Re: Porting MSDOS TurboVision application to Linux.

[Salvador E. T. <sal...@in...>]

Hi!

El 19/08/14 22:11, Lisias escribió:
> My Gosh,
>
> I completely forgot about this list! :-)
>
> It's something like... 20 years? since I signed to it.
>
> On 14.08.19 15:35, steve dyson wrote:
>> I need to port a CPP TurboVision business application from MS-DOS to 
>> Linux as it is becoming harder an harder to configure the newer 
>> versions of windows to provide a correct environment for the program 
>> to run in (and I cannot guarantee even newer versions of Windows will 
>> support legacy code).
>>
>> The application originally ran in a pure MS-DOS environment using a 
>> LittleBigLan network. I have ported it to run under Windows 98 and 
>> then under Windows XP using a Linux based file server.
> On the short run, did you tried DOSBOX or, better yet, Virtual BOX? 
> The former is faster, but the latter is far more accurate (but 
> somewhat resource hogger, you will need a virtualization enabled 
> processor, as i3).


Another option: if you really prefer Windows you can create native Win32 
applications using TV. Various screen drivers are available, and you can 
use various compilers (mingw, cygwin, BC++, MSVC, Watcom). But Linux 
target is much more stable.


>
>> Is there a preferred flavour of Linux (Debian/Red Hat/etc) that I 
>> should choose and which port of TV would be most stable? Should I use 
>> 32 bit or 64 bit target (and is there much difference in the 
>> performance)? Is there a lists of Gotchas or potential problems that 
>> I should be mindful off?
>>
> A Linux Distro is almost as a religion - you will need to live it in 
> order to taste it. My personal distro of choice is OpenSUSE. I like it 
> very much, YAST2 saves a huge amount of time while administering the box.


I agree, this is a question of taste. I use Debian GNU/Linux, since 
v1.3. I always use the stable version.


> I can't give any opinion about the TV version to use, it's too much 
> time since I played with it for the last time - sorry.


I suggest using the CVS trunk, just do a CVS check-out. If you can't 
access CVS try this: http://tvision.sourceforge.net/snap.html


> Stick with 32 bits as much as you can. 64 bits programs uses twice the 
> memory for pointers and memory addresses, it's just a waste of code 
> space unless you are dealing with an so huge amount of data that a 
> 2ˆ32 address space can't hold it.

I agree, TV applications won't get any advantage when compiled for a 64 
bits target, and you could hit a bug.

About gotchas:
Linux console isn't well maintained, you'll get better results running 
TV applications from the graphic environment (will run as a native X 
application).

Regards, SET

-- 
Ing. Salvador Eduardo Tropea          http://utic.inti.gob.ar/
INTI - Micro y Nanoelectrónica (CMNB) http://www.inti.gob.ar/
Unidad Técnica Sistemas Inteligentes  Av. General Paz 5445
Tel: (+54 11) 4724 6300 ext. 6919     San Martín - B1650KNA
FAX: (+54 11) 4754 5194               Buenos Aires * Argentina