Author: Peter McKenzie
Date: 14:16:26 09/19/01
Go up one level in this thread
On September 19, 2001 at 15:06:09, Christophe Theron wrote: >On September 19, 2001 at 13:48:50, J. C. Boco wrote: > >>REBEL CENTURY for DOS, the loss of one of our only two positional chess programs >>in the future? >> >>When I started down the path of PC computer chess, I used a Macintosh using the >>only real chess program available, HIARCS. This was (and is) a great program, >>and was pleased that it had a more Human-like playing style. >> >>Fast forward a few years and I now have a Gateway. A tough decision had to be >>made, HIARCS or REBEL? I wanted a Human-like style and these were the only >>choices. I chose REBEL because Ed was working on this program to be the >>strongest against Human players, even though he had to forgo the glory of having >>this program play computers for the SSDF ratings. As a sweetener, REBEL came >>with a database which I could use as an opening book. REBEL was no. 1, HIARCS a >>somewhat close second. >> >>I’m thinking of upgrading my REBEL CENTURY to the latest version, but some news >>has given me pause. I understand that if there is going to be a REBEL CENTURY >>four, it will most likely be in DOS. Century three is in DOS now, of course. >>That’s fine with me, the benefits outweigh DOS. But I’m concerned about the >>newest operating system for Windows coming out soon, which will soon become the >>canonical operating system for most computers. >> >>Will the newest operating system continue to run REBEL CENTURY under DOS? I >>have heard on this forum that the newest operating system will only Emulate DOS? >> Is this true? When I had Macintoshes, I had a PowerPC running a then-new >>HIARCS program which had to emulate the 680XX code, and the result was my 100MHz >>PowerPC chip (then quite fast) ran HIARCS slower than my 20MHz 680XX chip. >>Thankfully, later there was a PowerPC version of HIARCS. It was ported to the >>new chip, and I bought it. >> >>I’m scared that if there is DOS emulation the slowdown of REBEL CENTURY will be >>too much. If so, this program will surely die. >> >>I don’t understand why 100% effort isn’t dedicated to porting Century to >>windows. As I understand it, this positional REBEL program was what made the >>Rebel company what it is today, successful. Is this program not selling as well >>as the newer Tiger and Gandolf programs? If so, then I can understand why there >>are no resources to spend on Century (but I will assert that if this is the >>case, the only reason the newer programs are more lucrative is because Century >>is still in DOS, and that Century would make more money if it were modernized). >> >>Anyway, I hope someone can shed some much needed light into whether the newest >>operating system for windows will only “emulate” DOS, or actually run DOS well. >>Like I said, if it is an emulation, Century will be lost from the hard drives of >>the future. >> >>If this comes to pass, what to do? The only program left that has a Human-like >>playing ability is HIARCS. If there are others please let me know. > > > >I think you don't understand what "emulation" means in this context. > >It has nothing to do with the kind of emulation your Mac had to do to execute >68K code. Your Mac was forced to do a lot of work to translate 68K instructions >into its own native PowerPC instructions, thus the HUGE slowdown. > >In the case of DOS, the processor's instruction set has not changed. It is still >an x86 compatible processor which is the heart of your PC. The DOS programs will >still run at their full speed. > >There will be a few percent of speed lost when the DOS programs will do I/O >(with the display or the disks), because DOS function calls will be translated >on the fly to Windows function calls. > >I bet you won't be able to sense any difference in speed between Windows running >a DOS program and a DOS-booted PC running the same program. > >So it's not such a big deal. DOS is not dead, it's just another application >provided with Windows. As long as there is Windows, there is DOS available... Great theory, but glad I don't have to be my salary on it. > > > > Christophe
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