Cool project but where’s the source? I would think there should be some scripts to build the binaries and boot image and links or Git submodules to the code being used.
Somehow you went from OS parts and config files to a binary. I’m always suspicious of a binary dropped as a release for a code/script-free repository.
Maybe have the SVN projects mirrored in Git (migrated to preserve history), add your custom config.sys and autoexec.bat, plus whatever it was that made the binary. Visitors to the repo should be able to go from source to binary on their own, with the released binaries as just a convenience.
Somehow you went from OS parts and config files to a binary.
“A” binary? No. I installed the OS, using its stock installer. I added a few extra components, from its own repo using its own packaging tool: mouse driver, text editor, JEMM memory manager. I’ve listed them on Github.
You do know how installing a DOS works, right? The install media contain compressed binaries, and installation consists of uncompressing them and copying them to disk. That is all it consists of.
I did not create or modify any binaries whatsoever at any point in this process. I have not compiled a single line. There is absolutely no change in any binary in this image from what the SvarDOS project supplied.
This has been a little hobby project of mine since I dislocated my shoulder back in 2017. Finding that SvarDOS had switched to the Enhanced DR DOS kernel was the impetus for me to redo it based on SvarDOS, find it smaller, simpler, and more familiar than FreeDOS, and get a version 1.0 out there.
I plan to add more versions and options over time.
I’m a fan of the science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer, who famously still uses WordStar. So I wrote to him about this project, only to discover that version 1.1 already includes his own WordStar package. Small world!
As is often the case, some other site picked up my story and published their own, summarising it. What I found really odd is that the author said that they weren’t able to get WordStar running themselves. It’s all prepackaged and right there, complete with VDosPlus, which I’ve also written about.
Apparently this is still really hard for some people from the point-and-click era. Which was an impetus toward getting some version of this finalised enough to share, over the Yule holidays. (I tried last year, as well, but just didn’t have time to get it ready. Before I discovered SvarDOS there was a fair bit more work involved.)
You’ve got two readmes that differ by case. GitHub is choosing the correct one to show, in that it’s the one with the updated picture with boot menu options, but I’m not going to be diffing them to actually understand which one is better….
I wrote it, uploaded it, and it wouldn’t display, so I renamed it.
I don’t actually use Git to generate this at all. I am merely using Github as a hosting site. I must get in there from the command line and remove the dupe, but I have about an hour a week if that to spend on this.
I used Git every day for 2 of my last 5 jobs, but I must admit, I absolutely hate it as a tool. My usage style is compliant with Xkcd 1597.
Now fixed, I think. You have to view the file in order to delete it, apparently.
Finding the instructions was very much like the mouseover text of that XKCD:
“If that doesn’t fix it, git.txt contains the phone number of a friend of mine who understands git. Just wait through a few minutes of ‘It’s really pretty simple, just think of branches as…’ and eventually you’ll learn the commands that will fix everything.”
Cool project but where’s the source? I would think there should be some scripts to build the binaries and boot image and links or Git submodules to the code being used.
I have no scripts or anything because I didn’t compile it. I did not build, link, make or in any other way compile a single byte of this.
It’s 2 (two) hand-edited config files (the classic DOS combo of
CONFIG.SYS+AUTOEXEC.BAT) and a big ol’ pile of existing code.SvarDOS has source, but note, in SVN not Git.
http://svardos.org/
Somehow you went from OS parts and config files to a binary. I’m always suspicious of a binary dropped as a release for a code/script-free repository.
Maybe have the SVN projects mirrored in Git (migrated to preserve history), add your custom config.sys and autoexec.bat, plus whatever it was that made the binary. Visitors to the repo should be able to go from source to binary on their own, with the released binaries as just a convenience.
“A” binary? No. I installed the OS, using its stock installer. I added a few extra components, from its own repo using its own packaging tool: mouse driver, text editor, JEMM memory manager. I’ve listed them on Github.
You do know how installing a DOS works, right? The install media contain compressed binaries, and installation consists of uncompressing them and copying them to disk. That is all it consists of.
I did not create or modify any binaries whatsoever at any point in this process. I have not compiled a single line. There is absolutely no change in any binary in this image from what the SvarDOS project supplied.
This has been a little hobby project of mine since I dislocated my shoulder back in 2017. Finding that SvarDOS had switched to the Enhanced DR DOS kernel was the impetus for me to redo it based on SvarDOS, find it smaller, simpler, and more familiar than FreeDOS, and get a version 1.0 out there.
I plan to add more versions and options over time.
Distraction-free DOS is a great idea… until you remember the wonderful games from that era :-)
Ha! True enough. I am not a gamer and this didn’t even cross my mind.
Yes, you could…
If that is what someone wants, I’m all for it. I was thinking of uploading a “bare image” to make just that easier, in fact.
Lot of work, though. DosBox or something is probably quicker and easier.
DosBox probably does make it quicker and easier, but has the same problem that made you make your project - distractions.
Exactly. :-)
I’m a fan of the science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer, who famously still uses WordStar. So I wrote to him about this project, only to discover that version 1.1 already includes his own WordStar package. Small world!
Ha! Thanks. He shared it on Bluesky today, so your mail may be the reason.
I have met him once, and I have really enjoyed several of his books. I wrote about his package of WordStar a while ago:
https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/06/wordstar_7_the_last_ever/
As is often the case, some other site picked up my story and published their own, summarising it. What I found really odd is that the author said that they weren’t able to get WordStar running themselves. It’s all prepackaged and right there, complete with VDosPlus, which I’ve also written about.
https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/28/friday_foss_fest_running_dos/
Apparently this is still really hard for some people from the point-and-click era. Which was an impetus toward getting some version of this finalised enough to share, over the Yule holidays. (I tried last year, as well, but just didn’t have time to get it ready. Before I discovered SvarDOS there was a fair bit more work involved.)
You’ve got two readmes that differ by case. GitHub is choosing the correct one to show, in that it’s the one with the updated picture with boot menu options, but I’m not going to be diffing them to actually understand which one is better….
Yeah, I know. :-(
I wrote it, uploaded it, and it wouldn’t display, so I renamed it.
I don’t actually use Git to generate this at all. I am merely using Github as a hosting site. I must get in there from the command line and remove the dupe, but I have about an hour a week if that to spend on this.
I used Git every day for 2 of my last 5 jobs, but I must admit, I absolutely hate it as a tool. My usage style is compliant with Xkcd 1597.
Now fixed, I think. You have to view the file in order to delete it, apparently.
Finding the instructions was very much like the mouseover text of that XKCD:
“If that doesn’t fix it, git.txt contains the phone number of a friend of mine who understands git. Just wait through a few minutes of ‘It’s really pretty simple, just think of branches as…’ and eventually you’ll learn the commands that will fix everything.”