Overview

SUPPORT  

USEFUL FREE DOS SOFTWARE 
WE HAVE FOUND OR MADE

 

BACKGROUND
Our microLogic PLC software is made to run on a PC running the DOS operating system. This means we have become fairly familiar with a range of software written for DOS. 

Some of the software we found or made was just so useful we wanted to highlight it so others who use DOS might benefit from our experience.

THE SOFTWARE

FreeDOS  (DOS operating system)
No need to pay for this fast, operating system which will run fine on older PCs and the lower specification embedded systems. All our own developed DOS software is tested under FreeDOS.

Turbodisk  (a free RAMdrive or RAMdisk)
Available from the FreeDOS site and included  with the Base FreeDOS package. Very fast and small. 

We have only used TDSK.exe version 2.42. We use this TSR  to create a RAMDISK in which to run our microLogic software. Greatly speeds up execution when writing to or reading from files saved in the RAMdisk. Our bootable floppy demo of the microLogic software to run the Jaycar I/O card KC5230 is an example.

We found one small problem with Turbodisk - it does not tell the operating system where the  ramdrive was created. Often the ramdrive is drive "D:" - because most DOS systems only have one hard drive (called C:), so the next drive made is obviously "D:". But this may not always be the case. 

So we made a little utility of our own to overcome this problem. It's called TUBODAT.exe, and is discussed next.

Turbodat  (Finds the RAMdrive or RAMdisk created by Turbodisk v2.42)
We made this DOS utility program called TURBODAT.exe version 0.1 to:

• find the RAMdisk made by Turbodisk v2.42, and create a small text file called TURBO.dat which included the location of the turbodrive, and
• find the current directory (called the HOME directory) and create a small text file called HOME.dat which included the path to the HOME directory.

The text files, TURBO.dat, and HOME.dat, can be read by software needing to know either of the locations. 

We typically use the location information provided by TURBODAT code to run some file I/O intensive parts of the microLogic software in the RAMdisk (or everything if we are only using a floppy disk), and then copy those files still needed back to a floppy or hard drive location (HOME) when finished.

To get help for TURBODAT.exe, type "turbodat.exe  /?"  (or "/H") on a DOS command line (without the " "). 

The program runs from DOS batch files, autoexec.bat, etc, or can be run manually using "turbodat.exe". It seems to also work when run from a Windows 9x DOS prompt.

Desktop 2  (a GUI for DOS. Includes: file manager, text editor etc)
A link to the Desktop 2 site can be found on the  FreeDOS site. To save time a copy of the link is: Desktop 2 site. The site contains useful information to help you get up and running with the program.

Should you just need the program, a copy of the English version can be downloaded here.

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