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Best Dostools for an old XT/286 ?

dr.zeissler

Experienced Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2014
Messages
417
Location
Germany
Hi,

what are the best tools for an XT/286 for:

1. DiskCaching (Smartdrive Alternatives)
2. Best compression/decompressiontool (zip, rar, etc.) what version? (which one supports FPU)
3. Graphics viewer ? (All modes from Hercules, CGA,EGA,VGA)
4. Music Player (Mod-Files)
5. NortonCommander or clone
6. tbc.

Thx
Doc
 
1. Norton Cache 2, part of Norton Utilities 8
2. pkzip 2.04g for speed and compatibility. No compressor supports an FPU, btw.
3. cshow
4. Galaxy Player (look for glx212.zip)
5. You answered your own question
or
5. Use google for "norton commander clone"
 
1. Norton Cache 2, part of Norton Utilities 8
2. pkzip 2.04g for speed and compatibility. No compressor supports an FPU, btw.
3. cshow
4. Galaxy Player (look for glx212.zip)
5. You answered your own question
or
5. Use google for "norton commander clone"

Thx!

currently I use:
1. smartdrv.sys (MS-Dos 5.0)
2. pkzip version 2.5!
3. show for EGA, for VGA I always use qview1.03 which has realmode und supports put to tricolor with vesa 1.2 and is REALLY fast.
4. Modplay and GalaxyPlayer are already in use :)
5. volkov commander 4.01 (because VERY fast according to nc5 or nc4 and much smaller in ram and hdd usage)

Why Ncache2 ? PC-cache (PCtools 9.0) uses less conventional ram, but I have not tested the efficiency. lightning costs lots of conventional memory.

6. Mouse driver for Busmouse that supports Win1x/2x/3x/Gem/Geos ?
Currently I use mouse602 from Microsoft. Only 9k and 100% working with Win1x, but not with GEM1.x.

Thx
Doc :)
 
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What is your system equipped with? One difference between the later versions of Norton and PC-Tools caching products was that Norton would cache CD-ROM but PC-Tools didn't (despite claiming to in the manual). Smartdrv is slower than either but generally more cautious in approach and does have the advantage of shrinking if running Windows.

For the mouse, the problem may not be the mouse driver but instead the card. The GEM 1 documentation spends page 2-9 describing how the jumper on a MS bus mouse needs to be on pin 3 instead of the default pin 5. No, I don't remember what interrupt that translates to and what other hardware that might be adversely impacted by the change.
 
Case/System: Schneider Tower AT
CPU 286@10Mhz/Bus 10Mhz
FPU IIT287@8Mhz
GPU Onboard Gemini VC001 (EGA Hires)
RAM 2MB-Ram
HDD 1GB SCSI
FDD 3,5" 1,44MB
ISA1 Etherlink III
ISA2 CT1350b with CMS Upgrade
ISA3 Midiquest MPU401i with MT32
ISA4 Bustek BT542 SCSI-Controller
LPT1 ZipDrive + Covox
SER Busmouse (Schneider)

Doc
 
DOSKey lets you scroll/search through previous commands. You don't need it all the time, but when you have to retype a full DOS command you really wish you'd loaded that small TSR :)

On a 286, I always puts the same stuff:

- DOS 5.0 or 6.22 (so you can use DOS=HIGH)
- XtreeGold 3.0 - this does all your file management in a text based GUI, very powered and fast, also it's able to compress/uncompress but having stuff like PKZIP in a utility folder might be handy on occasion
- ImageDisk and Rawrite/rawread - for creating/restoring floppy disk images
- Direct Access 5.0 - menu software, easily configurable, with key, cursor and mouse support
- FastLynx 2.0 (serial/parallel/IPX file transfer)

I prefer these tools over any other, however personal experience / product knowledge may mean they're not of interest to others.
 
sounds interesting. currently I created batchfiles and put them in a "scripts" folder that is in path.
the volkov-commander and another text based menu system "hdmenu" are my currently used tools.
an old friend of mine used a tool called "lotus magelan".
 

