plain DOS

[asasel]

Ove Kaaven <ovehk at ping.uio.no> wrote in message news:<yuqae1rif6v.fsf at mizar.ping.uio.no>...
> wine at schiebemasten.org (asasel) writes:
> 
> > aep at nospam writeme.com wrote in message news:<n300mtg9t1i79vicl9f1hpk6b0epts9gfc at 4ax.com>...
> > > On 26 Jul 2001 02:58:05 -0700, wine at schiebemasten.org (asasel) wrote:
> > > 
> > > >Hi!
> > > >
> > > >I just hear you talking about programs like UT or winword, requiring either
> > > >a 3D rendering engine or a million DLLs.
> > > >But has anyone of you ever successfully started a plain DOS Program like
> > > >MS edit.com or duke3d?
> > > 
> > > I could be wrong here, but from what I know, WINE enables you to run
> > > Windows programs, it is not a PC/DOS emulator, in which case it will
> > > have a hard time with DOS programs.
> > > 
> > > Andrew.
> > 
> > Ok, anyone else?
> > Maybe someone who does not think that windows is an operating system
> > on its own?
> 
> Wine is mostly architected after Windows NT, which IS an operating system
> on its own, and needs special subsystems to run DOS apps (and NT doesn't
> do it very well either). When it comes to Windows 9x, a DOS app is still
> virtualized away from the kernel using VDDs and VxDs. The kernel is a lot
> of 16-bit code, but 16-bit *protected-mde* code, which is very different
> from the 16-bit real-mode that DOS must use. If DOS wasn't abstracted
> and virtualized in Win9x, you wouldn't ever be able to run more than one
> DOS app at a time, and have them run simultaneously (multitask).
> But you can, even in win3.x (you could not in win2.x I think), which
> means that Windows handles DOS differently than you think.

dosemu would be a good idea (theoretically). In fact i have used dosemu
long before i started trying wine. and duke runs fine, that is right.
the problem is just that the fact that a program is a "windows program"
(=uses the win32-api) does not mean that it is not a DOS program (=uses
DOS interrupts and i386 real mode calls) either. There are quite some "DOS"
progs that just wont run in DOSemu or a real DOS because they require
windows and a software real mode server.
And what do i do with those, or first of all - what would you call those?