DOS applications in 2017

>>60260736
i think that there's at least one company that sells DOS based software for accounting

>>60260736
Not OP but I been thinking for years there is a treasure trove of lost DOS programs that are more useful and better suited for most companies when it comes to productivity in terms of invoicing, customer databases, asset management, inventory control than any of the shitfest programs on the market today.

I know of a particular club that had a database program specially designed for them that allowed them to manage their members dues along with more data than you can imagine, specially designed for them, no other tool can ever compare or do what this program did unless they had it specially designed again. And they have used it since 1990.

I worked for a company that still uses a a custom in house built unix terminal application. Thousands of users simultaneously have ssh sessions open to the server.

>>60260736
I see POSs working in DOS in many shops.

>>60260791
Text based programs are often much faster to use. I don't mean the program is faster, which is generally true, but the users get muscle memory and they don't need a mouse and they can use it much much faster than a GUI application.

>>60260795
Is it good?

>>60260826
>faster
>lower specs required
>cheaper electric costs
>lower space needs
>ease of data backup
>faster
>virtually no cost of backup because lower space needs
>faster
>program does what it is needed
>paid for itself twenty years ago
>faster

whats not to love?

>>60260898
>have to run everything in an emulator
>one program per emulator instance
>unusable program UIs
>a single program crash takes down the entire system
I don't know

>>60260919
>have to run everything in an emulator
Why would you do that?
>unusable program UIs
are you underage?
>a single program crash takes down the entire system
that is why you do backups, and also, no different than other systems

>>60260755
Accountants are literally living in paleolithic. I've never seen an accountant using or being aware of anything newer than XP.

>>60260736
The family business is still using a system based on FoxPro 2.5. We're still able to run it by using DosBox.

>>60260736
I worked at the lowest tier of an airplane seating company as a temp, we had to use a foxpro application to scan in all parts before CNC machining, it would freeze constantly.
The protocol was to wait for some snot nosed 18 year old it guy to come by and use task manager to restart it.
I was just using tskill until the it guy caught me "messing with the machine".
I left after I found out that there were temp people working there 3 years and they still haven't been brought on full time.

>>60261504
>I left after I found out that there were temp people working there 3 years and they still haven't been brought on full time.

you dodged a bullet son.

>>60260919
You can run DOS natively on modern machines.

>>60261745
Nah, most of them don't have the infrastructure that DOS requires.

>>60261788
such as?

>>60260919
>unusable program UIs
???

>>60260944
>that is why you do backups, and also, no different than other systems
I believe he's talking about dos's lack of memory protection.

I mean theoretically you could accidentally do virtually anything the computer is capable of doing.

>>60261836
There isn't any DOS version that supports modern hard disk types or USB devices or DVD discs, and all of them also necessitate a floppy drive, a feature typically absent from modern (or well, anything since 2008) machines.

>>60261788
I'm genuinely curious. On a nonuefi boot machine.. what's missing?

File: just werks tm.png (229KB, 800x774px) Image search: [Google]

229KB, 800x774px

>>60261868

>>60261840
Anything from the DOS era will have an interface that nobody in this day and age has the patience to put up with.

Yes. My company still produces, maintains and sells DOS applications.

>>60261868
Freedos seems to support these things but I haven't touched freedos in over a decade

File: seattle-computer-ms-dos-2.jpg (167KB, 960x1143px) Image search: [Google]

167KB, 960x1143px

>>60261900
Either post a photo of yourself sticking this in your i7 PC and booting up or it didn't happen.

>>60261906
What the fuck are you talking about, most companies in the world are using a client line interface for data input into databases, usually AS/400, its virtually indistinguishable for the vast majority of users.

>>60261868
>and all of them also necessitate a floppy drive

I'm genuinely curious. The 1.44MB disks were (obviously) pitifully too small for today's needs. But why didn't they just make bigger floppies? Today you could have multigigabyte ones.

>>60261939
>>60261868
Literally the point is that you use the OS for what it is designed to do without the expecation to make it do things that it will never do well. If I want to use a WYSIWYG text editor I may go for Microsoft Word or Libreoffice Writer, a lot of people on this board use VIM or Emacs they don't use it with the expecation that it works just like Microsoft Word.

