some more questions!

[SebMcClouth]

Is there a way to detect a ps/2 mouse or a com-mouse?

The free memory on board? I know there is a way to detect the amount of mem onboard, now I need to know how much free there is...

Some basic hd info, like sectors, etc.

grtz
Seb

[MystikShadows]

Hi Seb,

I thinkyou would benefit from a quick detour down the ABC archives;

http://www.qbasicnews.com/abc/

There's many routines for many things in there and I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for .

[mennonite]

as long as you're content to sprinkle in 16 bit code, qbasic can work with ASM and call interrupt to do... well, damned near anything any program can. the limitation you know, is that it only works with 16 bit code (dos code, although windows used to be 16 bit as well) and windows xp has horrible dos emulation, and cuts a lot of 16 bit code's abilities.

there's a guy on the qbasic forum that wrote a program for his serial port printer, compiles/works fine in win98 and dos, but simply does nothing in xp. xp doesn't have dos. a lot of people are now using dosbox http://dosbox.sourceforge.net in xp because it emulates dos better than xp does natively.

yeah, your program can do anything anyone else's program does... if you're willing to code or find the code for the asm etc, but that's no guarantee that it will work outside of dos- and that's becoming a real issue. what i'll usually do to get around this stuff is, i'll SHELL "" to a command line utility that i know does what i want.

you could go a lot farther a lot faster using SHELL to let other software do your dirty work, but it does take time to hand over control to another program. on the other hand, arachne (graphical internet browser for dos) does almost everything it does by essentially the same means i'm describing. you might get some funny looks, but if you include enough features you might impress a few people too. i think it's hard to say. the answer to most of your questions seems to be "yes, you can, if you'd actually want to do that"... i say go for it.

[SebMcClouth]

I have no problem with the xp-problems. I only program on an old laptop (486+, ideal for qbinux), with runs with only DOS.

grtz
Seb

[{Nathan}]

There is a routine in RelLib that does that.

[Antoni]

I have no problem with the xp-problems. I only program on an old laptop (486+, ideal for qbinux), with runs with only DOS.

grtz
Seb

So qbinux will be unusable in anything else than plan "vanilla" DOS..
Well, after all it will include a bunch of good tricks!

[SebMcClouth]

I didn't say that... If I'm able to get it where I want it, you probably only need a dos boot disk... and qbinux will do the rest!

grtz
Seb

[{Nathan}]

just please, for the love of god, make it with 100% dos compatability without major slowdowns like xgui...

[SebMcClouth]

Can't guarantee that one. Depends if Novix supports it or not... if it doesn't... linux will have to give its M-commands source away... we'll see okay?

grtz
Seb

[Z!re]

Novix supports pure DOS environment..

It doesent even require a memory manager, as it transparently to the end user, switches to disk swap file usage if memory fails.

Novix fit on a diskette, but cant be run from one, as it requires about 20mb just to start (swap files)

[SebMcClouth]

no solution for that? I was thinking in Linux ways: ramdrive (if you have enough mem) and hope for the best...

grtz
Seb

[Z!re]

Sure there are fixes, just make the boot require less memory..

Novix uses almost 10x what it really needs, it just allocates for later use..

[SebMcClouth]

YEah I've noticed... it stack all my memory... so I had to remove some unnecessary things... but it worked.

grtz