will use a different compiler at the end.

XcomGUI wrote on 2022-04-19, 18:59:

Thankyou for testing the program. I acquired a 486 motherboard with two different type of 486 processors a month ago, just for the sake of testing and optimizing this program on it. I will build it to a case, and with the help of that board, i will be able to measure which functions consume too much time, and optimize them to reach better experience when moving the mouse around. This will however not happen before winter, as when next time i will develop Xcom, i will focus on major bugs, missing features, missing hotkeys, and stability related problems instead. Once i am done with those, i will do the profiling on 486 and make it faster.

Processing a 1 minute long mp3 file will require about 2 minutes on the 486-DX66 (the processor cant do it faster) but then it should play it back without too much hickups.

The networking part - i have fully implemented it, sadly the compiler i use (DJGPP) doesnt supports networking (TCP/IP) under DOS according to the official manual, so i had to cut it out from the DOS version. Maybe there are solutions to work around this - or maybe i will use a different compiler at the end.

Sound good. Just one remark about MP3 files. I waited around 4 or 5 minutes but nothing happened. I can play MP3 files in Windows 3.11 almost instantly with Winplay3 on this pc. Have to use a lower bit rate of course as the CPU is not fast enough but you don't have to wait minutes with that program.

XcomGUI wrote on 2022-04-19, 18:59:

The networking part - i have fully implemented it, sadly the compiler i use (DJGPP) doesnt supports networking (TCP/IP) under DOS according to the official manual, so i had to cut it out from the DOS version. Maybe there are solutions to work around this - or maybe i will use a different compiler at the end.

Why would the compiler care about networking code?

Is it a lack of runtime features (like threading) or a problem talking to 16 bit device drivers? Or something else?

Cute stuff. Thanks for sharing!

PS
I thought it had something to do with X-com game, so maybe it's worth editing the thread name to be more relevant.

mbbrutman wrote on 2022-04-19, 20:06:

XcomGUI wrote on 2022-04-19, 18:59:

The networking part - i have fully implemented it, sadly the compiler i use (DJGPP) doesnt supports networking (TCP/IP) under DOS according to the official manual, so i had to cut it out from the DOS version. Maybe there are solutions to work around this - or maybe i will use a different compiler at the end.

Why would the compiler care about networking code?

Is it a lack of runtime features (like threading) or a problem talking to 16 bit device drivers? Or something else?

All of these. There are not even the headers and libraries for it are present on dos/djgpp. They did the support for win 3.1, but removed it since. It looks like that, but dos doesn't reallay supports networking at all - the network card drivers providing implementations to very obscure, long-gone standards in some cases with third-party tsrs or tools only.

HOWEVER, there is one exception i have found after thinking on it, a protocol that might still could be usable today. Which have more or less standardized interfaces offered by network drivers, and can be used by DOS programs. Its called IPX. The problem is, the last time i heard about IPX was in 1999, and since then, langoliers ate everything about the protocol. I dont even remember how it was worked. I dont even seem to find usable documents about it (at least a list of interrupts how to open a connection and send the data) but i am sure it exists somewhere, and i could put the file sending and receiving code on top of it relatively easily. I am not sure modern routers still support IPX, probably not, so direct connection between the two computers would be needed with a network cable.

Yoghoo wrote on 2022-04-19, 19:17:

Sound good. Just one remark about MP3 files. I waited around 4 or 5 minutes but nothing happened. I can play MP3 files in Windows 3.11 almost instantly with Winplay3 on this pc. Have to use a lower bit rate of course as the CPU is not fast enough but you don't have to wait minutes with that program.

I have remembered i have a socket7 200 mhz system built together, and i quickly tested Xcom on it, to see what it does.
It worked without problem, mp3 opened like within 5 second, mouse moved smoothly.

