On 1 Feb 2007 15:41:18 -0800, eljainc@sbcglobal.net wrote:
If you want "simple", I think the best you can hope for is that your
wrapper will pop up a DOS box and run the original app. This
could be done in Win9x simply by setting up the shortcut
appropriately. But now XP, NT, 2K, etc have no more real-mode,
so this is no longer possible. (Though you might still be able
to make this work for simple console DOS apps... haven't tried.)
The bigger question is what exactly you are hoping for. Since
DOS apps had nothing analogous to standard Windows controls,
each app handled its input and output data as it saw fit. There
would be no way for some external wrapper to figure out what
the original code "really wanted" and map that to Windows controls.
DOS apps also could manipulate the video mode at will, and any
program worth using wrote directly to the graphics controller/memory,
except for simple text-only code. Direct graphics control was
*extremely* complicated and convoluted in EGA and VGA modes,
so I can't imagine any external wrapper figuring all of this out
and remapping to the current Windows mode on the fly. That
would be in the realm of "possible, but nobody likely to attempt
without a big government grant".
I think you get the idea...
Best regards,
Bob Masta
D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com
Scope, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Signal Generator
Science with your sound card!
