Posts by starfrost@wetdry.world
(DIR) Post #Aa7GoqoNxP5HYDUgCG by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-09-24T21:56:47Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
THIS is Multitasking MS-DOS 4.0 (or MT-DOS), a preemptively multitasked operating system that supports dynamic linking (from both EXEs and DLLs), real child processes, process forking, 256 levels of priority, sharing code segments between multiple instances of programs, separating segments of programs across physical memory space, many console screen devices, the Windows PIF format, built-in kernel debugging, print queueing, semaphores, critical sections, real error handling (better than DOS...), a completely new shell written in C and (in some versions/beta builds) multithreading, named pipes and swapping!Entirely in x86 real mode. In 1985.But it barely came out. Why is that?
(DIR) Post #Aa7GosDEkUYbta82ZU by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-09-24T22:03:07Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Well, x86 real mode has no memory protection, which means if an app has a bug it can vomit all over the kernel and . The OS tries to solve this by allowing regions of memory (called "segments" to be "locked" and "unlocked"), but with no hardware memory protection it doesn't work very well.
(DIR) Post #Aa7GotLmWCzDQN8NWq by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-09-24T22:05:22Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
(Btw, that error code is just the offset in the kernel code segment that the IntErr routine was called from, lol)This is especially an issue with legacy DOS apps, which basically expect to have control of the entire address space. MDOS4 provides a command in the shell, MEMSET, that allows you to allocate a region of memory for old apps (which have 100 percent of the CPU, with interrupts hooked to allow the OS to return), but with no memory protocol it's basically a suggestion.
(DIR) Post #Aa7GoudXjemvPkS4qu by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-09-24T22:07:07Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
However, legacy DOS app compatibility was a must for any new OS, considering the IBM PC standard had just monopolised the market and nobody wanted to lose their investment in IBM PC software. This caused OEMs to not want to bundle it with systems, which meant that Microsoft basically couldn't sell it, as that was their only method of revenue back in 1985.
(DIR) Post #Aa7GovpzGsKv8dHWt6 by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-09-24T22:08:31Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Only three OEMs ever licensed the product - Siemens in Germany, ICL in the UK, and SMT Goupil in France, and only for a very few select number of computers (mostly 186 servers, that couldn't run OS/2 - more on that in a bit). Goupil also had an ultra-rare, undumped MT-DOS 4.1 made for them, the last release of which (4.10.3) was made around early 1988 - although it possibly reported as 3.99, in order to avoid confusion with regular DOS 4.0.
(DIR) Post #Aa7GowxT6Xumc7n1Bg by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-09-24T22:11:36Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
So what happened to it? Development started in January 1983 and was finished around early 1986 - the only available image is a beta build ("Internal revision 6.7"), from November 26, 1985, and a non-original disk of the Goupil OEM which seems to be based off it.As it turns out, after extensive reverse engineering it turns out to be basically proto-OS/2. The code was split into OS/2 and the OEM versions around August 1985 when the JDA was finalised - after all, why write a new OS when you already have one? OS/2 started out as a port of this OS to protected modeThere are some very interesting things - the OS/2 CMD.EXE started here - and was ported to Windows NT. So Windows Command Prompt is actually from this OS! Also, the memory manager became the 16-bit Windows real-mode memory manager. (which was also used in QBASIC/MS-DOS EDIT!)
(DIR) Post #Aa7GoyWFIjKNSH4J28 by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-09-24T22:15:47Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
You can also run trivial MT-DOS apps on Windows 1.x, as they both use New Executables.Nearly every part of the system has already changed in some way; the process information structure is completely different - the DOS PSP deprecated and with breaking changes, the SYSVARS table has null references where pointers should be because it was moved to the PTDA process information structure, TSRs and direct disk access without going through the DOS INT 21 api (which is added to by functions exported from the kernel and a DLL that provides popup functionality) are completely dead unless you flip a bit in the app's PIF file, which breaks even more apps. Windows does not run, the EXEC system call (which is very different from regular DOS and has 15(!) subfunctions instead of 4) fails. More research here:https://betawiki.net/wiki/Multitasking_MS-DOS_4https://github.com/starfrost013/ModernPersonalitySome results of running "Undocumented DOS" tools on here, to prove how incompatible this is (not even recognised as MS-DOS!):
(DIR) Post #Aa7GozneXUqVQYDinw by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-09-24T22:16:47Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
More pictures:
(DIR) Post #AbFQLaElIuG5I7iDBI by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-10-28T22:29:23Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Adding to this: I went through a phase of being obsessed with graphing calculators.CASIO had actually invented these things, in 1985. Initially, they used a Z80 derivative. Later, they shifted over to the NEC V30MX. Also known as the Intel 8086. The OS was Datalight ROM-DOS. A clone of MS-DOS. Yes, they ran DOS on a calculator. This actually worked fine for a while and they got through several generations of calculator with it.But they had a problem. In 2005, it was time to make their next generation of calculators to squeeze even more money from the educational market - but for some reason they couldn't or didn't want to use their old platform. So what do they do?
