Yea, I know about the MS OS/2 2.0 fiasco. But by the "problems" of the 286, I am referring to things like lack of support for switching back to real mode and lack of virtual 8086 mode.
LOADALL do not allow switching back to real mode. And yea:
http://www.rcollins.org/articles/loadall/tspec_a3_doc.html
Let's not forget Intel was tying up AMD with regard to producing 386 cpus. AMD eventualing one a lawssuit allowing them to produce 386s up in the early 1990s. AMDs 286s were on par with Intels 386sxs, apart from 386 specific instructions, for the most part anyway.The 386SX was a stroke of genius. It substantially lowered the entry price to 32-bit computing for the masses and began the end of the 8088 PC's dominance. By 1992, it was safe to write 32-bit code and expect it to sell.
Let's not forget Intel was tying up AMD with regard to producing 386 cpus. AMD eventualing one a lawssuit allowing them to produce 386s up in the early 1990s. AMDs 286s were on par with Intels 386sxs, apart from 386 specific instructions, for the most part anyway.
I think it was Win9x that did that, and took the infamous Win16Mutex while doing it to simulate a cooperatively multitasking system. OS/2 2.x did it too but didn't need the mutex since it was based on 1.x."one a lawsuit"? Are you using a speech-to-text tool?
But your post points up a key fact--in 1988, almost nobody really needed a 32-bit instruction set in their PC. Phar Lap, for instance, continued well into the mid-to-late 90s licensing their 16-bit DOS extender. I found some use for 32-bit registers and instructions in some code I wrote back then, but it was important that I not make a 386 a requirement for my code. So I wrote code that tested for 386 presence and used it in key routines where it would make a difference. That was very typical for the time.
How long was it before Windows got rid of "thunking" from 32-bit code to its own 16-bit DLLs?
Ah, I mentioned the MS OS/2 2.0 fiasco already. IBM ended up releasing OS/2 2.0 years before Win95, and during the gap MS used unethical tactics to attack OS/2.
How long was it before Windows got rid of "thunking" from 32-bit code to its own 16-bit DLLs?
Ah, I mentioned the MS OS/2 2.0 fiasco already. IBM ended up releasing OS/2 2.0 years before Win95, and during the gap MS used unethical tactics to attack OS/2.