Same applies for this, you use it with the current hardware limitations it comes with, and work around it. DOS will support 2TB FAT32 partitions under DOS7 or FreeDOS. There is a USB driver for DOS also, but more than likely if you are using DOS you are well aware of its limitations and you're not going to do shit with it that is impossible to do and use it within those limitations.

>>60262006
They did, they were terribly expensive, and the hardware never gained the critical mass required to become a standard, by then CD writers started popping up at more reasonable prices, the media was also very affordable, any other attempts at a "floppy" like medium were dropped eventually, and IOMEGA who was at the forefront of that efford was sold off.

>>60261868
>No USB devices or DVD drives
A little Google search would show you that there are USB & optical disk drivers for DOS. The most prominent USB driver is Moto Hairu (Panasonic, works on most USB flash drives & USB storage devices) & the most prominent optical disk driver is Oak Technologies' (which enables read-only support for nearly every optical drive in existence).

>>60262006
Physical limitations of the media. Floppy drives are a contact device where the drive head touches the disk surface. The higher density the disk is, the faster the rotation speed. On Zip disks, what happened is that the rotation speed was high enough that it ended up stripping the magnetic material right off the disk.

>>60262069
I thought it was because USB devices are cheaper than mechanical disk drives.

>>60262100
To an extent, but ultimately it was because there's a limit to what you can do with a contact device like a floppy disk. The 1.44MB disks were not even very reliable compared to the older double density floppies.

>>60262100
>I thought it was because USB devices are cheaper than mechanical disk drives.
They are cheaper. NOW

Even in 2007 they were still expensive even when compared to a DVD-R

>>60262069
I've had that happen even on plain 1.44mb disks.

>>60262132
>The 1.44MB disks were not even very reliable compared to the older double density floppies

Wasn't that because they made all of them with chink sweatshop labor?

>>60262372
There's been a lot of debate over this, but in general the evidence is more than ample that 1.44MB 3.5" disks are not as reliable as earlier floppy types. It is pretty likely that the quality of them dropped off since by the time they were the norm (early 90s), floppy disks had stopped being used as a primary working media for computers, but judging by some anecdotal evidence I've heard, they were never that reliable even when they first came out in the late 80s.

>>60262463
it really depended on what brand/quality you got. i always had cheap shitty ones or repurposed disks like all the free AOL floppy disks i'd always pick up and reformat to use for whatever. but yeah, as far as i can remember about half the time the data would get corrupted pretty quickly. store bought disks for games and such were a lot more reliable, since they were better quality.

>>60262463
They're usually ok as a read only media, but based on my experience, you can't write to the things more than a couple of times before they give up.

>>60260736

Yup. My mother was horrified to find out that one company she tried to work for was using DOS running accountant program in 2015. And from what I heard, they still use it.

Their reasons? "We paid for that and its still working". Even simple GUI would make whole work at least 10x faster but noooo, they paid for it last centaury and fuck you, wanting something new? That would mean SPENDING MONEY.

Also, a some PCs at my uni student labs work on DOS, leading to rather hilarious situations when few years ago, along with other people, we had hard time finding working floppy (to get data from said PC) and working PC that have both floppy drive AND working USB drive or at least internet connection.

Not to mention few measurement-related (control and fitting) software we use right now.

Text-based software is a hore. I got used to type commands faster over last year but I still make a typo from time to time and when everything crash due to that, I want to punch monitor.

>>60262547
>Text-based software is a hore. I got used to type commands faster over last year but I still make a typo from time to time and when everything crash due to that, I want to punch monitor.

I used to be an ace at text based software interfaces, but I haven't done it in so long that it would be hell trying to do it now.

>>60262547
>newer is always better

>>60262659

>older is always better

Neither sentences are always true.

>>60262501
>store bought disks for games and such were a lot more reliable

Doubt it since software was generally distributed on cheap duplicator-grade floppies (after all, you only needed to use the disk once or twice to install the software).

