2023, jan 25. - Compression, decompression, bugfix

-Added support for file compression
-Added support for file decompression
-Currently, 7z, zip, arj, rar is supported.
-You must download and install the compressor program separately, as Xcom doesn't have the compressor built in.
Be sure to insert the compressor and decompressor programs in the PATH.
Infozip (zip232x.zip) and unz552x3 are tested and recommended as a compression/decompression program.
-Switching the drive letter now works properly in the terminal.
-Fixed a graphics glitch when opening the exit menu from the start menu.
-File finder now opens properly from the start menu.
-Removed non-working legacy elements from the menu.
-Changed the width of the right-click menu.
-Upper-case dos style CD command now works in the terminal.

2023, feb 01. - Hotfix release

-When running programs from file browser, the system will properly change the working directory
according to the path of the executable file. (Bug reported by Plasma.)
-Fine-tuned the ALU and FPU benchmarking in the Infoformation panel, which will be more accurate from now on.
-Fixed a bug when pressing buttons on a minimized window - button push events will not be sent.

2023, march 01. - Big updates

-Left side panel with directory tree structure is now finally implemented and working.
-The GUI system displays the changes in real time, when moving, copying, deleting files and directories around.
-Fixed a bug resulting crash, when pressing cursor keys when the software was loading.
-Image preview sizes are now limited by the RAM size.
-Fixed a bug when pressing cursor keys when the software was loading.
-Fixed a bug when displaying long files names with international letters.
-Directory side panel can be toggled on and off.
-Disk drives can be unmounted and ejected (not in the DOS version).
-Fixed missing icon styles when browsing My Computer.
-Fixed several bugs resulting accidental directory selection.
-Fixed a bug that resulted the file explorer to update even when it shouldn't.
-Fixed a performance related bug when reading large directories from DVD drives. The system now stays more responsive than before.
-The system will now poll for new drives less frequently.
-The preview engine will not engage until a copy to the given directory finishes.
-Added support to detach and eject the disks (not under DOS).
-Fixed a bug causing the preview engine to accidentally activate when selecting files.
-When reading or writing to floppy disk, the system will use smaller data chunks.
-Better detection of auto-opening files with known extensions.
-The program will automatically ask for a program to open files with unknown extensions.
-Directory display area resizer now reacts faster.

wow, this looks incredibly cool, I will have to try it out sometime soon

2023, sept 01. - Translations and bugfixes

-10% faster rendering speed
-Added new EGA and Hercules code
-Clearing tree information from memory when explorer process exits.
-Fixed stability issues when reading ini file at start
-GUI password protection is implemented, and can be enabled.
-Multi-language update: translations are now possible.
Error message translation system is not yet added - it will be added later.
-Added Hungarian language.
-Added a new wallpaper (public domain).
-Fixed the hang of wallpaper slideshow if bad image file was opened.
-Fixed the hang of slideshow in image viewer, if bad image file was opened.
-Open Recent menu is fixed and working.
-Terminal will remember old commands (left cursor key).
-Per-application level sond volume control bugs fixed.
-Screen locking functionality was missing in start menu.
-Fixed a bug causing crash when opening blank file in file browser.
-Ethernet and wifi management implemented (dusabled under DOS)
-Missing escape key functionality implemented in file browser.
-System configuration applet was missing from start menu.
-Performance is increased, when files are ordered by name.
-Bug fixed: file dates in a specific line were flickering in the file explorer sometimes.
-Auto-reordering implemented, when clicking on a window that has an active file browser subwindow.
-File browser implemented for directories.
-Fixed some memory garbage when saving configuration ini file in DOS mode.

Screenshot: xcom running in Hercules mode.

I've opened this topic to see what it will be about X-COM (DOS game) and... surprise. Some new "DOS-shell-ish" fancy environment with nice GUI 😀 Very cool project!

I hope you'll manage to implement working networking support for DOS version soon. I'm downloading current version to try it tomorrow on my old K6-233 and maybe even on my oldest 386SX-40 machine.

