https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/ 2026-04-26T20:49:14+00:00 https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/ https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/favicon.ico text/html 2024-07-29T19:29:46+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/0729_mid_to_late_july_work?rev=1722274186&do=diff Mid to late July work 2024-07-28 The last two weeks I improved ident86 and used it to identicalise the Enhanced DR-DOS drdos module (ported to JWasm) as well as a new port of MSDebug to NASM. This new port re-used the fixmem.pl script from the WarpLink port to NASM. text/html 2026-03-09T18:43:41+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0309_early_march_work_on_ldebug_warplink_ident86_and_patchini?rev=1773078221&do=diff Early March work on lDebug, WarpLink, ident86, and patchini 2026-03-08 This week I uploaded a new branch to the lDebug repo, updating the sources to build with a makefile that assembles multiple object files, then links them using the WarpLink linker. text/html 2024-12-03T19:11:32+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/1203_november_december_continued_work_on_ms-dos_porting_and_ldebug?rev=1733249492&do=diff November December: Continued work on MS-DOS porting, and lDebug 2024-12-03 This Sunday I was sick at home so I didn't get to write a blog post. Luckily I found some time today (Tuesday). lDebug Some older changesets uploaded now are about comments in the line assembler source texts. text/html 2024-12-04T13:01:43+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/1204_notes_on_porting_ms-dos_msdos_msbio_share?rev=1733313703&do=diff Notes on porting MS-DOS (msdos, msbio, share) 2024-12-04 I finally get to describe the porting work done on the fork of MS-DOS v4 some. Workflow The final workflow went something like this: * Set and export f variable to next object basename (uncapitalised, without filename extension) text/html 2024-12-11T14:30:36+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/1211_early_december_work?rev=1733923836&do=diff Early December work 2024-12-08 Today marks the 100th blog post that I wrote on the HP 95LX. It also is likely to be the last post in December due to the café closing for a few weeks starting tomorrow. lDebug The lDebug repo got updated some. * text/html 2024-11-18T19:14:58+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/1118_early_mid_november_work_on_porting_the_ms-dos_kernel?rev=1731953698&do=diff Early mid November work on porting the MS-DOS kernel 2024-11-17 This week I mostly spent on continuing to port parts of the msdos kernel module of my fork of the free software MS-DOS v4 kernel. fixmem This tool was updated to better handle the conversion of the msdos sources. After several small updates, it also gained support for section ENDS directives and handling of ASSUME directives. Assumptions are used to automatically insert segment overrides when accessing variables that are known t… text/html 2024-07-14T20:48:06+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/0714_early_mid_july_work?rev=1720982886&do=diff Early mid July work 2024-07-14 This week I started the ident86 project, which combines several parts to aid in comparing ports from one assembly language dialect to another. WarpLink The build using the mak.sh script now creates NASM listing files. These are for use with the convert listing files script. text/html 2025-09-14T17:48:05+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2025/0909_early_september_work?rev=1757864885&do=diff Early September work 2025-09-07 fixupp To help port the default overlay manager of WarpLink to NASM, we had to use symbols starting with a dollar sign. But NASM didn't support those. (In the upcoming NASM v3.00 some support has been added.) To bridge this gap, I modified the trusty fixupp utility once again. It will now replace one or more leading "D." in section, class, or symbol names by a dollar sign each. text/html 2024-08-09T17:51:14+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/0809_freedos-devel_mail_on_edr-dos_single-file_load_jwasm_port_and_ident86?rev=1723218674&do=diff freedos-devel mail on EDR-DOS single-file load, JWasm port, and ident86 Copied from my mail to the freedos-devel list. Hello Eric, hello list, On at 2024-07-26 13:04 +0200, Eric Auer via Freedos-devel wrote: " Hi! News from BTTR: <https://www.bttr-software.de/forum/board_entry.php?id=20959&page=0&order=time&category=0> while working on a single-file version of the EDR-DOS kernel, text/html 2024-11-25T18:25:54+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/1125_mid_late_november_work_on_porting_the_ms-dos_kernel?rev=1732555554&do=diff Mid late November work on porting the MS-DOS kernel 2024-11-24 This week I worked on porting some more of the MS-DOS kernel to NASM, starting on the msbio module. x2b2 * Bugfix, when the MZ .EXE header indicates a last page size of 0 this means it text/html 2024-11-04T18:13:29+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/1104_october_november_work_on_porting_the_ms-dos_v4.01_kernel?rev=1730740409&do=diff October November work on porting the MS-DOS v4.01 kernel 2024-11-03 Today I finally uploaded the first steps toward porting the free software MS-DOS kernel (released on 2024 April 26) to build with NASM and WarpLink (and x2b2 and round and convlist.pl). So far only one file has been ported. text/html 2024-08-20T19:41:44+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/0820_mid_august_work_not_much?rev=1724175704&do=diff Mid August work (not much) 2024-08-18 fixmem * Call addequate for section or group names listed in WRT clauses, and add section or group name to the equates structures Enhanced DR-DOS Finished port of drbio to NASM. ident86 * Add -f switch to change or increase default fuzzy compare equal delta limit (from default 32) text/html 2024-08-12T19:21:40+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/0812_early_august_work?rev=1723483300&do=diff Early August work 2024-08-11 EIDL EIDL was a simple TSR that installed an int 28h handler which runs a hlt instruction, then chains to the prior handler. My adaptation of it combines the simple handler with the TSR example's multiplexer, as well as the optimal installation and advanced deinstallation method. text/html 2026-03-15T17:40:05+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0315_early_mid_march_work_on_several_bits_and_bobs?rev=1773592805&do=diff Early mid March work on several bits and bobs 2026-03-15 patchini * Extract lib.asm from patldos assembly language port * Move the cut function into lib.asm * Extract msg.asm from patldos * Re-use lib.asm in patchqry.asm * Add option define _INCLUDEPATCHQRY for patldos.asm * Extract messages from patchqry.asm into msg.asm * Add sections to assembly language sources (CODE, DATA, and BSS) * Enable assembling both tools together * Call patchqry as a subfunction from patldos.asm… text/html 2025-09-14T16:35:04+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2025/0914_early_mid_september_work?rev=1757860504&do=diff Early mid September work 2025-09-14 MSDebug Correct a typo in the manual's ldebug-ad section. lDebug Work on the amitsrs Extension for lDebug: * Add ONLY= keyword accepting a number or a range (FROM value TO value or FROM value LENGTH value). Only the specified multiplex numbers are listed. text/html 2025-05-12T19:26:08+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2025/0512_april_to_early_may_update?rev=1747070768&do=diff April to early May update 2025-05-11 In April I was sick for several weeks. I didn't get much done during that time, and little since. However, a few things did get done. While creating the file for this blog post the HP 95LX complained about the file system being read only. This was quickly resoled by flipping the switch at the outer side of the memory card. text/html 2025-10-12T19:39:38+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2025/1012_early_october_updates?rev=1760290778&do=diff Early October updates 2025-10-12 MSDebug * Support FAT32 sector read and write with 21.7305 (needed on MS-DOS v7 and FreeDOS for FAT32 FS, apparently not needed on Enhanced DR-DOS). * Lock and unlock volume for sector writes using int 26 or 21.7305 (needed on MS-DOS v7, no-op otherwise). * Increment ecm release to r4. * Update manual with sector access updates, and drop it from missing features list. text/html 2024-09-10T19:06:11+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/0910_early_september_work?rev=1725987971&do=diff Early September work 2024-09-08 The prior week nothing changed and that Sunday I didn't get to write a blog post regardless. This week some changes did happen. inicomp * Add _OPTIMISE_SMALL_INPUT define. Barely used yet. This actually sat in my repo