I am putting all of my DOS projects, questions, and links here in case someone sees this and can help me with one or more of them.
@tspivey I am including you in the discussion because I think 3 will be of special interest to you. Please fee free to untag yourself from this if you don't wish to participate in the discussion. You may also message me privately if you would rather talk that way.

I am a DOS user with a great ambition and also a few questions. Disclaimer: I am not a programmer, so I would either need to find someone who is or to try that vibe coding everyone is talking about. I would rather not do the latter, but I really have no knowledge on the subject, other than as a user of such software.

1. I wish to update an existing screen reader for use with modern versions of DOS. Ideally, though, I would like a modern version to be made fully accessible including installer. I wrote about this here. I am also interested in whether or not a true software synthesizer can be used with DOS, not via Windows. The SoundBlaster sounds interesting, but it might require actual hardware or a specific sort of computer.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlindAndFine/comments/1ni8l6w/fully_accessible_dos/?solution=502bcfc197a3f4a6502bcfc197a3f4a6&js_challenge=1&token=7afd7253fec22262ff1c52b1703fe9ec49fb20d8ff85bbf021b7afda7224ce2a&jsc_orig_r=

2. In order to do this, I would rather update an existing screen reader than create a new one. It appears that Vispero now owns both JAWS for DOS and Vocal-Eyes, though whether they would make either of them open source I cannot say. I believe the original creator of ASAP, Larry Skutchan, is still alive. I recall writing to him some time ago, long before I had this idea, jhust to see if I could purchase the full version from him. If memory serves, he said he no longer has the software. But perhaps, he would permit me to reverse engineer it and update it. I would never do so without his permission. I know Provox is open source, but it's an extremely complicated system with no menus, etc. No matter what screen reader I use, it would all be open source. I have no interest in making money from this.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlindAndFine/comments/1u8nw93/a_little_history_and_a_question_about_screen/

3. Right now, I am using Talking DosBox and would like to know if there is any way of updating it. It seems that it might be using a version of VreeDOS. When I use the ver command, it says 5.0, but when I start edit, it says something about FreeDOS. I know they're up to version 1.4 right now, which has several improvements, but I'm not sure if this can be upgraded directly in Talking DOSBox or if a new machine must be created. I would love to be able to just use a virtual machine in VMWare Workstation, but I can't install it without speech and don't know how to connnect it to the BNS driver, even if I could. I do have an MS-DOS virtual machine, but I can't get it to work for some reason, either under 32-bit or 64-bit. I installed Com0Com but nothing works. I have a wonderful mp3 with instructions somewhere, but I must find it in my files!

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlindAndFine/comments/1u5vtxv/talking_dosbox_questions/

4. I am interested in learning QuickBasic 4.5. However, I heard of something called QB64 that can work with Windows XP through 7 and maybe later. I downloaded it, but the ide (interface) is completely inaccessible. I decided to just learn 4.5. for now, because the way to make QB64 work with a native Windows interface is a bit complicated and right now, I just want to start learning and practising. But if anyone can help with creating a native Windows version of QuickBasic (preferably one that works with Windows 7), that would be great!

#accessibility #ASAP #blind #DOS #Dosbox #FreeDOS #JAWS #MS-DOS #programming #Provox #QB64 #QuickBasic #ScreenReaders #SpeechSynthesizers #TalkingDOSBox #technology #VirtualMachines #VMWare #Vocal-Eyes #Windows7

“Finally, a language worth leaving 𝗕𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗖 for.”

Así se anunciaba 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂 en 1986: no como una ruptura total con 𝗕𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗖, sino como su evolución natural.

Durante años, 𝗕𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗖 fue la puerta de entrada a la programación para millones de usuarios. Era sencillo, directo y venía incluido en muchas microcomputadoras.

