https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/ 2026-07-14T01:53:34+00:00 https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/ https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/favicon.ico text/html 2026-07-11T20:33:58+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0711_early_july_compression_woes?rev=1783794838&do=diff Early July: Compression woes 2026-07-11 This week I found some bugs in several compression details, and I also found something I thought was a bug but isn't. lDOS kernel * Empty changeset to rebuild with new LZSA2N depacker. mvcomp * Import several commits from last year. lDOS boot * text/html 2026-07-04T23:14:51+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0704_early_july_work_on_compression_and_freedos_label_device_findfirst_bug?rev=1783199691&do=diff Early July work on compression, and FreeDOS label device FindFirst bug 2026-07-04 lDOS kernel * Fix ticket #1009, all-caps the MODULE define and replace the spurious blank by an LF. (I noticed these while copying the iniloadc.mac file to set up lfreedos.) lFreeDOS * New repo to pack an existing FreeDOS kernel file into an lDOS inicomp, iniload, or drload stage. Files based on the lDOS kernel repo's scripts. text/html 2026-06-28T17:43:12+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0628_mid_to_late_june_work?rev=1782661392&do=diff Mid to late June work 2026-06-28 webecm * Add section on the bugtracker, a link in links, and list it in the news * Update news item and hgweb link, on use of the Anubis Web AI Firewall Utility for the hgweb service lDOS patchini * Add halt flag 16 to mean do not halt on an expected device mismatch (DEVCRASHDOS, added on 2026-05-25) Buggy (bug ticket format tool) text/html 2026-06-23T23:46:21+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0623_a_computer_can_never_be_held_accountable_idiom?rev=1782251181&do=diff A computer can never be held accountable (idiom) a page by Simon Willison idioms text/html 2026-06-22T03:06:24+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0622_i_develop_software_an_idiom?rev=1782090384&do=diff I develop software (an idiom) their github sponsors page idioms anubis text/html 2026-06-16T12:47:55+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0616_update_on_the_anti-scraping_measures_for_our_hgweb?rev=1781606875&do=diff Update on the anti-scraping measures for our hgweb As of 2025 October, we required password sign in for the hgweb service. The idea was to instruct users on what username and password to enter but have malicious automated scrapers fail to enter the correct sign in. This did work, but it wasn't a very nice change to communicate to users. text/html 2026-06-07T18:18:25+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0607_a_few_more_parts_of_the_bugtracker_and_the_first_tickets?rev=1780849105&do=diff A few more parts of the bugtracker, and the first tickets 2026-06-07 The tracker at <https://pushbx.org/ecm/bug/> is populated by some tickets now. Most of them are closed, pertaining to tasks already finished. Buggy (bug format tool) Do not symlink hidden files (eg nano swap files) into the out subdirectories. text/html 2026-06-06T10:52:25+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0606_early_june_work_setting_up_the_bug_tracker?rev=1780735945&do=diff Early June work: Setting up the bug tracker 2026-06-05 This week I copied the bugtracker and its companion tool called "buggy" from the Dillo browser. I forked both to use as a bug tracker on <https://pushbx.org/ecm/bug/> Buggy (bug tracker format tool) * Import git repo history from Dillo * text/html 2026-06-03T20:54:11+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0603_if_you_want_a_job_done_an_idiom?rev=1780512851&do=diff If you want a job done (an idiom) 2014-06-25 Minimal Viable Programs idioms text/html 2026-06-02T16:44:37+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0602_mid_to_late_may_work?rev=1780411477&do=diff Mid to late May work 2026-05-31 lDOS kernel * Fix to not find a character device on FindFirst with an exact name match and the volume label attribute bit set. (Contains testfind.asm, a test case.) This bug used to be documented in the interrupt list, except the sense is wrong. The intended (MS-DOS v5) behaviour is to never find devices when searching for labels. The DEVNAME function checks "Attrib" to determine that a label search is in progress, but it was set from "SAttrib" only later. Th… text/html 2026-06-01T20:03:02+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2025/0119_ms-dos_simpler_buffers_and_doscode_split?rev=1780336982&do=diff