for a while already but I only got around to committing it last Sunday. text/html 2024-08-27T19:19:30+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/0827_mid_late_august_work?rev=1724779170&do=diff Mid late August work 2024-08-25 lDebug Bernd Böckmann requested a build of lDebug that can be booted on a machine with 256 KiB of low memory. I prepared smalll.sys, which can boot with as little as 192 KiB and leaves 86 KiB resident. This required a few changes: * Fix build with _EXTHELP=0 * Fix build with _EXTENSIONS=0 Unrelated changes: * Update copyright year in debug.asm, msg.asm, uu.asm, the online help page ?L, and the manual lDOS boot (experimental) text/html 2025-12-21T18:15:44+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2025/1221_mid_december_last_regular_blog_post_of_2025?rev=1766337344&do=diff Mid December: Last regular blog post of 2025 2025-12-21 This is the last regular blog post of the year. There may be some irregular ones still. ident86 * Fix typos in the manual. * Fix screvid.but hyperlink to lead to the ident86 repo rather than lDebug's. Master Control Program * Add lDOS pre-boot loader to kernel payload, and allow loading it from the boot menu. text/html 2025-03-10T18:57:57+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2025/0310_much_work_in_february/march?rev=1741629477&do=diff Much work in February/March 2025-03-09 As mentioned, last week I didn't get to write a proper blog post. So this one's about two weeks' worth of changes. SRDISK Fix the error handling in realloc_ems_handle. EMS doesn't set an error code in BL, and do not modify the indirect pages variable in case of error. inicomp Two changes to the test file program: text/html 2025-02-24T17:22:27+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2025/0224_mid_late_february_work?rev=1740414147&do=diff Mid late February work 2025-02-23 webecm Add section on lDOS kernel. lDebug Allow to start a kernel command line with a semicolon after the second file specification. Doesn't always work: boot protocol ldos . .; append ... and boot protocol ldos . //; append ... are fine. boot protocol ldos . test\; append ... text/html 2024-09-22T17:53:41+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/0922_mid_september_work_on_fixupp_instsect_and_ldebug?rev=1727020421&do=diff Mid September work on fixupp, instsect, and lDebug 2024-09-22 This week some interesting developments occurred. fixupp This tool is a re-implementation of the ltools/fixupp.exe that was included in the OpenDOS 7.01 Machine Readable Sources package, as that was provided without sources. It operated on RASM-86 output object files to make them compatible with the object files assembled by JWasm. The exact purpose perpetually escapes me. text/html 2025-01-07T22:52:18+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2025/0107_how_to_create_an_iniload_file_carrying_a_dos_kernel?rev=1736286738&do=diff How to create an iniload file carrying a DOS kernel A user found that lDOS iniload was used in a certain boot image. After my answer identifying and describing iniload, the following question occurred in a comment: user pts, 2025-01-05 Building a native kernel The gold standard for building a complete, triple-mode kernel so that it is wrapped by lDOS iniload and optionally with an inicomp stage is text/html 2026-02-01T17:49:37+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0201_overview_of_educational_topics?rev=1769964577&do=diff Overview of educational topics This article lists some topics I think any education on program logic work should cover. I collected these notes over several months, though I have thought about many of these for years at this point. Debugging Debugging is a crucial skill for working with software. Whether it be tracing, inserting log or print statements, or "rubberduck debugging" (explaining the logic of the program to someone else or to an object). text/html 2025-06-29T20:30:01+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2025/0629_june_work?rev=1751221801&do=diff June work 2025-06-29 lDOS boot * Update attribution year of testboot.asm * doc: List FreeDOS protocol file size limits (128 KiB up to 134 KiB) * doc: Update attribution year * Add mak script to build testpl.com and testboot.bin * doc: Mention the advantage of segment 200h load, mention lkernpl lDebug * doc: Add references/links to each section in the quick start insref