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From: Hans-Bernhard Broeker <broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Dos shell ,dos box ,MS-Dos ......
Date: 5 Apr 2002 10:56:19 GMT
Organization: Aachen University of Technology (RWTH)
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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infonews <usrinfousr AT libero DOT it> wrote:

> Then Djgpp environment ,Rhide (my little programs !!!) work over
> Windows ME.  But have to be started in the dos box ( right ? ) or
> dos shell ( right ?)  offered by Windows ME ( OK ?) that at this
> time is the operating system.  

That's still a bit foggy wording you're using.  To put it more
plainly: DJGPP programs absolutely require some version of DOS as
their operating system.  

The only real difference between "raw DOS" (like what you got when you
did a "reboot into MS-DOS mode" or used the boot menu in older Win9x
versions, or an actual MS-DOS installation), and the "MS-DOS command
prompt" still offered by ME is whether the machine this DOS is running
is the actual hardware, or a simulated, so-called "virtual" machine
provided by some other OS.

In other words: as far as the DJGPP app is concerned, the Operating
System is still DOS, not ME.  The operating system API the DJGPP app
has access to is that of DOS.  It can not call any Windows system
function, it can't open it's own windows, it can't talk to a Windows
printer driver or anything.  Not unless the VM driver provided by
Windows reflects access to them into the virtual machine as
DOS-accessible software drivers or simulated hardware.  

While you're running DJGPP (or any DOS application, for that matter),
you have *two* full operating systems running on your machine: the
host OS (Win ME, in your case), and a special version of DOS confined
to the inside view of a virtual machine.  The DOS application can
access the services of only one of those (the DOS in the VM), so for
all practical means and purposes, that one is its operating system.



-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.