> On Oct 24, 2020, at 7:26 PM, Jim Hall <jh...@freedos.org> wrote:
The more I think about it. The more I like a having a separate EXTRAS disc.
Possibly even dropping the FULL/BASE choice and having just a BASE.
BASE to replicate MS-DOS functionality, plus networking support (FDNET), FDNPKG
and FDIMPLES.
Put all games, development tools, other utilities and etc on a separate media.
If the users want more stuff, they can use the additional CD and FDIMPLES or
FDNPKG to install it.
This would bring the release down to the approximate size of the Floppy Only
edition.
The exception being the LiveCD should contain some extra tools and games and
such.
>
>
> EDICT.
>
> At present, it creates images of diskettes. Similar to raread (image files
> are compatible). However, unlike raread it is far more persistent and always
> creates appropriate sized images. EDICT came into existence because I had a
> bunch of really old and neglected floppies sitting around. I couldn’t get
> Linux/Mac’s dd to image them. Nor was raread able to do it. Some of the
> diskettes were very borderline, throwing read errors at different places on
> each attempt. So, EDICT was born and was able to pull good images from those
> diskettes.
>
> There are future plans to stop, resume, switch drives or computers and
> generally improve data extraction. (Only so much time). Eventually, it will
> also get support to create disks from images. Operate on hard drives and
> partitions, etc. Once diskette creation is added, it could replace raread +
> rawrite at a fraction of their size.
>
> Did I mention it also has multi-language support and is pure assembler?
>
>
> If it makes sense to include EDICT, then it can stay. Just putting out ideas
> for people to respond to. :-)
At present, it’s only turns diskettes into images. Although it is smaller and
better at conversion than raread (especially with hard to read diskettes),
raread has been around a long long time, has had a lot of testing and is known
by the DOS community. If I had to make an un-biased decision, raread may be a
better choice for now. However when I eventually add the other features I
mentioned, EDICT would be a better choice than raread+rawrite.
There is no reason that the choice for today need be the choice for tomorrow.
>
> PGME.
>
> Fully customizable, text mode multi-language program launching multi-menu
> system on steroids and some associated utilities. Add the couple (or
> hundreds) of games and/or programs to one or more menus, then add it to your
> autoexec or fdauto. Never see or type anything at the command prompt again.
> You can even use some of the KIOSK features to lock the menus and keep a user
> from exiting to a command prompt.
>
>
> I haven't used PGME. Is it similar to the text-mode DOS shell from MS-DOS 4?
PGME similar to DOSSHELL? Not even remotely similar.
A little PGME history…
PGME’s roots go back a long, long way to circa 1983 on a Coleco Vision Adam.
The need arose to do cassette tape boot sector hacking in machine language to
provide improvements to a menu that would pick and then load one of several
game cartridge ROMs stored on cassette. Not to long later, the PC/clone became
a thing and moving to DOS, the concept of having a menu to quickly and easily
run programs and games came along. From simple batch menus, to a Quick Basic
version and on to TurboPascal the need remained. It grew more advanced, easier
to use and changed names a couple times over the years. Eventually as PGM 7.2,
it sat for decades as “good enough”. There was a version 8.x started. It was in
graphics mode and was dropped for several reasons. Mostly, because of users
switching to Windows 3.1. Version 9.x was considered for Windows 3.1. However
do to like of time and motivation, never happened. Then a couple years ago, I
was bored and decided to do version 10 with another slight name change to PGME.
The E stands for Eternity. It is complete overkill of the concept. There are a
couple features I have yet to add to PGME. But version 10 is the last version.
This one is built to last forever.
What program is PGME like?
(With PGME’s roots being ancient, it would be more fair to say “what program is
like PGME?“)
Well, I’ve seen a couple other’s that have sprung up over the decades. But
preferred none over the at-the-time version of PGM. But, I forget most of their
names and wouldn’t expect anyone else to remember them either. If I had to pick
one thing that is most like PGME that any layman would be familiar with, it
would be the “Windows Start Menu”. But that is only in concept, not design. The
Start Menu allows a user to only need click on a menu item and end up with the
program they want running. PGME also allows users to double-click on a menu
item to run a program (single-click only selects the item).
What are some features of PGME?
Text mode only.
Custom Fonts (ranging from 8x8 to 8x26).
Themed UI.
Multi-Language UI.
Multi-Language Menu Items.
Mouse and/or keyboard navigation.
Customizable keymaps and shortcuts.
Multiple menus.
and much, much more.
A menu item can be simple or complex.
A simple entry could be ‘FreeDOOM’. Double click it, it runs freedoom, quit
freedoom, goes back to PGME.
A complex item could be something like ‘Network backup of Documents’
Double click, it could go and turn on networking, load a device driver, copy
files to the network, shutdown networking, return to PGME.
For those big memory hungry games, PGME is designed to have a very small memory
footprint (about 10k). But if you need the extra 10k and if PGME is launched
through it’s batch script (as it should be) and not running from a read-only
filesystem, it can be told to use 0 bytes of memory.
There are a couple screen shots at https://up.lod.bz/PGME
<https://up.lod.bz/PGME>
I think they were using an 8x20 and 8x26 font (Using a couple different colors
and themes)
A PGME use case…
One primary use for PGM(E) has always been for a novice to run a game.
Basically, it went like this. Your girlfriend, mom or someone else who knows
next to nothing about computers or DOS (and doesn’t care to) could turn on the
computer. The end of the AUTEXEC.BAT would launch PGM(E), here they would see a
list of games or other programs. They could click and launch it. Play their
game or update a spreadsheet, Quit their program. PGM(E) would come back up and
they could pick something else. Over and over again. Until they turned off the
computer. All without needing to type or know a single DOS command, executable
name, directory location or any prerequisites to launching any program that has
been added to a PGM(E) menu.
:-)
Jerome
_______________________________________________
Freedos-devel mailing list
Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
