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problem with "MS-DOS Player" and expand

6885P5H said:
I already have VMWare Workstation Player installed on my computer if I want to use a more traditional emulator.
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VMWare is not an emulator, it is a hypervisor that virtualizes x86 hardware. In a very limited sense it can be called an emulator because it emulates a common hardware platform that is known to be supported by as many different operating systems as possible to be as flexible as possible.

DosBox on the other hand is an x86 emulator for both the CPU and classic PC peripherals like video and sound cards. You can cycle emulate a slower CPU with DosBox, like a 8088 or 386 for DOS applications that are timing sensitive. You can also emulate things like a Sound Blaster, GUS or Adlib. You won't find those features in VMWare, ever.

MS-DOS Player takes code directly from DosBox and some from QEMU, according to the author.

Plasma said:
DOSBox is 3.6MB. MS-DOS Player is 440KB.
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And .NET framework is several thousand megabytes. Doesn't stop lazy programmers from using one or two functions from .NET in a 250kb application requiring 900MB+ of dependencies. DosBox is benign in comparison.

Plasma said:
The advantages have already been explained. MS-DOS Player runs DOS text-mode applications and utilities natively in the Windows console with direct mouse cursor and clipboard integration. It can create self-contained EXEs that run seamlessly as console programs. It's not for playing games.
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While DosBox doesn't natively run in Windows CLI, it's not hard to make a shortcut and a script to make containerized executables in DosBox. DosBox-X has more features to support easier clipboard sharing and mouse capture.

MS-DOS player is far more limited in comparison. It doesn't even look like it supports protected mode, which limits it to extremely simple applications that can be done by other more modern programs.
 
The majority of DOS apps and utilities don't need protected mode. As I have said multiple times, they are intended for different purposes. If you want to run a DOS util directly in the Windows console, DOSBox is not the best choice.
 
Plasma said:
The majority of DOS apps and utilities don't need protected mode. As I have said multiple times, they are intended for different purposes. If you want to run a DOS util directly in the Windows console, DOSBox is not the best choice.
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You forget the 64-bit bit....
 
Plasma said:
The majority of DOS apps and utilities don't need protected mode. As I have said multiple times, they are intended for different purposes. If you want to run a DOS util directly in the Windows console, DOSBox is not the best choice.
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64 bit versions of Windows, which has been the vast majority of Windows installs for well over a decade now, can't run 16 bit code at all. There's no mechanism to "thunk" into 16 bit mode on 64 bit versions of Windows, you have to use a 32 bit version and suffer all of the limitations associated with it. This means that neither pure 16 bit or even protected mode applications will work because they both have to run 16 bit code.


Running 32 bit Windows used to not be a big deal, but it is now. The 4 GB address space limitation is a big problem with video cards eating into the system memory map. Applications are also increasingly ditching 32 bit for 64 bit only builds, and so are drivers. This makes it necessary to either have an older machine on hand, or use something like DosBox.
 
GiGaBiTe said:
64 bit versions of Windows, which has been the vast majority of Windows installs for well over a decade now, can't run 16 bit code at all.
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Congratulations, you have finally discovered the purpose of MS-DOS Player.
 
Plasma said:
No I didn't. MS-DOS Player can run DOS programs directly in the Windows console, on 64-bit Windows. DOSBox can't do that. That is the entire point.
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You forgot the "text" bit this time......

Something DosBox can do.

On a lot of other platforms besides just 64-bit MS Windows.
 
I didn't forget anything. Why do you continue to argue about a program you have never used and clearly know nothing about?

The use case for DOSBox and MS-DOS Player is different. As I keep repeating and you keep ignoring.
 
Plasma said:
I didn't forget anything. Why do you continue to argue about a program you have never used and clearly know nothing about?

The use case for DOSBox and MS-DOS Player is different. As I keep repeating and you keep ignoring.
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How's that racing car?
 
You know all about imaginary land because you live there... 😉

I've had enough of your ignorant trolling. Blocked.
 
So where is PCem and 86box in all of this? I find this subject curious as to what would be a good use scenario for everyone's applications., I can see how MSdos Player could be useful if one still has 16 bit applications being used. I know my local junkyard still uses Novell Netware and MSdos. Been called over a few times to fix their network. (Get free stuff out of the yard in return, woot woot)
 
Of course there is DosEMU for those folk Who use *nix type setups.

I remember browsing through a Linux related book a couple of decades at our local Whitcoulles book store, still in the same place now, reading about DosEMU with Caldera OpenDos 7.x included.
 
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