Відео

That suggests one of two things: 1. You installed FreeDOS 1.3 "plain DOS only" or 2. You don't have one of the FreeDOS CD images inserted in your system when you run FDIMPLES.

My pleasure!

I loved the DOS Shell in MS-DOS 5. I thought it was better than Windows, since it kept me in DOS and let me switch between DOS programs.

Glad you liked it! Using Linux at the command line like this (and using ed) is really fun, and it's an interesting experiment. When I did this experiment (to use Linux like original Unix) I lived at the terminal. I just maximized it on my system, and did everything there. [Technically I cheated .. I had my work email up on my other monitor, so I can keep an eye out for client emails.] When you write nontrivial programs using ed, your brain starts to work differently. You build a kind of mental map in your head, and you can navigate pretty easily using ed. I became quite comfortable with ed - and I sometimes still use ed if I need to write something quick .. like make a script out of hte commands I just ran.

Glad you liked it!

They are there, but not in an obvious place. Look in the SRC directory .. they are in SRC\TOOLS\BLD\INC .. and you can use the CL compiler in SRC\TOOLS to compile. Here's my environment that I have (this is `SET > SET.TXT` so there's extra stuff in there): CONFIG=2 DOSDIR=C:\FreeDOS COMSPEC=C:\FreeDOS\BIN\COMMAND.COM PATH=C:\src\tools;C:\freedos\bin COUNTRY=usa-ms BAKROOT=C: LIB=C:\src\tools\bld\lib INIT=C:\src\tools INCLUDE=C:\src\tools\bld\inc And with that, I was able to compile several C programs, using CL, including a "hello world" program, another program that used strlen, and another program that used malloc to allocate memory and store values. They all ran fine. I try not to do too many "programming" videos on the channel, but would it help to do a quick video about using the MS-DOS 4.00 build environment to compile these demo C programs?

The word "free" means "freedom", not "free beer".

I really love those old DOS programs. Especially spreadsheets - they haven't changed much in 30 years. As Easy As is still my favorite DOS spreadsheet. I think As Easy As can handle 99%+ of my regular spreadsheet work, especially if I don't need to share my spreadsheets with anyone else. Microsoft also released MS Word 5.5 for DOS as free (gratis) software some years ago, you can find the link on Wikipedia's "History of Microsoft Word" Page in the references. While I didn't use it at the time, Word 5.5 for DOS is pretty good. The key bindings feel very natural and "modern," like ctrl-c to copy, ctrl-v to paste, etc. (Looking at Wikipedia, Word 5.5 for DOS was a pretty big visual overhaul, so I don't know if the key bindings changed when they did 5.5 or if these key bindings were the same in earlier versions.)

I'm glad you liked it! It's really cool that spreadsheets just haven't changed much over time. More formatting features, and a few new functions - but basically the same.

You can do a lot with these text based user interfaces. 80×25 did a lot of heavy lifting. And the great thing is that you don't have to use a mouse for most of these DOS apps-and my wrists prefer that I not use a mouse if I can avoid it.

@@freedosproject Yes, exactly. Using more keyboard instead mouse is always my choice. Thanks for your efforts.

These days, I don't write huge applications in C, just tools that process text, turn based games, emulators, or some other program to do some specific thing. If it's not interactive, my debugging is usually just a *printf* or *puts* statement here or there, usually controlled like this: #if defined(DEBUG) printf("in process_line() .. linelen is %d ", linelen); #endif Then when I compile, I can use -DDEBUG to turn "on" debugging statements. And omit -DDEBUG to turn "off" debugging statements.

Yeah, it's really surprising how little has changed in spreadsheets. I didn't use @VTABLE at the time, but I've been using it more recently as I explore all the cool stuff you can do in these DOS spreadsheets. I really like it.

@@freedosproject I didn't know how lookup function works before this video, I thought it finds the exact match which caused some troubles in the past, I really find it interesting how it finds the nearest value. One learn a new thing every day Thanks Jim!

Definitely still useful! And what's great is that TRIUS Inc released it for free. It was shareware in the 1990s, but they eventually posted the activation code for the last DOS veresion via their forums. You can find it there, and use As Easy As on FreeDOS for free. It's my favorite spreadsheet!

Glad you think so! After all these years, I'm impressed by how "modern" these DOS spreadsheets can be. I think As Easy As can handle almost all of my everyday spreadsheet needs-especially if I don't need to share a spreadsheet with someone else.

They really can do a lot! And I love that you can use a DOS spreadsheet like AsEasyAs without a mouse. It's amazing that my fingers still "remember" all the keyboard shortcuts after 30 years. I use modern spreadsheets too (like Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc .. and I teach a university class that uses Microsoft Excel) but I'm way more productive with a DOS spreadsheet because I can do it all from the keyboard. Only a few things are easier with the mouse, like formatting and Autofill.

