{"id":1225,"date":"1997-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1997-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/?p=1225"},"modified":"2019-01-17T23:54:44","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T22:54:44","slug":"open-the-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/open-the-sources\/","title":{"rendered":"Open the Sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nDon’t give in to the Dark Side<\/i><\/div>\n

There is a growing pool of software, originally written for MS-DOS, which now
\nbecomes more and more impossible to run. People maybe liked a certain program
\nor used it for their hobbies, but now, they have another Operating System, and
\nthey don’t want to use DOS or to reboot just to use this peace of program.<\/p>\n

This, of course, happened to me with roleplaying-related programs when
\nI switched to Linux. I only use DOS for playing computer-games, and I only
\nboot it when I am sure that I will need it for an hour or more. Surely not
\nfor using some DOS program which probably even runs on the commandline.<\/p>\n

So there goes the solution: Recompile it. Simply. If there is a source, I
\nnormally do that, and so I’ve got quite a collection of programs which I
\nported from DOS to Linux. And so, I’d like everyone to tell:<\/p>\n

\n

Release your Sourcecodes!<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

It doesn’t hurt you to release a source-code of some program you wrote
\nfive years ago. There is plenty of possibility to recycle old sourcecodes,
\neven when they’re written in some weird language such as BASIC.<\/p>\n

So I take a look now at some possibilities and quirks regarding different
\nprogramming languages, their implementations and their portability. Especially
\nin regard to Unix\/Linux.<\/p>\n

Where, please?<\/h3>\n

Todays standard is C. Or some variation of it like Objective-C or C++.
\nSo the point is:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Port your Program to C if possible.<\/li>\n
  • Make it run on another operating system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    We’re gonna use the GNU C-Compiler, because it’s one of the best, and it’s
    \navailable on nearly every<\/b> platform (Unix, Windows NT, OS\/2, DOS, only
    \nto mention the most common ones).<\/p>\n

    GNU C or GCC comes in three different variations, as C-compiler, C++-compiler
    \nand objective-C-compiler. And then there are some add-ons (or merely pre-
    \nprocessors) which can translate pascal and fortran to C. So there’s no such
    \nbig problem translating fortran or pascal to C. So here we go examining some
    \ncompilers and how their code can be translated to GCC.<\/p>\n

    Note:<\/b> You cannot normally use conio.h or dos.h for programs not running on
    \nDOS. So this must be circumvented in some way.<\/i><\/p>\n

    What general problems are to expect?<\/h3>\n
      \n
    • Command-line based programs should easily be ported. Problems can arise
      \nout of different length of data-types.<\/li>\n
    • Character based programs using console io might give some troubles. The
      \nproblem most often encountered will be that other operating systems do
      \nnot allow direct manipulation of their console. This appears with conio.h<\/li>\n
    • Graphically enhanced programs really aren’t easy to port. Instead of using
      \nlanguage-specific or self-programmed graphic enhancements, svgalib must be
      \nused. This can be as difficult as rewriting the whole program from scratch.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      What problems are to expect using specific languages?<\/h3>\n

      C<\/h4>\n
        \n
      • DJGPP<\/b> – The GNU-C for DOS, no changes necessary.<\/li>\n
      • Symantec C<\/b> – dos.h and conio.h, as well as makefiles<\/li>\n
      • Turbo C<\/b> – dos.h and conio.h, as well as makefiles<\/li>\n
      • Borland C<\/b> – dos.h and conio.h, as well as makefiles<\/li>\n
      • Microsoft C<\/b> – dos.h and conio.h, as well as makefiles<\/li>\n
      • Quick C<\/b> – dos.h and conio.h, as well as makefiles<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Pascal<\/h4>\n
          \n
        • Turbo Pascal<\/b> – dos.h and conio.h<\/li>\n
        • <\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Basic<\/h4>\n
            \n
          • GW or MS-Basic<\/b> – line-numbering<\/li>\n
          • Turbo Basic<\/b><\/li>\n
          • Quick Basic<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            C Problems<\/h3>\n

            dos.h<\/h4>\n

            This one defines variable types and FAT-filesystem-specific things. Problems
            \ncan arise out of different lengths of data types (16 vs 32 bits).<\/p>\n

            conio.h<\/h4>\n

            conio.h (console i\/o) does not exist on Unix. There is a port of conio.h,
            \nbut this shouldn’t be used. Instead, ncurses.h or curses.h should be used.<\/p>\n

            Peter Keel,<\/p>\n

            1997-01<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Don’t give in to the Dark Side There is a growing pool of software, originally written for MS-DOS, which now becomes more and more impossible to run. People maybe liked a certain program or used it for their hobbies, but now, they have another Operating System, and they don’t want to use DOS or to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computers","category-copyright-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1274,"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225\/revisions\/1274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}