A new GUI shell for DOS and compatible operating systems.

[mercur...@gmail.com]

Hello all,

I have been working for quite some time now on a GUI shell to function
atop all flavors of DOS. I have been working on this project, which I
have tentatively named "PCOS," in my spare time, which seems to be to
date quite sparse. However, I am preparing to release the project and
its source code under the GNU GPL, and I am interested to see if
anyone would desire to contribute in any way needed to the project.
Trust me, there's much to be done! If you want to learn more about the
project, please feel free to visit the "PCOS Project HQ" at
http://www.geocities.com/mercury0x000D/, or to email me directly at
mercur...@gmail.com.

Thank you all in advance!
Mercury0x000D

[Bruce M. Axtens]

On Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:57:49 -0700 (PDT), mercur...@gmail.com wrote:

G'day Mercury

I just emailed you because I can't access any of your downloads: they're
all local to your machine, e.g.
"file:///M:/PCOS%20Homepage/version%201.40.zip"

Kind regards,
Bruce.

-- Posted on news://freenews.netfront.net - Complaints to ne...@netfront.net --

[mercur...@gmail.com]

About the PCOS Project HQ webpage...

My apologies to anyone who tried to view the project's homepage and
found themselves unable to download files. In preparation for the big
release I had updated the homepage into Frontpage from an old copy of
Trellix I had laying around and restructured how the files were laid
out on the server, and I guess I made an oversight, preventing anyone
from downloading anything. Oops. Everything should be in perfect
working order now, though.

Mercury0x000D

[CB]

Just wanted to say I will follow with interest. Will you advise via
this Group when Version 2 is released?

Regards......
Charles Bennett

[mercur...@gmail.com]

Charles,

Yes. The series 2 kernel is about one fourth functional, and I am
planning to personally announce its completion here and in two or
three other forums where I have received interest in the project.

Mercury0x000D

[mercur...@gmail.com]

Not to resurrect something so old, but I have an update.

The project IS still active, although it has been on hiatus for a bit off and on, here and there... I'm sure you all know how life can be. -_-

But I recently began digging into some of my old source code for the project and decided to dive into this project (yet) again and hit it full force (or as full force as I can in my spare time!) since my current situation is fairly well suited to more frequent development opportunities. I compiled a list of all the features I want to add and quickly determined it would be a waste of time to continue in QBasic or PowerBASIC. After some looking into, I settled on Watcom C as the new language of choice and began what will be the final rewrite. So far I have much of the general hardware detection in place, VESA support - the kernel even automatically shifts into the best available screen mode for you! There's even the beginning of a decent blitter in the mix. Mouse support works, I implemented a printing system so that outputting text to the screen in VESA modes is possible, and I am currently working on adding FAT16 LBA support, followed by other FAT versions as well. After the ability to navigate drives and load files is complete, I can begin work on resource files and loading images from disk. I already have the beginnings of an auto-loading driver system in the works, a'la Windows. The system will scan the bus, identify devices and try to load the best driver all by itself... or at least it will once I get these LBA routines done... *sigh*

So much to do...

[Computer Nerd Kev]

Having just traced a trail from GeoCities to Tripod (twice), to
an actual proper DNS address (why didn't I just Google from the
beginning?!). Here is his website:
http://www.mercurycoding.com/

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[Computer Nerd Kev]

So is "pcoskrnl.exe" all you need to run the core system, or are
there other support files?

Might give it a go on my 100MHz 486DX with 16MB RAM (perhaps
even my 33MHz 486 with 8MB. Whopse, no maths co-pro, oh well).

[mercur...@gmail.com]

Lol! My apologies! I guess I never thought to update this. But yes, the new site is as you say. Thanks, btw! :)

[mercur...@gmail.com]

Yes, right now it's a stand-alone executable. Most of the work done has been under-the-hood so to speak, so there's not a whole lot of visual progress as of yet. You run the .exe and it goes through a few screens of data, then sits in a loop waiting for you to press shift to access the menu. That's it so far. As soon as I pound out the FAT16 routines, more can be done. Much more :)

[mercur...@gmail.com]

Okay, the latest build is compiled with floating point emulation enabled, so that should take care of those trying to run the kernel on a non-DX processor. I've personally only tested in under VirtualBox in a FreeDOS environment, so I'll be interested to see how good (or bad! lol) it runs in other environments.

[Computer Nerd Kev]

I tried it out on my 100MHz 486DX with 16MB RAM and DOS/4GW came back with the
error "1307: Not Enough Memory". I used the DOS/4GW already on that PC,
Version 1.97. I haven't had the chance to see how it works with the version from
your site (if it's different). I won't have that machine to hand for the next
few weeks, but I might give it a go on an 81MB Pentium 1 running DOS 7 (the
Windows 98 DOS).

Oh, and EMM386 was definately running, said "15152KB expanded memory available".

[mercur...@gmail.com]

That's weird... maybe try it without expanded memory, just straight XMS? I think that's how I have my VBox configured.

[mercur...@gmail.com]

Who knew I'd still be working on this so far into the future?? O.O

After much restructuring (in both life and in code) this project lives on. Instead of running atop DOS, though, it now aims to completely replace the DOS kernel. We're working on it as a simple drop-in replacement for the FreeDOS kernel, but it will eventually support its own apps, too.

If anyone here is still interested, feel free to check out our group on it at https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/night-dos-kernel