On 01/26/2012 10:53 AM, Bob Cochran wrote: > Greetings, > > I am pretty ignorant of how FreeDOS is used by the community as I am > sure my previous posts show. I would like to build a better > understanding of FreeDOS. What is it used for most commonly? I know it > is an operating system, of course, but I don't know why it is used as an > operating system compared to other operating system choices. I would > like to understand the user base for FreeDOS better. Are there many > users, or just a small base of users, or somewhere in between? > Hi Bob, I have been writing human performance tests on PCs for about 25 years, beginning with Apple IIe boxes, then moving to IBM PCs. FreeDOS is ideal for this as the OS only does what you tell it to do, and never capers off to do other tasks, thus allowing precise timing of events without having external equipment. Recently I learned how to use the BIOS real time clock interrupt to count time, and while taking a bit of learning and programming, this has proven superior to reprogramming TIMER0 on the 825x timer chip. Program data is written to a text file that can be processed by external utilities.
FreeDOS also allows me to take over the keyboard and pointer interrupts so that I can capture data from these devices. By using batch files and doing a little programming on the keyboard queue and Interapplication Communication Area, I can allow the users to run sequences of tests that require no operator input between tests. The only other OS I would consider is Linux, using Real Time Linux to run the tests (Windows is a disaster for timing). It would be more convenient, as the users could use a GUI to run things instead of complaining about selecting a batch file from a list. However, I would have to port all the code (C) to Linux and set up RTL, a considerable task. FreeDOS is still a viable option. Jim ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