MS-DOS: simpler buffers and DOSCODE split 2025-01-19 This week I first uploaded some changes from the last 20 days concerning an adaptation of the MS-DOS v2.11 buffers subsystem to the lMS-DOS code base. Then I worked on splitting the DOSCODE segment from DOSDATA. This work isn't finished: While the split is done, it is not yet useful. But the hardest part seems to be done. text/html 2026-05-28T21:15:17+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0528_two_hard_problems?rev=1779995717&do=diff Two hard problems Leon Bambrickquoted by Martin Fowler That page collects some more variations on this idiom. idioms text/html 2026-05-18T19:55:11+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0518_early_mid_may_work?rev=1779126911&do=diff Early mid May work 2026-05-17 This week I worked some on debugging DR-DOS v9. The relevant updates to the debugger and loader are listed in yesterday's blog post dedicated to that. Except for Sunday's update to the manual to list nreserve.eld more completely. The only other changes concern the list and WarpLink. text/html 2026-05-16T20:40:11+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0516_dr-dos_v9_trial?rev=1778956811&do=diff DR-DOS v9 trial I tried out the most recent build of DR-DOS v9 recently. In case you're unaware, DR-DOS v9 is a new project that provides a proprietary and closed source DOS that is "a faithful clean-room reimplementation" coupled with the original trademark for DR-DOS. It is "free to download and use for personal, educational, and hobbyist purposes", but does not appear to permit redistribution. text/html 2026-05-11T16:49:53+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0511_early_may_work?rev=1778510993&do=diff Early May work 2026-05-10 IntList For the capital-P L command (add all matching hyperlinked entries to preserved edit files list), resume the hyperlink search at the prior match rather than starting anew. This reduces the time for capital-P L "21.4402" (which adds 32 entries) from more than 4s to about 1.7s. text/html 2026-05-08T16:58:21+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0508_when_0_paragraphs_free_is_not_the_same_as_0_paragraphs_free?rev=1778252301&do=diff When 0 paragraphs free is not the same as 0 paragraphs free Recently I returned to lDOS's memory allocation code that handles LMCBs and UMCBs. I'd intended to determine the amount of changes needed in order to make the allocation more compatible to MS-DOS v5, as in coalescing all free blocks in (only) the area being scanned. In particular, with COMPAT=NOCOLLECTALLMCBS, lDOS would end the scan early if a first fit match was found. MS-DOS would scan to the end of the area even for first fit. (For… text/html 2026-05-03T16:29:05+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0503_april/may_work?rev=1777818545&do=diff April/May work 2026-05-03 lDOS kernel * Replace entries in the int 21h DISPATCH table for user stack functions (33h, 50h, 51h, 62h, 64h) by servernoop which acts like a DOS v1 style error (AL = 00h, CF unchanged). This avoids the inevitable crash if one of these functions is called from a server call (int 21h function 5D00h). text/html 2026-04-28T18:56:23+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0428_late_april_work?rev=1777395383&do=diff Late April work 2026-04-26 lDebug * For loader MOVE commands and N EXT installation, detect "no EBDA present" if MEMDISK installed itself below an EBDA. This appears to be correct. * Document MEMDISK EBDA fixes in the news-r11 section of the manual. tractest/convlist.pl * Improve use with gcc-compiled FreeDOS kernel, recognise .ptext and IB sections to set gccsections variable. Also, only dump hash_section_file_offsets once. text/html 2025-11-04T16:41:44+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/?image=blog%3Apushbx%3A2025%3Acore04_blogo.png&ns=blog%3Apushbx%3A2025&rev=1762270904&tab_details=history&mediado=diff&do=media <img src="https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/_media/blog/pushbx/2025/core04_blogo.png?w=320&h=200&t=1762270904&amp;tok=8dd961" alt="blog:pushbx:2025:core04_blogo.png" /> text/html 2024-02-14T17:33:38+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/?image=blog%3Apushbx%3A2024%3A20240211_175538653_030c.png&ns=blog%3Apushbx%3A2024&rev=1707928418&tab_details=history&mediado=diff&do=media <img src="https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/_media/blog/pushbx/2024/20240211_175538653_030c.png?w=500&h=96&t=1707928418&amp;tok=47ecc8" alt="blog:pushbx:2024:20240211_175538653_030c.png" />