win16 app as service process, no GDI calls, and Windows 3.1 with no display
msg
I've chosen the three N.G.s for this query based on past history of
participant expertise and interest in topics peripheral to the main
focus of the groups; I request your indulgence.
I need to create an application for Windows 3.1 that will not have
any graphical interface, should use no GDI calls and not create any
windows, iconized or not. The program will set up a DSP board by
loading its microcode, and interact with the external world over
RS-232 (COM) ports; it will not make any file i/o calls except to
save and load state on entry/exit. Windows 3.1 is required by the
DSP board's 'manager' and drivers or I would use Dos, OS/2
(without PM), *nix, etc.
I have no experience writing Win16 apps but have acquired
'Petzold' for study.
1. Can one write a program in Win16 that uses no GDI without it being
a device driver?
2. Is it possible to use the Windows 3.1 kernel without GDI? In other
words, can one get a cooperative multitasking o/s without the GUI
but with the rest of the API using Win3.x components?
3. Is there a null display driver for Windows 3.x (I find no references
on the Web except to null Autocad display drivers)
TIA,
Michael
msg
<snip>
> 2. Is it possible to use the Windows 3.1 kernel without GDI? In other
> words, can one get a cooperative multitasking o/s without the GUI
> but with the rest of the API using Win3.x components?
To elaborate on this a little more, some years ago an associate told me
of an effort to build a multitasking o/s out of Windows 95 components
without a GUI; I retorted 'haven't they heard of OS/2?'. I have lost
track of the notes about this but I remember that there was some
released code and working examples. In searching Usenet archives
for any sense of this so far I have come across this:
> Note especially that the Windows 95 SHELL formalises the
> replacability of the application level in the System VM. Instead of being
> constrained to execute KRNL386.EXE and thereby start the Windows GUI, it
> runs the program nominated by a ShellName setting in SYSTEM.INI, merely
> defaulting to the Windows GUI.
>
> My guess is that there was once upon a time some idea of providing a DSHELL
> VxD as an alternative to the usual WSHELL and running a text-based
> DPMI-enabled application in ring 0 as an alternative to the Windows GUI. You
> wouldn't have had to be Microsoft to write this. But you would have needed
> to know what you were doing. You would have needed funding for the research
> and development. And most of all, you would have needed a market to buy the
> results. History shows that computer users (eventually) moved en masse from
> DOS to Windows without needing a multi-tasking command-line driven
> super-DOS.
Anyone know of these efforts? I still would like to explore this possibility
with win16.
Regards,
Michael
buck huffman
This website has a real simple tip for doing just that:
http://www.win31.de/etips.htm#winstart
in fact, you probably want to check the whole site:
http://www.win31.de
The links page has some really interesting stuff, be sure to click on
the Axcel216's Max Speed site link.
There are surely more sophisticated ways to achieve this but that is a
simple way to get started. I believe the Axcel216 site has info on a
more elaborate way to do it, otherwise a google search should do the
trick.