Attachments

  • HDMENU.ZIP
    63.3 KB · Views: 2
  • README.zip
    1.6 KB · Views: 1
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Norton SpeedDrive
lxpic? Also, I used wordperfect's viewer back in the day (Herc), and converted into WPG with Image Alchemy...
Mark Cox's MODPLAY if 286, or the more plain GLX. Visual Player if VGA :)

I don't know "norton SpeedDrive" is it the same as ncache(2), or is it something different /better?
"cshow" has a text-base interface, lxpic has no interface at all, therefore I think cshow is better.
"modplay/glx" I already use both of them, so there is probably no better option known.

HDmenu:
I found the "HDmenu" (link above) on an old laptop ( 8088 ) that my neighbour (died years ago) bought
in the US. I searched for the author but I could not find him. My question on him was, if there is an
newer version of this usefull tool. The HDmenu is in my opinion a really god choice as a fast command-
center of a big Retro-HD with lots of Software on it. Tell me what you think about "hdmenu".

Readme:
The reame.zip consists of a file called "smooth" and a batchfile from my "scripts"folder.
with this combination you can read textbased files quite well. you can (auto-)scroll up and down
with different speeds. This scrolling is really smoooooooothhhhhhh :)

Greetings :)
 
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DOSKey lets you scroll/search through previous commands. You don't need it all the time, but when you have to retype a full DOS command you really wish you'd loaded that small TSR :)
Of course the same functionality is in the DrDos 6 kernel, no tsr required.

I used a US market version Xtree on my first 286 it had a menu function build in. Also used cshow and the disk cache that shipped with DrDos 6.0.
 
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"modplay/glx" I already use both of them, so there is probably no better option known.

With all due respect to Mark J. Cox, MODPLAY is a terrible modplayer. It was the second modplayer ever made for the PC (first was Trakblaster IIRC), but it was by no means the best; it is slow and it gets some effects wrong. There are plenty of better 286-compatible modplayers, but the best "overall" one is Galaxy Player due to its speed and format support. (It also gets some effects wrong, though.)

Tell me what you think about "hdmenu".

It's very good; I'm surprised I hadn't heard of it before. It's a very lightweight, easy-to-use menu program made a few years before "Direct Access" (which is ugly and bloated IMO). Written mostly in Turbo Pascal 3.0. It feels like a commercial product, but I can't find any reference to it in back-issues of 1980s magazines...
 
My two cents:
-I use rar 2.50 as an archiver because of the GUI. Very much like norton commander, so it feels familiar.
-DOSKEY.COM as a doskey replacement because of less memory (ok, no big deal) but also for the TAB completion functionality. That's a big plus for me!
Edit: that's DOSED.COM
 
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everything that costs more conventional memory is mostly less useful. the key is, getting a good functionality with a wide compatibility with small hdd and ram usage.
as I said before "eierlegendewollmilchsau" :)
 
My two cents:
-I use rar 2.50 as an archiver because of the GUI. Very much like norton commander, so it feels familiar.
-DOSKEY.COM as a doskey replacement because of less memory (ok, no big deal) but also for the TAB completion functionality. That's a big plus for me!

I have a "scripts" folder in path. for everything I use regularly I create a batch file. So I simply don't need "doskey". the problem is, remembering the batch filename,
but this is truly optimizable. I think I can put the batch files in the HD-menu...this should be one of the next targets.

Doc
 
I have a "scripts" folder in path. for everything I use regularly I create a batch file. So I simply don't need "doskey".

Are you saying that you only have one directory in your path, and you create batch files to execute every single program you want to run? If so, that's really wasteful; even a 1-byte batch file will take up an entire cluster on your hard drive. Besides, is it really that big a deal to type "cd \games\action\keen4" before running your program?
 
No, I start all Programs over the HDMENU and use the batchfiles for other things.
e.g. compression/decompression copying, activate the connection to the nas. etc.
 
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