🚀 go-pugleaf

[demon.ip.support removed; X-P to other two groups remains]

In article <184af7ab.0311271459.5d28b4a2@posting.google.com>
           google200202.20.jw@spamgourmet.com "John Washington" writes:

> ian.freedomnet@softhome.net ("Ian.") wrote in message
>  news:<20031124.2309.23674snz@softhome.net>...
> ..
> > A lot of DOS users are now using direct posting to the newsserver.
> > An advantage of this is that you can use other ISPs than Demon
> > and other newsservers. Im guessing that you're still using this
> > constantly moaned about gateway because the OS/2 KA9Q doesnt
> > support direct posting. Im just curious, couldnt one of the
> > Gremnos or Yan versions be compiled for OS/2?
> 
> No doubt it could, the problem is finding someone who has the
> right compiler and has installed it.

Quite; Niel [sic] Kempson was the one who provided the last executable of
KA9Q/2, but he no longer has the compiler nor the environment to compile
it.  I have the OS/2 port of Gnu C++, but know that there are
incompatibilities that would prevent my getting a bit-accurate copy of
the existing compilation (which I see as a confidence-boosting
prerequisite before branching out to incorporate various fixes/changes).

> I don't even know whether an executable on OS/2 is the same layout
> as a DOS .exe file.

There's a lot more to an OS/2 .EXE

> Actually, the thing that most surprises me is that nobody's mentioned
> any mechanism for running DOS programs within OS/2.  Are the systems
> so different that an emulator isn't available?

Oh, there'd be no problem in running one of the DOS executables under
OS/2; this is done in what OS/2 calls a VDM - virtual DOS machine.  OS/2
has always run plain DOS programs in such "emulation" mode --- indeed, at
one time one of the marketing slogans was "A better DOS than DOS",
because not only would it run multiple DOS programs, each in their own
VDM, but would do so _faster_ than DOS v4.01 (as it was then).  Contrast
this with Windows' inability to run two DOS sessions; also the OS/2
"emulation" didn't permit anything in a VDM to run amok and thereby
compromise the system's integrity.

I'm currently using Snews in a VDM under OS/2.  That was launched from
the DIS front end.  However, when I type 'A' to connect to Demon, the DOS
session launches an OS/2 command window in which to run KA9Q/2.

So I could run GremNOS or one of the other variants today (until Niel
persuaded me that KA9Q/2 was better, I used to run one of the old Demon-
supplied versions of KA9Q in my VDM); however, I prefer the KA9Q/2 way of
launching other session windows within the KA9Q connection --- it creates
a separate OS/2 window for each, and so I can move between them by
changing the focus.  If I were to use a DOS-based KA9Q or variant, I'd
have to do all that farting around with F10 (isn't it?  It's so long
since I've used the bog-standard KA9Q).

-- 
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}                                          bhk@dsl.co.uk
    "We can no longer stand apart from Europe if we would.  Yet we are
    untrained to mix with our neighbours, or even talk to them".
                                              George Macaulay Trevelyan, 1919