Author: Don Dailey
Date: 18:11:17 02/11/98
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DOS may be the very best operating system for running a chess program if your looking for ultimate performance. There is almost no operating system overhead. For the greatest usability and creature comforts you might go with Windows and sacrafice a tiny amount of performance (memory and speed.) If you want the ultimate development and testing environment Unix is the way to go. The tools are not as flashy as Windows tools but you have so much flexibility and power. I worked for years in a pure DOS environment (no window 3.1 or anything.) I thought it was great while I was doing it but when I got OS/2 (and later LINUX) I realized how silly it was to develop stuff with DOS. Basically the machine was completely limited to doing 1 thing at a time, so I couldn't look at code while doing a test or use my machine in any way. I loved OS/2 and it just felt good, like I was driving a hot car! But OS/2 looked dead and I went to Windows 95. But something was wrong with Windows that I can't explain. It was certainly slick but felt like a big toy thing. Linux was next and I was driving a hot car again! But there is nothing wrong with any of these OS's, they are different things to different people. If I was fighting for my life in a computer chess tournament DOS might very well be my OS of choice! - Don On February 11, 1998 at 19:00:13, Christophe Theron wrote: >>>If you want to be negative about DOS, maybe I can help you finding >>>*really* good reasons. You seem to need some help in this field. >>> >>Since you are using DOS its clear that you have *really* good reasons >>to be negative about DOS. So please post some. >>I'm listening. > >In fact, DOS is perfect for my chess work. I use the GnuC compiler, >which fits on 3 floppies, and my sources fit on one. So I can work on >almost any PC, 386 or higher, anywhere. I often have to move for several >days for my work, so I can work in the evening on my chess program, in >the hotel room, on a small notebook. Not even a Pentium. > >For chess programs, DOS with a DOS extender could be enough. > >You can say DOS is a poor operating system because it leaves some really >basic tasks to the responsability of the programmers. For example: >* Memory management >* Graphical user interface >* Multitasking > >But I don't see any reason not to use a chess program only because it's >a DOS application... Win95 or WinNT DOS boxes take care of memory >management and multitasking. > >The programmer has still to write a user interface, but Crafty is a text >engine... > >And on the PC platform, Crafty has a DOS version! The Crafty I have is >compiled with GnuC compiler, and runs inside a DOS box! > > > > Christophe
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