P.S. Couldn't resist to try it out under DOSBox. Xcom reminds me on something like Win3.x with Win95 interface or even KolibriOS 😁 Very nice!

Update: I've tried Xcom on a real hardware (AMD K6-233, 128 MB SDRAM) with DOS 7.10 (the one with Win98SE) and it works just fine.

Some remarks:
1. The "windows key" doesn't open "start menu".

2. I managed to "break" Xcom after starting Win98, then restarting in DOS mode, starting Xcom and finally playing with multimedia programs in Xcom. If it's of interest, I'll make a picture of the errors which Xcom gives with exiting to DOS prompt and I'll explain in more detail how this turned out for me.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-08-30, 18:22:

Very nice!

Thankyou, i hope you will find enjoyment in this program.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-08-30, 18:22:

1. The "windows key" doesn't open "start menu".

I have tried to implement it back then. No luck so far. It seems either the keyboard code in DJGPP or the keyboard code of DOS itself can not detect the winkey button.
Therefore, F6 acts as startmenu key.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-08-30, 18:22:

If it's of interest, I'll make a picture of the errors which Xcom gives with exiting to DOS prompt and I'll explain in more detail how this turned out for me.

The error message itself is the product of cwsdpmi, and its not useful to fix the problem in any way. If you can guide me to reliable reproduce the crash, then i can find the bug and fix it.

Could you bind CTRL + ESC to Start menu maybe?

This indeed looks very nice. The name is a bit confusing, with the X-COM game and all, but that's my only issue with it.

XcomGUI wrote on 2023-09-01, 15:28:

The error message itself is the product of cwsdpmi, and its not useful to fix the problem in any way. If you can guide me to reliable reproduce the crash, then i can find the bug and fix it.

OK. Here's the crash-causing situation: I tried Xcom on Zida Tomato 5STX-512 with 430TX chipset mobo, AMD K6-233, 128 MB SDRAM PC-100, 1.2 GB PATA HDD, fresh Windows 98 SE installation. The system is set to boot in DOS 7.10 command prompt (customized MSDOS.SYS - no Windows autoload) and uses EMM386, DOS is set to HIGH,UMB, loads SMARTDRV and MSCDEX with VIDE-CDD.SYS driver. Xcom works normal if I start it after the system boots in pure DOS 7.10. But if after the system boots to DOS and I first start Windows 98 SE manually, then restart back in MS-DOS mode, start Xcom, play mp3-file and then play wav or video file (or first play wav or video and then mp3) it crashes to DOS prompt with some long error messages. After this happens, Xcom can be started again and if I play with media files it crashes the same way.

This problem shows off only if Win98 is started and then the system is "restarted" in MS-DOS mode. If no Win98 is involved everything works fine in freshly booted DOS 7.10.

2023, sept 08. - Hotfix release

-Enabled system realloc to be fully utilized
-Fixed icons in Tools and System menu.
-New game icon added for file types (d64, t64, nes, prg, nds, iso, and so on)
-Fixed C and H file icons
-Added experimental support for PIF and LNK files.
-Fixed icons for MP4, WMV, VMA, MPEG and MKV files.
-Fixed missing CRTL+A hotkey functionality for file browser
-Fixed missing CRTL+ALT+PGUP and PGDOWN functionality for text editor and file browser.
-Fixed missing DOS binding for Shift+UP/LEFT/RIGHT/DOWN hotkeys.
-Added hourglass animation when loading text files.
-Fixed a sound memory size bug causing crash in some cases (reported by analog_programmer).
-Shift+Escape will bring the start menu up (requested by appiah4).
-Fixed garbled ini file when saving sound settings.
-Fixed a crash when pressing CRTL+A in terminal.
-Fixed a bug when saving extension assignations.
-AVI file format is now properly detected before attempting to play it with the internal video player
-Several DOS key bindings were fixed.

It's nice to see that you're working actively on Xcom. I'm very impressed with your project. I'll try the new release on a real '90s hardware tomorrow.

