DOS Gui

There's a couple of ncurses-based libraries out there which work on UNIX, but I don't know of anything for windows (sans Cygwin).

But why would you want to do this anyway? If you don't want to use the Windows API (and I sure don't), why not use Qt? Or WxWidgets? Or FLTK? Or WTK? Or, hell, MFC?

Windows 3.1 anyone?

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Original post by lethalhamster Windows 3.1 anyone?

I wonder if anyone's ever bothered to write a clone of Win3.1 at any point.

I wrote a clone of edit in x86 Assembly years ago. I think I used a combination of BIOS calls, DOS interrupts and writing directly to the video memory. A0000 to B0000 I think. Dam I am getting old... this was years ago.

Following the links here, I found this tutorial and this library.

And then there was this thread: Pretty awesome tutorial on making your own Roguelike in C++

And here's a snippet that requires further investigation: Add a little Graphics to your Console

And this might lead to interesting results: Why are console windows limited to Lucida Console and raster fonts?

And this just might be what you're looking for: Windows Console (from gamedev's benryves)

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Original post by AcePilot create applications (with GUIs) like edit

That QBasic stuff? I think you're on your own there. I doubt it's that hard although it is still work. Unless you are running something serious RAM limitations there is no reason why can't make your own ASCII GUI. Just make the screen a 2D array of chars (80x40?).

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Original post by AcePilot I wonder if anyone's ever bothered to write a clone of Win3.1 at any point.

I'd kill for that. Well... alright I might kill a fly for that, but I do miss Windows 3.11.

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Original post by T1Oracle ... but I do miss Windows 3.11.

[wow] Really? All that fussing with drivers (sound drivers! video drivers! funky mouse troubles), segmented memory, bad programs that crash the entire system, malicious programs that cross process boundaries, ...

I'll take W2K or newer any day over all that.

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Original post by smc I wrote a clone of edit in x86 Assembly years ago. I think I used a combination of BIOS calls, DOS interrupts and writing directly to the video memory. A0000 to B0000 I think. Dam I am getting old... this was years ago.

Do you still have the source code?

Thank you LessBread, that library and Windows Console article are exactly what I am looking for. You have to teach me some of your searching skills...

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Original post by Sneftel But why would you want to do this anyway? If you don't want to use the Windows API (and I sure don't), why not use Qt? Or WxWidgets? Or FLTK? Or WTK? Or, hell, MFC?

I'm doing this mainly just out of curiosity. More specifically, I got tired of hunting down memory bugs in my game library (I was careful not to use the word 'engine') so I just started messing around with some exotic DOS applications I discovered on my computer. Thanks for those suggestions though, they seem like good replacements for the sensational Windows API that we all love.

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Original post by LessBread Quote: Original post by smc I wrote a clone of edit in x86 Assembly years ago. I think I used a combination of BIOS calls, DOS interrupts and writing directly to the video memory. A0000 to B0000 I think. Dam I am getting old... this was years ago. Do you still have the source code?

If I do it is on a 3 1/4 floppy. I'll take a look. It was the final project for my class.

You could also try PDCurses, a curses implementation that works under windows. I've never used it, but I've used NCurses which should be similar, and it's pretty easy to use.

There was also a DOS version of Visual Basic if you feel brave enough.

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Original post by benryves There was also a DOS version of Visual Basic if you feel brave enough.

Reminds me of something I miss even more. QBasic. Ok... I just miss the stuff I made with it. I used to be creative :(

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Original post by LessBread Quote: Original post by T1Oracle ... but I do miss Windows 3.11. [wow] Really? All that fussing with drivers (sound drivers! video drivers! funky mouse troubles), segmented memory, bad programs that crash the entire system, malicious programs that cross process boundaries, ... I'll take W2K or newer any day over all that.

*nostalgic euphoria WARNING!*

I never had that trouble on my IBM PS/1 with 2 MB RAM, 24 MHz 386SX, and 130MB Hard Drive. That thing booted faster than anything I have had since. Although I do admit that Vista's sleep mode is way faster, that's not the same.

I guess what I really miss were my first days using a computer when I didn't know any other programmers and I thought everything I did was cool.

I still remember the start up DOS prompt menu I made using batch programming. I think to start Windows it was 3 and Enter. :)

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Original post by AcePilot Thank you LessBread, that library and Windows Console article are exactly what I am looking for. You have to teach me some of your searching skills...

You're welcome. It's just a matter of picking the right words to stick into google and then discriminating between which results are junk and which are not. For that search I started with "curses library windows console" and then switched to "windows console graphics." Using a tabbed browser helps with checking out the results and skimming over some of them looking for additional links.

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Original post by smc Quote: Original post by LessBread Quote: Original post by smc I wrote a clone of edit in x86 Assembly years ago. I think I used a combination of BIOS calls, DOS interrupts and writing directly to the video memory. A0000 to B0000 I think. Dam I am getting old... this was years ago. Do you still have the source code? If I do it is on a 3 1/4 floppy. I'll take a look. It was the final project for my class.

If it's easy for you to find, I'd like to see it. If it's not easy for you to find, don't sweat it.

Where did you go to school? Here in the valley or elsewhere?

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Original post by T1Oracle Quote: Original post by LessBread Quote: Original post by T1Oracle ... but I do miss Windows 3.11. [wow] Really? All that fussing with drivers (sound drivers! video drivers! funky mouse troubles), segmented memory, bad programs that crash the entire system, malicious programs that cross process boundaries, ... I'll take W2K or newer any day over all that. *nostalgic euphoria WARNING!* I never had that trouble on my IBM PS/1 with 2 MB RAM, 24 MHz 386SX, and 130MB Hard Drive. That thing booted faster than anything I have had since. Although I do admit that Vista's sleep mode is way faster, that's not the same. I guess what I really miss were my first days using a computer when I didn't know any other programmers and I thought everything I did was cool. I still remember the start up DOS prompt menu I made using batch programming. I think to start Windows it was 3 and Enter. :)

Quick boots were definitely one thing those old pc's were good at.

I seem to recall an old version of Borland Turbo Pascal (6.0?) that had some kind of gui that was similar. I believe it was the same tool they used to actually make the gui for that version of Pascal, which was based in DOS.