First post, by DOSferatu
So, it's me again - with a little request to the DOSBox developers:
(No, it's nothing about a bug or malfunction or such this time...)
Oh, and, just to mention: Yes, I'm totally aware of DOSBox being in the first place NOT to execute some crappy own-written tools by some ancient coders... - but to run DOS games... - Yeah, I know, I know...
1st:
It would be nice if there would be an option (in the dosbox.conf) to "overtake" (is that the proper English phrase? "copy"? "adopt"?) the current settings of CAPS-LOCK/SCROLL-LOCK/NUM-LOCK from the host system - or, additionally, even if the CTRL/ALT/SHIFT are pressed when started.
I know: It has NOTHING to do with the "real thing", because when DOS/"BIOS" boots, it boots with all keys/"LEDs" "OFF"(and would scold the user if keys were pressed down).
So, if this feature would "tear down reality", then at least the NUM-LOCK key could get "overtaken" from the host system - because there IS a BIOS option in ALL systems (the ones I saw), to "switch NUM-LOCK ON or OFF at boot". So, this would be a nice feature.
I know, it's "feature creep" and I know there are other, more important issues for the developers of DOSBox.
Explanation: To use my own-written stuff even on Windows-Systems above WinXP32, I use it with DOSbox and some kind of odd constructions around it, to be even able to start them with a click onto an icon. Some of them have multiple "modes" to operate and it's an easy way to just activate CAPS/SCROLL/NUM or hold SHIFT down when start a program, without getting a prompt asking something...
In WinXP it's no problem: ALL my tools run there on the real system (yes, I know, they start that NTVDM thing...) - Because after Win98 the guys at Microsoft (unfortunately) discarded some useful INT 2Fh options, e.g. the one to use the "Windows Clipboard" (read/write), so one of my pals (who codes in Visual Basic 6) wrote some tool which writes it (the clipboard's content) into a temporary text file, so it can be used as a "crutch"... So, my tools can auto-edit some copied text... e.g. when downloading files, to fix crappy filenames or to auto-increment numbers in filenames... - or whatever...
(Some of my tools automatically find in texts numeric values given in "imperial" formats (even if the numbers are written in words) and converts then into "metric" formats - so, when I use these texts after then in google translator (or better deepl translator), then the values are as "german" as the translated text...)
Yeah, one could say: Then why not coding in Windows instead? - Well, I tried it (something in Visual Basic 6), but it's THAT UTTERLY unsexy... All that cumbersome things you've to do in modern "high languages", even if knowing it would be just two or three assembly opcodes to do the same... - woah, that sucks...
2nd:
My second request is even more brazen:
It would be a nice feature, if someone could simply take a 16-bit (DOS) .EXE and "drag-and-drop" it onto the DOSBox icon and DOSBox would execute it and then quit. Maybe there is such an option/feature already - and I'm just too stupid to find it or to figure out on how to use it.
The second-and-a-half - even cooler - idea would be if there was a way to "hook up" that Windows' error window (which - not exactly with these words - says: "I'm Windows and since CPUs are now 64bit and intel/AMD (for sole economical instead of technical reasons) decided to use artificial obsoletion in 64bit mode, I'm too stupid now to run 16bit software anymore") ... erm... so, to hook-up this and redirect it to run DOSBox instead and run that 16bit stuff in DOSBox...?
Well, I know: It's not a matters of you (the DOSBox developers) and it would have to be done outside of DOSbox... - and furthermore it's "MS-Windows-specific" stuff and has nothing to do with other OS' - but maybe there is some kind of this stuff already around and I'm just too daft to find it yet?
Or, if DOSBox is already running and someone is trying to start some 16-Bit stuff, - to immediately "catch" this attempt and take it over? - Well, yeah, I know: Modern OS are just too "nailed up" to allow doing any cool things anymore - just because some hackers/crackers out there doing uncool things - so, using (and coding) in modern systems is that unsexy: No connection to the real metal anymore - just being an unimportant layer of code instead, laying on a 10-layers mattress of abstraction layers, which ALL cost space, performance (and coolness)...