I see that in FAQ section on the Xcom's site you've mentioned multiple problems due to this DJGPP compiler. If I understood correctly (correct me if I'm wrong), it is impossible to compile the network code part due to this very same DJGPP compiler, so Xcom (pre)alpha lacks support of TCP/IP for DOS platform. But I think IPX protocol is also a "no go" as Novell abandoned it long time ago (I remember last used this IPXprotocol to play some multiplayer Duke3D around 1997 or so) and modern network devices does not support it. So my question is: why don't you use another open source compiler (there are projects as mTCP for DOS - somehow its C++ code is compiled to work on 8086/8088 machines)?

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-09-06, 20:30:

It's nice to see that you're working actively on Xcom. I'm very impressed with your project. I'll try the new release on a real '90s hardware tomorrow.

I am happy if you like this project. For some reason i love writing it.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-09-06, 20:30:

I see that in FAQ section on the Xcom's site you've mentioned multiple problems due to this DJGPP compiler. If I understood correctly (correct me if I'm wrong), it is impossible to compile the network code part due to this very same DJGPP compiler

I found a TCP library for DJGPP since then, but had no time yet to play around it.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-09-06, 20:30:

there are projects as mTCP for DOS

DOS natively doesnt supports tcp or the internet, this means special network cards with special drivers have to implement their special protocols, and then specialized tcp implementations have to interact with these special protocols, meanwhile they must also support the compilers people intend to use them with. And i have never seen it working under dos, so i am not experienced with such systems. This is going to be something that will require some deep meditation and some extra freetime.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-09-06, 20:30:

why don't you use another open source compiler

Older compilers wouldn't able to compile the code, and the code has to be at least 32 bit. I am not aware of anything besides djgpp for dos which is suitable for this purpose.

XcomGUI wrote on 2023-09-06, 20:59:

I found a TCP library for DJGPP since then, but had no time yet to play around it.

So, after all there is a hope to see a release with working network part 😀

XcomGUI wrote on 2023-09-06, 20:59:

DOS natively doesnt supports tcp or the internet, this means special network cards with special drivers have to implement their special protocols, and then specialized tcp implementations have to interact with these special protocols, meanwhile they must also support the compilers people intend to use them with. And i have never seen it working under dos, so i am not experienced with such systems. This is going to be something that will require some deep meditation and some extra freetime.

You're right. There was no native TCP/IP support in MS-DOS back then (I'm not sure about DR-DOS, PTS-DOS or other non-MS-DOS variants as I never used one of these), but there are some third parity drivers and utilities for TCP/IP in DOS. Also there are some support for wi-fi adapters in Free DOS. I think you have to check the mTCP page as there are links to related DOS networking projects and examples with open source code - possibly could understand in what environment and with what compilers are compiled these tools to work on such an ancient hardware.

This seems cool, but the name is really unfortunate. Most people will always confuse this with the game series.

XcomGUI wrote on 2023-09-06, 20:59:

DOS natively doesnt supports tcp or the internet, this means special network cards with special drivers have to implement their special protocols, and then specialized tcp implementations have to interact with these special protocols, meanwhile they must also support the compilers people intend to use them with. And i have never seen it working under dos, so i am not experienced with such systems. This is going to be something that will require some deep meditation and some extra freetime.

Actually, it is not very "special" at all. The packet driver specification defines a standard API for networking programs to talk to networking hardware. Pretty much all ISA cards and many classic PCI cards have packet drivers.

You are probably going to be interested in using WATTCP so that you don't have to write your own TCP/IP. WATTCP has a 32 bit variant that compiles with DJGPP. See http://www.watt-32.net/ for details.

Very cool program! But yeah, you'll have to change the name since everyone will think you're talking about the game for dos. I get it, it sucks when you have a name you really want and someone else already used it, but especially in the case of XCom. Pretty much everyone knows the game XCom for dos. If you have trouble coming up with a name, I'm sure you can ask for suggestions here. I bet people have some cool names they can think up!

Still, I love the program!

mbbrutman wrote on 2023-09-08, 03:46:

Actually, it is not very "special" at all. The packet driver specification defines a standard API for networking programs to talk to networking hardware. Pretty much all ISA cards and many classic PCI cards have packet drivers.
You are probably going to be interested in using WATTCP so that you don't have to write your own TCP/IP. WATTCP has a 32 bit variant that compiles with DJGPP. See http://www.watt-32.net/ for details.