>>60262672
One's called the appeal to tradition fallacy, the other is the appeal to novelty fallacy.

>>60262677
you're probably right, it's anecdotal on my part. they at least seemed more reliable than the AOL disks. although i still have a lot of original disks for games from back then and they still work fine. yet again, anecdotal.

>>60262691
>>60262672
>>60262659
>>60262547

If a tool works for the job, why replace it before it brakes if there is no gain to be had?

>>60262729
>brakes

>>60262729

>no gain

The key point. In case of said accountant programs, the ones with even simple GUI are much faster and comfortable in use. Newer ones allow to work from home as well, only requiring authentication methods and can be easily run from home PC instead of having to do the same via SSH or something.

Sticking to old software because "IT STILL WERKS" is pointless when new one is faster and better in almost every aspect. Mentioned company acted like that grandpa still using old, rusty and falling apart bicycle to travel to nearby city instead of using bus because the old one didnt fell apart completely yet.

>>60262838
>Mentioned company acted like that grandpa still using old, rusty and falling apart bicycle to travel to nearby city instead of using bus because the old one didnt fell apart completely yet

My dad is like that because he's a cheap bastard. I've never understood his idea that one should keep using the same lawn mower or refrigerator until it's beyond all economical repair. He had a clothes dryer for 30 years until the heating element died. He didn't want to buy a new one, instead he spent hours scouring the Interwebz to find a replacement heating element for a dryer made during the Reagan years. Eventually something else in it broke and he at last bought a new one (which ironically burned out its heating element in six months and needed a new one).

>>60262838
>the ones with even simple GUI are much faster and comfortable in use
that is truly a matter of opinion, and as we all know on this board, keyboard input is faster than mouse input on repetitive tasks. Why would it be any faster because it is accounting that we're talking about?
>Newer ones allow to work from home as well
You call that a feature? baka desu senpai
>rusty and falling apart bicycle to travel to nearby city instead of using bus because the old one didnt fell apart completely yet.
false analogy, more like comparing the old road bike that is fast to a brand new carbon bike that costs well over 10x what the one being used cost when it was new for just a bit in gain/performance.

>>60262907
>tries to make a point, counters his own point

The old is better fallacy is rarely true and only based in how people instinctively fear the unknown.

>>60260736
No but we have people that still use Solaris and Fortran, which is probably worse

I was porting a very old SDL-based program for some scientific radio shit to OpenGL.

Still don't know what it was.

>>60262907
>(which ironically burned out its heating element in six months and needed a new one).
way to demonstrate why people keep around older stuff
they tended to be made better

that 30 year old dryer may appear constantly "on the way out", but it's already been working for 30 YEARS, most new shit couldn't hope to last that long, letalone longer

>>60262964
Doesn't Fortran go back to the 1950s or something?

>>60262910
>false analogy, more like comparing the old road bike that is fast to a brand new carbon bike that costs well over 10x what the one being used cost when it was new for just a bit in gain/performance.

You know, remaking somebody else argument to fit your own isnt really good idea.

>You call that a feature? baka desu senpai
>Being able to work from home instead of traveling for 1-2 hours every day one direction in rusty, falling apart buses, tramways AND train from one side of city to another
>not a feature

Please.

>and as we all know on this board, keyboard input is faster than mouse input on repetitive tasks

"As we all know" eh?

As I know and learned, you might get faster with typing but overall, mouse is more comfortable and easier to avoid errors. Plus, older people often prefer GUIs over text solutions, especially not technical ones. Dont measure everyone with your own habits.

>>60262838
it's really hard to top something that runs in DOS and has a 20+ year track record of just werking
not saying it can't happen, just that if you're looking for reliability, what looks better? 20+ years of just werks, or something that is only a year old and "works pretty much fine"

Where i use to work the clock in system was all run off an Amiga 2000, not dos but still old as dicks.

All the CNC machines in the entire building, even the ones made in 2012, were all using DOS in their NCU. Even the newest machines had Windows XP for the control panel, but it all went through DOS.

>>60254701

And here's one of 'em right now.

