#118 Accessible and fast CLI-mode

I use DOSBox to run some special tools based on the classic "Norton Commander" interface which are purely based on DOS characters (no graphical VGA modes).

I experience that emulation uses quite a lot of CPU on my rather new MacBook Air, which drains the battery, spins the fan and makes the machine hot and uncomfortable.

I'd therefore like to suggest CLI-only mode of DOSBox, where you actually get character-by-character replication of a DOS window inside a OS X or Linux terminal.

This would undoubtedly make for higher accessibility and a lot faster emulation, which would be useful to anyone who uses non-graphical DOS-based tools.

[Dominik Reichardt]

The problem is that for some yet unexplored reason dosbox uses much power on OS X even when doing nothing. this doesn't happen on Windows.

[Anonymous]

Isn't there a profiling/kernel expert on the team or somewhere in the community?

Anyway, character-based emulation mode would add great value, as you would be able to start and run DOSBox from a terminal window and have the DOS characters right in there, with text copying for free.

All you need is basically to do is:

1. Disable graphical emulation (optionally with the inevitable ASCII placeholder).
2. Convert DOS charset to the terminal's charset
3. Make the terminal adapt to width/height modes (80x25, 80x43, 132x...)

[Anonymous]

DELETE THIS FEATURE REQUEST