Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: Nice dos desktop gui program launcher...  (Read 8037 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline haywirepcTopic starter

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Sep 2009
  • Posts: 1331
    • Show only replies by haywirepc
Nice dos desktop gui program launcher...
« on: July 27, 2010, 06:52:02 AM »
If you have or use ms-dos, dr-dos, free-dos, dosemu or dosbox...
Here is something nice that will run on amiga, aros, windows, linux, osx and just about anything else that runs a dos emulator.
 
If there is interest, I may package this up in some way so that others can use it. It is or at least was open source. What we have here is a program launcher of sorts for dos. It can do 1280x1024 x256 colors on any computer with vga (or dosbox/dosemu of course) I know there is some type of program launcher frontend for dosbox, but I still kind of prefer this. Here we see the Dos gui desktop at 1280x1024 on my vector linux desktop, which is 1600x1200.

www.subcultureproductions.com/linux/cap1.jpg

Next we see the dos desktop full screen... I realize the icons look boxy, but I'm not sure the icon format supports transparent backgrounds so...
www.subcultureproductions.com/linux/cap2.jpg

Next we see the desktop again, but a bit cleaner I suppose. The background image can be scaled.
www.subcultureproductions.com/linux/cap3.jpg

Next, a bit darker or grungier, but cool...
http://www.subcultureproductions.com/linux/cap5.jpg
 
of course this is just a nice launcher/shell, there is no multi-tasking or
really advanced features. Just looks nice and helps launch programs
fast. When launched, the program starts, dosgui drops out. When you quit the program, you return to dosgui.

Icons can be made any size I suppose, Fonts, background image can be changed. You can create, delete or move
icons however you like. Screen res can be changed, and so on. Interesting anyway...  Let me know what you think.
Not bad for basic programming...
Steven
 

Offline cv643d

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: May 2003
  • Posts: 1197
    • Show only replies by cv643d
Re: Nice dos desktop gui program launcher...
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2010, 11:40:09 AM »
I like it
Amiga articles
"New shell. It was finished a while back, but I still see bugs, haha" - SSolie
 

Offline jj

  • Lifetime Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 4052
  • Country: wales
  • Thanked: 2 times
  • Gender: Male
    • Show only replies by jj
Re: Nice dos desktop gui program launcher...
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2010, 01:26:07 PM »
Will this work ok with MorphsOS ?
“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” - George Bernard Shaw

Xbox Live: S0ulA55a551n2
 
Registered MorphsOS 3.13 user on Powerbook G4 15"
 

Offline basman74

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Aug 2007
  • Posts: 61
    • Show only replies by basman74
Re: Nice dos desktop gui program launcher...
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2010, 02:32:12 PM »
Nice one!

Just curious, but can it support 320x200 (VGA Mode 13h) screenmode? :D

Cheers Valentin
 

Offline haywirepcTopic starter

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Sep 2009
  • Posts: 1331
    • Show only replies by haywirepc
Re: Nice dos desktop gui program launcher...
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2010, 07:31:05 AM »
It will do 640x400 x256 colors. I am trying to locate the source code...
 
Many dos programs won't start due to some dos programs memory requirements. I'm going to see if I can't make the shell dump out of memory completely when a program starts, it would then restart like a dos batch file after the program ends.
 
Steven
 

Offline basman74

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Aug 2007
  • Posts: 61
    • Show only replies by basman74
Re: Nice dos desktop gui program launcher...
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2010, 01:39:28 PM »
Quote from: haywirepc;572394
It will do 640x400 x256 colors. I am trying to locate the source code...


I see. Whilst I can theoretically emulate that through VESA, I think I'll save it for my next hardware revision :)

Quote from: haywirepc;572394
Many dos programs won't start due to some dos programs memory requirements. I'm going to see if I can't make the shell dump out of memory completely when a program starts, it would then restart like a dos batch file after the program ends.


Are you referring to the conventional memory limitations within DOS? If so you can also try loading the launcher itself into extended/expanded memory upon DOS boot-up. Please ignore if you've already tried this..


Cheers Valentin