>>60263046
>Being able to work from home instead of traveling for 1-2 hours every day one direction in rusty, falling apart buses, tramways AND train from one side of city to another
>not a feature

yes, working from home, it isn't a feature. That is why it's home. but you live your life the way you want to

As far as typing, that is also up to each user, you can't claim that one is faster over another, most people I have seen in the same office, the ones who type are faster than the ones who use mouse.

>You know, remaking somebody else argument to fit your own isnt really good idea.

Comparing an old solution to a falling apart bike (which don't usually work) isn't a good comparison when the old solution works as opposed to a falling apart bike.

Last year I was working for a small hardware store. One of our clients asked us to find a working Pentium II 233 to replace the one that was used to control their assembly line or something like that. They had already ordered a few on eBay but they needed one immediately. Our boss had one in a display case in his office, he let them borrow it for an undisclosed amount of money.

>>60263329
Why wouldn't you just sell him a brand new computer and adapt it to his needs?

They still manufacture new Z80 and 6502 CPUs for embedded systems. Now, a Z80 is pretty ludicrously outdated and there are far better, more modern chips to base an embedded system around. Problem is, a lot of stuff like PCBs for microwave ovens and whatnot were often designed in the 80s or something and manufacturers are unmotivated to fix what isn't broken, so they continue producing these antiquated PCBs that use a Z80 or whatever.

>>60263366
From what I understood they didn't have the budget to hire someone to rewrite the software. I'm sure this little incident made them rethink their priorities though.

>>60263405
>rewrite the software
what software was it he was using that only worked on a Pentium 2?

>>60263422
I can't imagine such software existing unless it relied on some undocumented P2 quirk (very unlikely).

>>60263434
Which is why I asked >>60263366
>Why wouldn't you just sell him a brand new computer and adapt it to his needs?

New computer with old software, it isn't difficult.

>>60260736
Yes. Lots of engineering firms use old as fuck calculation / modelling applications specifically deisgned for some obscure as fuck application

My step dad's family has gone to great lengths to maintain their equipment to keep their DOS POS system going. His father wrote it himself and to this day it does everything they need it for in their bowling bc alley. The hard part is that the printing is hard coded for a dot matrix.

>>60263456
What if it used some old proprietary extension cards that wouldn't be compatible with current hardware?

If I understand correctly many dos applications are tied to the speed of the CPU.

Even if you install freedos on a modern PC and then the application in question it might not work as intended.

>>60263468
You can still buy new dot matrix printers though.

Why not use an Advantec PCM9343? They have this 1.6 GHz Vortex86 CPU & the board's small as hell.

>>60263485
Use moslow.

>>60263488
Some other printer can be incompatible with hardcoded driver of the anon before.

>>60263488
For a higher cost overall.

>>60263485
There are dos programs to correct for that problem.

File: gallon_of_water.jpg (23KB, 500x500px) Image search: [Google]

23KB, 500x500px

>>60263481
Such as?

>>60263481
ISA cards with DMA

>>60263647
meant to reply to >>60263539

>>60263510
Yeahyeah I get it. Supply and demand because dot matrix printers are a niche item nowadays.

File: mobo.jpg (59KB, 648x508px) Image search: [Google]

59KB, 648x508px

>>60263647
products exist.

>>60263740
Industrial motherboards have ISA slots but I'm not sure if they actually support DMA.

>>60263740
I said
>with DMA

Most PC motherboards up to Pentium 3s had an ISA slot, but DMA support disappeared and the ISA slot was usually just piggybacked on the PCI bus without having a direct connection to the CPU, meaning that a lot of cards would not work.

>>60263818
>>60263780
then i guess you're out of luck.

Has anyone ported DOSBox to MS-DOS?

>>60264075
>he doesn't know about hxrt

>>60264075
When i was working in a certain polish state-owned company some of users - who had installed Windows 7 or 10 - they had also DOSBox because they use one application from early 90s.

File: Disk 1 of 3711.jpg (91KB, 1024x768px) Image search: [Google]

91KB, 1024x768px

>>60262463
>yfw this comes to you
What do you do, anon?

>>60264698
That would actually be awesome. Too bad it's a hoax.