When we compare the performance of the 486 to the performance to this, your 486 was more than proportionally slower compared to the results i got on my socket7 system. This means i have some strange speed hogs on places i didnt expected to be. And indeed i found some problems even in the mouse and keyboard handler itself (which more data it accumulated, slower it got, as it moved multiple 10 kbytes of data for no reason both for the interface code and applet code). There is another problem when i interface with the frame buffer, a few extra unneeded kbyte/sec is wasted there as well. There is a lot of wasting going on, this has to contribute to the tragic experience you got. I havent noticed these, as on a more modern few 100 mhz processors, these are totally unnoticeable, but on a 486 they will kill the caching and they will hog the speed to some notable extent. I think i will maybe get an extra fps from fixing this up. Once i will set up the 486 after a few months, when i will have time for it, i will see where else the program loses the speed. I hope i could bring one or two extra frame per sec in the next release, so it will be more usable at least on faster 486 processors.

I have updated the software to address some of the bugs.

-DOS vesion mistakenly attempted to enter CPU energy saving mode.
-Crtl+Left mouse click (when selecting icons) is now implemented.
-Shift+Left mouse click (when selecting icons) is now implemented.
-Icons and text bugs on desktop was fixed when refreshing desktop.
-Some special keys were mistakeny mapped to legitimate unicode letters.
-Alt+Space menu has been implemented.
-Directional cursor sometimes hang when using right-click menus.
-Disk drive lookup on DOS is now implemented properly.
-When copying from/to floppy, the copy process hogs the system less.
-Copying files became generally faster.
-Moving files were sometimes mistakenly displayed as a copying process.
-File name and date issues fixed when browsing some type of directories.
-Selecting files are more snappy now.
-Left ALT key now behaves more like its intended.

2022, aug 10. - Bugfixes and new graphics modes

-Enabled virtual keyboard
-Fixed a problem with typematic delay
-The chess is now playable with a keyboard.
-Added 1 bit black and white mode for non-SVGA cards
(requires at least 64 KByte video memory)
-Fixed a crash when pressing hotkeys in iconless windows.
-Fixed a bug when error messages only reacted to mouse, but
not reacted to any keypress.
-BAT files were refusing to execute on a DOS system.
-From now on, X.COM will be compiled with older DJGPP.
This allows -O3 compilation to work, which gives some extra speed.
-X.COM is now compiled for 486 processors.
For 386, you can continue using x386.com.

This looks ace, but I think you'd have greater success in reaching audiences under a different name. X-Com is one of the most highly acclaimed DOS games to ever release!

Garrett W wrote on 2022-08-09, 09:17:

This looks ace, but I think you'd have greater success in reaching audiences under a different name. X-Com is one of the most highly acclaimed DOS games to ever release!

Thankyou. I havent heard about x-com prior to the release of this program. Its not related to the game. I have a strong reason why it is called like this, which will explain itself once i reach beta version.

Garrett W wrote on 2022-08-09, 09:17:

This looks ace, but I think you'd have greater success in reaching audiences under a different name. X-Com is one of the most highly acclaimed DOS games to ever release!

Also, XCOM without the hyphen is the more modern series based on the original games. The author of this software is going to have some major search engine issues.

Might I suggest a name change to W.COM?

I think it looks pretty cool, thanks for the heads up

Why can't folk differentiate X-Com and XCOM? Are they thick or summit?

MarkP wrote on 2022-08-24, 23:01:

Why can't folk differentiate X-Com and XCOM? Are they thick or summit?

Because:

2022, dec 01. - New features, and bugfix

-Increased rendering speed by 20%
-Increased text rendering speed when using long lines
-Selecting text on the left edge behaved strangely.
-Terminal now supports colored text output.
-Terminal can limit the number of lines to preserve memory.
-Memory garbage fixed when typing a lot of text, and the fps was low.
-Fixed a crash in the console.
-The terminal preserves the text on the screen on return.
-Increased the rendering speed of colored text.
-Internal programs failed to open complex file paths in some situations.
-File name text field is now properly scissored, when opening and saving files.
-Fixed a bug which sometimes started to select files when
opening programs with double click.
-Added C syntax highlight in the editor.
-Added some basic HTML syntax highlight in the editor.
-Fixed a bug causing hanging lines when rolling sideways in the text editor.
-Fixed a bug with sideways scroll bars.
-Line length truncation is added to the text editor when opening files.
-Text editor scroll bar vibration is fixed.
-Terminal now rolls upwards and downwards on mouse selection.
-Terminal stability issues when deleting texts are fixed.
-Missing prompt issue fixed in terminal in some cases.
-Keyboard now focuses on the opening file assignation window by default.