I have tried various versions of WATTCP and the "not very special thing" dumping about 800 pages of unresolvable error messages with any compiler thats newer than probably 1995. Unless someone fires me a donation that pays my food for months to sort it out, back to square 0.

XcomGUI, the last version of Xcom for DOS seems more stable, but once again I've managed to make it exit to DOS prompt with error. I just decided to test "multitasking" and opened two separate instances imageviewer and one instance of wave/media-player, and Xcom crashed to DOS prompt. Maybe the memory allocated by Xcom is not enough for such a tasks. I have 128 MB physical memory on this K6-233 machine, but I don't know if DOS 7.10 limits it usage to 32 or 64 MB through EMM386.

Also I don't know if you accept proposals for some changes in GUI part of the Xcom, but I have a couple.

For example: In "start menu" it will be more convenient if the submenus are activated on mouse hover instead of mouse click. "Quit" and "Shutdown" in "(Start) Menu/Exit" do the same - exit to DOS prompt. I think "Quit" is OK to do this, but "Shutdown"... maybe it have to shut down the system, as for example "Restart" restarts the system. Also these functions in "(Start) Menu" are repeated in the "shutdown button" on the right of the "taskbar". Maybe this "shutdown button" will be better if replaced with "show desktop" functionality, but I have no idea is it possible to be implemented. Also it will be nice if mouse right click works as left click on items of already opened by left click context menu.

I think, DOS version of Xcom has its potential to be something like better Win3.x 😀

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-09-15, 08:29:

opened two separate instances imageviewer and one instance of wave/media-player, and Xcom crashed to DOS prompt. Maybe the memory allocated by Xcom is not enough for such a tasks. I have 128 MB physical memory on this K6-233 machine, but I don't know if DOS 7.10 limits it usage to 32 or 64 MB through EMM386.

Could be. Unless you have changed the memory manager settings to use an internal allocator, it relies on djgpp/dpmi/dos to allocate the memory, and dynamically allocates the RAM with malloc/realloc/free. If you open the process explorer, you can observe the memory usage on the xcom process itself. If you see it crashing after reaching certain treshold, then its indeed due to the memory system. If the crash is not related to memory utilization, then it related to a bug in the code. Currently HDPMI32i.EXE and CWSDPMI.EXE can be used with XCOM. Last time i have checked it, neither of them supported swap files (despite cwsdpmi officially says it supports it - it doesnt) so swapping is not possible for now.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-09-15, 08:29:

Also I don't know if you accept proposals for some changes in GUI part of the Xcom, but I have a couple.

I reading every proposals on Xcom carefully, and based on technical and ergonomic aspects, i decide if i accept an idea or not.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-09-15, 08:29:

it will be more convenient if the submenus are activated on mouse hover instead of mouse click.

I intentionally did it like this way. I don't like if things randomly pop out as you hover around.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-09-15, 08:29:

"Quit" and "Shutdown" in "(Start) Menu/Exit" do the same - exit to DOS prompt.

This system is designed for unix like systems, but so far only the dos version is available. Shutdown is supposed to turn off the computer by executing the command "halt", or "reboot" in the case you want to reboot the computer. If your system lacks these (and a pure dos lacks them) then it will simply quit from the software. Currently this is disabled under DOS. I am going to notice this proposal, and I am going to modify the code to call halt and reboot even under dos, but you will need to get a halt.exe and a reboot.exe in your DOS directory to get the desired functionality.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-09-15, 08:29:

Also it will be nice if mouse right click works as left click on items of already opened by left click context menu.

I am going to investigate if this is technically possible or not.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-09-15, 08:29:

I think, DOS version of Xcom has its potential to be something like better Win3.x 😀

For me, personally its already above 3.1 in functionality, but that's only because i developed in a direction which personally suits and fits my needs perfectly.
I hope i can extend the reliability and usability of the software to the point where other people will feel it better than 3.1.