This sounds *exactly* like the first lab I did as an undergraduate physics student! It was basically a demonstration of "measurements can have errors/deviation" and "how to analyze data." We had to use an electronic scale to measure the mass of 100 pennies (in groups of 10) and find the average mass and std deviation … excluding the top and bottom values in each group. And we had to use a caliper to measure the diameter of a 1-foot rubber hose in 100 positions (in groups of 10) and find the average diameter and std deviation … excluding top and bottom values in each group. Things like that. The lab instructor intended for us to enter the data into a FORTRAN77 program running on the campus VAX system and calculate the mean (average) and std deviation - but it was *much* easier to put that into a spreadsheet and do the repetitive analysis there. So let's say you have 10 data points in A1 through A10. Sort that range (either by "increasing" or "decreasing" value, doesn't matter). To sort a range in As Easy As: /DS then D to select A1..A10 for the Data range, then P to select column A for the Primary sort column, then G for "Go." With your data sorted, you can do a calculation that only uses data in A2 to A9, which will be the 8 data points that exclude the top and bottom values. Enter a function A12 that's @AVG(A2..A9) and now you have the average ("mean") that excludes the top and bottom values. You can also add a calculation in A13 that's @STD(A2..A9) to tell you the *standard deviation* of the range, excluding the top and bottom values.

@@freedosproject Perfect.

I really do love the old DOS programs like AsEasyAs. It's still my most favorite spreadsheet… on any platform. If I don't need to share a spreadsheet with someone else, I'm equally likely to do it in AsEasyAs these days. And while I didn't use it at the time, Microsoft Word for DOS 5.5 is actually really good. I like that the keybindings like ctrl-c and ctrl-v and ctrl-x are there, so my fingers don't have to "remember" a new set of word processor keys. I guess I've been trained off WordPerfect because I use LibreOffice and Google Docs so much now, but Word for DOS 5.5 does the job just fine. Best of all: both AsEasyAs and Word for DOS 5.5 are free (gratis)! Microsoft posted Word for DOS 5.5 on their "Downloads" site several years ago (you can find the link on Wikipedia's "History of Microsoft Word" page in the references) and TRIUS Inc posted the activation code for the last version of AsEasyAs for DOS (and a version for Windows, but I only used the DOS version). You can find the link on TRIUS's forums.

Good point! I use OBS to record these videos on Linux, and I think there's a plug-in I can use for OBS.

Those DOS applications were pretty cool! 😎

Thanks, glad you think so! 👍

Yeah, funny that. DOS spreadsheets are still pretty powerful, even compared to modern stuff. At least for the stuff I do, AsEasyAs could do almost everything-if I didn't need to share a spreadsheet with someone else.

Glad it helped!

Apparently there's a consideration to add Reveal Codes to LibreOffice Writer, too

Yes, that's how you do it! I also remapped my keyboard bindings for FED so Ctrl+S ("Save") is Write. That way I don't have to remember something different for FED.

Cool, thanks! ☺

I actually use the FreeDOS Edlin to edit files sometimes .. it's great for a quick edit. I also use it on Linux (yes, it compiles fine on Linux).

Thanks!! I wish I'd thought to do another video the other day - BASIC turned 60 years old on May 1.

You can always email them and ask, I guess. 😉

I mention it in the video. You have to use ecm's fix. I didn't demo that here because I didn't have the asm file to do it.

The day Microsoft releases the MS-DOS 5 or MS-DOS 6 source code … will be an *interesting* day. 😀

I actually like Edlin- at least, the version we use in FreeDOS. The FreeDOS Edlin (thanks, Gregory!) is an excellent Edlin that doesn't use the control characters from MS-DOS Edlin. I find this *much* easier to use. I also compiled FreeDOS Edlin on my Linux box, and use it there sometimes. (I'm also one of those guys that also uses ed(1) sometimes- and without irony, too.) $ edlin /tmp/f […] /tmp/f: New file. *i : This is an example of using FreeDOS edlin on Linux. Yes, I really am : using this on Linux, because FreeDOS edlin compiles fine on Linux. : Use "." to stop inserting text, then "e" to write and exit. : . *e Abort edit (Y/n)? y /tmp/f: 3 lines written

Why "upgrade" the GPL to version 3? If you read the GPL v3, this doesn't really add anything for a DOS system. GPL v2 is fine.

@@freedosproject The GPL version 3 has a right to repair clause and a clause preventing people from claiming FreeDOS violates an effective technological measure. This prevents companies from using freeDOS in a product and then preventing people from exercising their four freedoms through effective technological measures.

No, they didn't include DOS Shell, unfortunately.

That would be interesting too. I'm sure the folks at FreeBASIC Compiler would be interested in that too, since FreeBASIC has "QB" mode.

You need an assembler that is compatible to old MASM syntax and a C Compiler that is compatible to old Microsoft C syntax. The original versions are both 16 bit real mode applications, thus they won't run natively on a modern 64 Bit windows. But emulation is an option.

@@OpenGL4ever thank you. I started learning all these. Will try to compile myself

Yeah, you're supposed to use /mnt for temporary mounts, and someone started a trend of using /mount. I see that one on a lot of Debian based distros so I'm assuming it started there, but it could also be that the FreeDesktop organization is to blame. Annoys me when I go to tab complete /m and have to cycle.

I used to admin some "Big Iron" Unix systems (Apollo, HP-UX, SunOS) and yeah, I shouldn't use /tmp for that. Only temp files. But guestfstools ("guestmount") is plain userspace, and as a general user I don't have write access to /mnt. I guess I should get in the habit of mounting only inside my $HOME somewhere.

@@freedosproject Why not just change fstab so everyone in `users` can mount specific devices? If we're talking about removable devices, then use its UUID. I've got several portable drives that I setup that way and any user can do `mount /mnt/betty` or `mount /mnt/sammy`, which is what I named my SAMBA share for Windows devices. I generally only mount in $HOME if it needs to be private.