(DIR) Post #AbFQLbiZnXhXssfXI8 by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-10-28T22:46:15Z
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The entire company is apparently infected by Not Invented Here, and they spend far much more money, waste much more time and expend much more resources than they ever needed to do writing one of the most cursed software platforms ever written.They inexplicably decide to use the Sh-4 architecture. Yes, the one used in the Dreamcast. And better than that, they decide to write possibly the most cursed operating system ever written:There are only two processes. A parent process and a child process.There is an official C and C++ SDK. Yes, official.They wrote their own binary format. Naturally, it's inverted before being written or read. Because why not?Despite this, the system apps are implemented as system calls in the kernel that exit via calling a system call called "GetKey"There is absolutely zero security. To the point where the bootloader is not write protected, passwords are stored in plaintext in flash, you can arbitrarily write flash over USB, etc. A completely custom BASIC so slow someone wrote a 100 times faster replacement that was still interpreted.They wrote their own format for representing numbers.That's far from all.They still use this platform. In 2023.
(DIR) Post #AbFQLd26uOv9xkoeNU by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-10-28T22:53:27Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
They overengineered this platform beyond insanity. For example, it has a USB port, and you can take screenshots from the calculator and send them over USB to be saved.Examples of REAL functionality, on REAL Casio fx-9860G series calculators:Fully functioning clipboard. A spreadsheet application, naturally with its own custom format.A custom data logger just for their ecosystem"e-Activity"Updatable firmware over USB, just in case you needed to update your calculator I guess?A periodic table (downloadable application)Later on, in the casio "Prizm", they added:A 384*216 screenPython interpreter as well, because why not?3D graphingThe impressive thing is that they went to this ridiculous effort to create this completely custom platform when they could have just created a Linux box, or (like TI) just used ARM, and then shoved it with so many features the UI becomes unusable on the tiny screen they have. And then made it more insecure than a PC exposed to the Internet running Windows 98.
(DIR) Post #AbFQLeSjatoOOcHQW0 by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-10-28T23:52:29Z
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Also to top it all off: at least for the gii series, they ordered a custom SH4 core WITHOUT AN FPU. IN A CALCULATOR. It's fixed point. W t f
(DIR) Post #AbsG4QzsfrLmBeBozg by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-11-16T19:15:53Z
1 likes, 3 repeats
programmers went from "i saved 2 bytes today" to "yeah we will use 9.4 terabytes of ram for hello world using our meta-meta-metaframeworks"
(DIR) Post #AbuX3UsqpEYZUKxb04 by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-11-17T20:33:20Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
Usually half-life has 300-600 players online at any one time, which is nuts for a 25 year old game. But valve adding actual features and having a three day long, 100% off sale has pushed the player count to 14,000 and counting.HL DM is unplayable. The master server is collapsing and can't report how many players are online on a server, you'll click on a server that's allegedly 1/4th full and it'll be "32 / 32"And it's great!
(DIR) Post #AdKSDjnP7zpLxteF4y by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-12-29T18:55:46Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
They found 86-dos 0.1 and 0.34, holy fucking shit!https://archive.org/details/86-dos-version-0.1-c-serial-11-original-diskhttps://archive.org/details/86-dos-v-0.34-221-81-02-20MS bought the code of this operating system to create MS-DOS.Therefore this is the oldest version of dos ever and probably one of the first ever created.
(DIR) Post #AdMR34ChCTKGR4kILo by starfrost@wetdry.world
2023-12-30T11:33:53Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@leftpaddotpy "It doesn't matter how true the material is"I don't get it. If he's right, then he is right? He's still a terrible person regardless, it doesn't mean that he is mentally incapable of being correct (even a broken clock is right twice a day). If you don't want to give him ad revenue, just republish it somewhere else. I don't actually agree with the post, the compensation is a bit high, but if you achieved the goals of Mozilla then that is a valid reason for having compensation increased.I don't think Bryan Lunduke, considering his programming "abilities", manufacturing of bullshit about his own life, and incredibly unpopular substack, is capable of having the intelligent foresight to "control conversations". I think you overestimate the intelligence and cunning of these people. They are really fucking stupid, I doubt that any other motive was involved here, and again he is still a terrible person. If he wanted to whine about Mozilla being pro-trans he could have done that.
(DIR) Post #AdZqQjN5KVUYgTSsb2 by starfrost@wetdry.world
2024-01-06T18:16:45Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Wolven you don't need to put everything you don't like in scare quotes
(DIR) Post #Adi1n9WmFC4ERhZsh6 by starfrost@wetdry.world
2024-01-10T16:51:00Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@toby Stop complaining I have a 486SX (no FPU) 25 megahertz passive matrix (i.e. smearing) monochrome (like 256 shades of gray) 640*480 VGA laptop from 1993
(DIR) Post #AhG4whT82ZoUbUpaLo by starfrost@wetdry.world
2024-04-25T20:31:58Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
https://github.com/microsoft/MS-DOS/tree/main/v4.0I would just like to thank @shanselman, Jeff Wilcox, and the Microsoft OSPO for working with me to preserve the source code of MS-DOS 4.0, a very early beta build of the very limited release Multitasking MS-DOS 4.0, and some source code for that tooHave fun, everyone :)
(DIR) Post #AhIOCeODtgB1H6AoQy by starfrost@wetdry.world
2024-04-26T10:15:00Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@SylvieLorxu some deep canonical lore i am not aware of(edit: IT WORKS...CANONICAL AND CANONICAL)