Pero también cargaba con una fama difícil:

#RetroComputingMX #QuickBASIC #Microsoft #BASIC #MSDOS #Programacion #Retrocomputing #VintageComputing #ComputerHistory #VisualBasic

A little #program that lets you move a Smiley Face around the screen using #QB64

https://qb64.com/

#quickBASIC #QBASIC #BASIC

(source code in ALT text)

A little #program that lets you move a Smiley Face around the screen using #QB64

https://qb64.com/

#quickBASIC #QBASIC #BASIC

Source (Also in ALT text):

'-----------------------------------------
' Moving a face around the screen!
' Phillip J Rhoades - 2026-04-05
'-----------------------------------------

'Initializing some variables and the screen
Let Row = 1
Let Col = 1
Dim PrevRow
Dim PrevCol

Locate Row, Col
Print Chr$(2)

'Start of the main loop
Do
'Get the Keypress
TheKey$ = InKey$

'If there's no Keypress, there's no need to do all this
'so skip it all
If TheKey$ <> "" Then
'Record the Row and Col before changing
PrevRow = Row
PrevCol = Col

'Take note of which arrow key is pressed for movement.
Select Case TheKey$
Case Chr$(0) + Chr$(77): Col = Col + 1 'Left
Case Chr$(0) + Chr$(75): Col = Col - 1 'Right
Case Chr$(0) + Chr$(80): Row = Row + 1 'Down
Case Chr$(0) + Chr$(72): Row = Row - 1 'Up
End Select

'Keep the character on the screen
If Row < 1 Or Row > 23 Then
Row = PrevRow
End If
If Col < 1 Or Col > 79 Then
Col = PrevCol
End If

'Blank the old and print the new location
'to move the character.
Locate PrevRow, PrevCol 'Move cursor to old place
Print " " 'Blank the old character
Locate Row, Col 'Move cursor to new place
Print Chr$(2) 'Print the character to move on screen
End If 'This loop was mostly skipped if no Keypress
Loop Until TheKey$ = "q"
'End of the main loop

Für die alten Programmierhasen unter euch hab ich gerade noch was ganz Spezielles ins Internet Archive gestellt. Microsoft's QuickBASIC 4.0 für MS-DOS aus dem Jahre 1988. Deutsche Fassung auf 4 x 360KB 5,25 Zoll DD-Disketten.

Disketten: https://archive.org/details/quickbasic40_de
Referenzkarte: https://archive.org/details/quickbasic40_de_referenzkarte

Viel Spaß beim Coden!

#QuickBASIC #Basic #Programmieren #Programmiersprache #Microsoft #MSDOS #RetroComputing #Retro #80er #80s #DOS #FloppyDisk #KryoFlux #Diskette

Рубрика ебануццо
В 2004 году один датчанин написал полнофункциональный GUI для DOS для машин класса XT на — держитесь — #QuickBasic. Иконки, запуск других программ итп. Минимум просит 200k. Называется #costaGUI, сорцы открыты

#retrocomputing

Кто угодно может пнуть мёртвого льва

Кто угодно может пнуть мёртвого льва. Мёртвый лев не рыкнет на наглеца. Мёртвый лев не откусит ему ногу «по самое не хочу», хотя стоило бы. Лев мёртв, и теперь его может пнуть каждый ишак, что конечно же не показывает превосходство ишака над львом. Эта статья будет полна негодования и ненависти. Кровь ещё закончила кипеть от негодования. Но, разумеется, помимо эмоций будут и сухие объективные факты, немножко исследования и расстановка точек над i. В интернете кто-то не прав... опять... Существует целый ряд инструментов, технологий и вообще вещей, которым по какой-то непонятной вселенской несправедливости не повезло : нашлась масса непонятных людей, которые по какой-то необъяснимой причине начали распускать про эти инструменты/технологии/вещи разные небылицы, идиотские фейки, слухи и прочий порочащий репутацию «компромат». Можно не переживать, если речь идёт о технологии, которая находится «на пике» — у неё будет большое community и правда восторжествует. Совсем другое дело, когда речь идёт о чём-то, что далеко не на пике, чья минута славы в прошлом (возможно даже давно в прошлом) — здесь мёртвый «лев» не может дать сдачи, и что самое обидное, что в какой-то степени «лев» сейчас мёртв отчасти и потому, что ещё при его жизни началось необоснованное распространение всяких бредовых поверий и мифов про него. И сегодня речь пойдёт об одном из таких случаев.

https://habr.com/ru/articles/973594/

#Basic #QuickBasic #Visual_Basic #интерпретатор #трансляция #x86 #фейки