RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] SOFTWARE TO SEND PROGRAM TO CNC

FreeDOS should be fine.
http://www.freedos.org/


The issue with Windows is that you can only sort-of multitask. You can run
several applications and they can each access the same ports. For most
applications these requests are put in a queue. Want to print from two
applications? The first document will print first, the second one will print
second. You will not have mixed pages of both documents being printed at
the same time.

The way that MSFT chose to do this was to "virtualize" the ports. Your app
will control a virtual "port" and Windows will take the input from that
"port" and send it to the appropriate device driver. (I am simplifying a lot
here...) This makes a lot of sense as it allows peripheral manufacturers to
make any kind of device and have it run under any kind of app. All they
have to do is have a decent driver (yeah riiigghhhhttt..)

Windows was a big wonderful thing to application writers as they no longer
had to test their apps on all of the possible combinations of hardware.
Microsoft provided a clearing house of drivers for all of the new video
cards, ports, modems, printers, plotters, etc. etc. etc. - The application
writers saw the economic benefits and moved on. They only had to write to
one set of standards for the virtual port.



The problem with running DOS applications under Windows (after Win95) is
that they were written with the intention that they will be the only app
being run on the system and that they will have direct control over any and
all hardware. Most DOS apps had installation utilities that allowed you to
select the type of video card, the type of serial ports, etc... It was the
responsibility of the app manufacturer to provide the capabilities for
'talking' to all of the hardware out there. Updates were crucial.

There __were__ a few solutions to multi-tasking - DesqView was the biggie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DESQview - overview
http://www.chsoft.com/dv.html - downloads

Some later DOS apps were written to "play nice" when running in a CMD window
in Windows but the list of those is pretty small.

Windows 95 was the last version of Windows that allowed direct communication
with peripheral ports. NT never really could.

Linux is a different ball of wax as it was written from the ground up to
properly multi-task and the virtualization is handled at the device level
rather than at some intermediate phantom "port"


And again, I have simplified a lot here...

Dave

> -----Original Message-----
> From: CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of stan
> Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 5:44 AM
> To: CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] SOFTWARE TO SEND PROGRAM TO CNC
>
> On Friday 21 December 2007 05:52:32 Dave Halliday wrote:
> > You can find copies of Q Modem online - the only issue is
> that it only
> > works in a DOS box and if you are running Windows, will
> only work on Win95
> > as Q Modem writes __directly__ to the serial port hardware and other
> > versions of Windows prevents that.
>
> Anyone had any success using dosbox or any other dos
> emulators with the dos
> based apps? Not sure about windows but on linux the port
> compatibility is
> very good with dosbox.
> Also, has anyone tried them with freedos?
> cheers
>
>
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