Introducing Dobson Utilities v6.0 – A New Suite for DOS & Windows 3.1x

[OzzFan]

Introducing Dobson Utilities v6.0 – A New Suite for DOS & Windows 3.1x

Hello everyone,

After many late nights and a fair bit of trial and error, I’m excited to share something I’ve been quietly working on for the past year or so: Dobson Utilities v6.0. This is a small package of programs written entirely in C++, marking my first foray into developing for both DOS and Windows 3.1x.

Here’s a quick overview of what’s included:
For Windows 3.1x
- A Task List replacement styled after NT’s Task Manager
- A Time Synchronization utility (requires TCP/IP stack installed)
For DOS
- A color-coded directory viewer that uses VGA colors to highlight directories and key file types. (Note: I haven’t tested it on EGA, CGA, or monochrome setups yet—feedback welcome!)
- A file locator utility
- A time stamp utility to change the date and time on files

Download & Info
You can grab the utilities using any retro browser like IE 3.x or Netscape Navigator 2.x by visiting:
http://www.shelteringoak.com/du Dobson Utilities Home Page

Video Walkthrough
I’ve also made a YouTube video showcasing each utility running on my actual 486 system—no emulation involved. If you’re curious, check it out on my channel:
Charlie’s Digital Adventures: https://www.youtube.com/@ozzfan1000
(direct link:

Thanks for taking a look—and hopefully, for watching too!

— Ozzfan

 

[OzzFan]

I was so excited to release these utilities that I didn't even review the YouTube video I posted. If I had, I would have realized how terrible it is. Sorry about that. At least you get the gist of the tools and what they're about. I'd try to reshoot the video but I just don't think I have the time right now.

 

[acgs]

I'm curious: why you are making the package available only through an installer?

While having an installer is a nice feature -- especially for new DOS users -- and makes for a more polished package, it would also be nice to be able to open up a zip file and select just the file(s) you want to look at. It also makes it possible to examine the files on non-DOS based systems without having to run the installer in an emulator.

 

[OzzFan]

I did that purely for the nostalgic effect. I wanted this to be no different than installing any other program from back in the day.

That being said, there's absolutely no reason why I can't provide a .zip file containing the programs. I can see about doing that once I get home from work tonight.

Funny enough, I was actually working on an upgraded installer that came with a Windows component that would create the program groups for you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[OzzFan]

Ok, the Zip file has been put up on the home page for those that want it.

 

[Plasma]

Neat stuff. Not too many people writing Windows 3.1 programs these days. A few suggestions:

MemInfo could benefit from showing UMBs (Is the "HMA" shown actually the HMA, or UMA?). All the other detailed MEM stuff (/C /D /M) would of course also be useful, but you probably don't want to reinvent the wheel.

Is it possible to show the memory used by each program in your Task Manager? That would also be useful.

Also I noticed the SSL cert on your website is expired. More people are using HTTPS-only these days so it would be good to have it current.

 

[OzzFan]

HMA is the High Memory Area, or the first 64k minus 16 bytes of extended memory found on 286 CPUs and above.

I do want to add RAM usage to Task Manager but there are no native Win16 calls to do this. I will likely have to walk the memory to get that info. But also, the List Box used to show the applications does not support having more than a single item/column so I'd have to write a custom list box.

Funny thing, I paid for the new SSL cert but never added it to my site and now the year is almost up and time to renew again. I'll have to get that fixed.

 

[Plasma]

HMA is the High Memory Area, or the first 64k minus 16 bytes of extended memory found on 286 CPUs and above.

I just wanted to confirm. Is there a reason you are showing HMA free but not UMA free? Most programs can't utilize the HMA free space.

 

[acgs]

I did that purely for the nostalgic effect. I wanted this to be no different than installing any other program from back in the day.

Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a good idea too. Lots of DOS shareware/freeware didn't have an installer back then, though. So people would also be used to unzipping into a new subdirectory and editing the path line in AUTOEXEC.BAT or similar process.

Funny enough, I was actually working on an upgraded installer that came with a Windows component that would create the program groups for you.

That's another good idea. Why not have multiple distribution files to cover each person's particular situation?

Since your (current) installer already uses a .zip formatted file to contain the files to install, maybe you could consolidate things a little be removing the zip password and just making your installers unpack a standard .zip file. Then people who have a reason to bypass installation could do so without you having to provide a separate distribution file.

 

[OzzFan]

I just wanted to confirm. Is there a reason you are showing HMA free but not UMA free? Most programs can't utilize the HMA free space.

It was easier to include that information since it is available via a simple software interrupt, but UMA free space, as far as I can tell, requires querying DOS for memory allocations via Memory Control Blocks, then walking the MCB chain to get the Program Segment Prefix (the first MCB of each TSR), then query the size of 16kb paragraphs and add them all up. Then I have to query every known block of memory between 640k and 1MB to see if they're free and add that up. Unless I'm wrong and overcomplicating this, my attempts at adding that code were not successful.

 

[OzzFan]

Since your (current) installer already uses a .zip formatted file to contain the files to install, maybe you could consolidate things a little be removing the zip password and just making your installers unpack a standard .zip file. Then people who have a reason to bypass installation could do so without you having to provide a separate distribution file.

You make a good point. I'll add that to my list of changes to make going forward.

 

[OzzFan]

Uploaded a better video to YouTube without the bottom of the screen cut off.

Next up, removing the password from the zip file and hopefully an updated installer that will create Windows program group and items for you.

 

[OzzFan]

I've released a minor update, version 6.01, that contains the following changes:

Added CHOICE option to SUPERBAT.COM. Syntax is: SUPERBAT CHOICE /C:[keys] MESSAGE.
Added EU option to GETDATE to display the date in "dd mm, yyyy" format.
Added free disk space report to CDIR.EXE.
Added used/free bars to MEMINFO for Windows. Resources are shown in blue, but as they approach low numbers, bar will change to red.
Removed password protection from DU.CWD zip file.

 

[OzzFan]

I've released another small update, version 6.02, with the following changes:

Added new utility: XMOVE.EXE. Like DOS's XCOPY but moves directory trees
Fixed integer rollover issue with large directories in CDIR.EXE output.
Fixed bug in SUPERBAT.COM CHOICE with user-specified prompt not showing up.
Renamed the installer from INSTALL.EXE to SETUP.EXE.

 

[nico7550]

Personal taste, I prefer tools in zip instead of installer. It could be also fine to have each tools parameters in help file or in individual help files.

 

[OzzFan]

Personal taste, I prefer tools in zip instead of installer. It could be also fine to have each tools parameters in help file or in individual help files.

The DU.CWD is a zip file (technically a self-extracting executable) you can extract yourself if you prefer.

I had help files for every utility in the last 5.x version and prior, but it didn't seem worth it to continue the upkeep on maintaining them. You can always create your own help files by redirecting the help output to a .txt file if you want.