LDP
/
old-www
1
1
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Releases Wiki Activity
old-www/LDP/LG/issue85/tag/3.html

189 lines
7.5 KiB
HTML
Raw Permalink Blame History

<!--startcut ==============================================-->
<!-- *** BEGIN HTML header *** -->
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META NAME="generator" CONTENT="lgazmail v1.4F.y">
<TITLE>The Answer Gang 85: PC-MOS</TITLE>
</HEAD><BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#0000AF"
ALINK="#FF0000">
<!-- *** END HTML header *** -->
<!-- begin 3 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(!) " border="0"
>PC-MOS</H3>
<p><strong>From linux-questions-only
</strong></p>
<p align="right"><strong>Comments By Thomas Adams, Mike "Iron" Orr, Heather Stern
</strong></p>
<blockquote><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Heather] Reilly Burke is Technical Advisor for a company called Aero Training
Products, Inc. (<A HREF="http://www.aerotraining.com"
>http://www.aerotraining.com</A>)
</blockquote>
<P><STRONG>
To Derek Holliday
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
We have copies of PC-MOS and LanLink available. We also produce LanLink
drivers for PC-MOS.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
PC-MOS is required to run POS systems with DOS applications. <A HREF="http://www.dosemu.org/">DOSEMU</A> is not
good enough to run many (most) of the apps. PC-MOS is file-compatible with
DOS systems, but only the November 93 kernel (of PC-MOS) can access 3.5"
floppies.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I'd love to replace our PC-MOS applications, but nothing quite measures up
yet. Linux is nowhere near being able to do the job (it's way too big,
complex, &amp; geeky)! Possibly DR-DOS 8 (coming out in spring 2003 with FAT32)
might do the job.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
How would you know until you tried? Just because Linux
is too big and "geeky" in your eyes; does not mean to
say that it couldn't do the job! It's not really
logical to say that.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
DOS <EM>programs</EM>, however, often access the hardware directly, so it's
not surprising DOSEMU can't emulate the environment quite well enough.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Heather]
Thanks for this tip on an old thread; it's not Linux, but since we
seem to be the only place that talks about it...
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
I'm curious about what the problems under DOSEMU + (say) MS-DOS 5.0 are,
but unless this is a problem you're trying to solve for yourself, you
may not want to bother delving any further.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
The buzzword "point of sale" typed into the <A HREF="http://www.freshmeat.net/">Freshmeat</A> search index
(<A HREF="http://freshmeat.net"
>http://freshmeat.net</A>) yields 7 direct hits, and a category for
point of sale containing 42 projects. Well over a year ago I saw
one written up in a magazine article (I think it was <EM>Linux Journal</EM>
actually) about a POS system optimized for a pizza place. That's
geeky; but the pizzas he was selling are real.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Some of these projects will really be "e-business" (aimed at web based
stores, not one where a high school student has to run the register,
nor where the machine has a real register to pop the change out of)
and a few of them are optimized for a specific kind of shop. But they
may do for some people.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Of course we're still trying to move our PC-MOS apps to Linux, but so
far, after years of experimenting and coding, we're still running the
PC-MOS systems because there's still nothing like them for Point-Of-Sale
utility. It's fast and small and entirely bug-free. The last PC-MOS
kernel released was November 93 (9 years ago). But it's designed for
old hardware (ISA slots, NE2000 ethernet cards, Wyse terminals, and
serial printers), and the systems are becoming increasingly difficult
to maintain. There's probably still 100,000 PC-MOS users looking for
an answer, but the closest thing is probably DR-DOS. Linux is not being
maintained by POS geeks, so there's a real shortage of Linux POS tools
and solutions.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
We've tried disassembling the drivers (we succeeded in cloning the Lan
client drivers with new serial numbers!) , but disassembling the entire
OS is far too complicated. We've also tried rewriting the DOS apps (in
particular, the Shark database). We have its horribly complicated
monolithic Microsoft C source code, with chunks of assembler mixed in,
but it's still a giant task. The only feasible direction looks like
rewriting the Shark compiler in Kylix, but even that is a horrendous
prospect. So far, PC-MOS still works (and it's paid for
<IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">, and the
Shark database is still fast and flexible.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
We'd really like to hear from any other POS types who are trying to move
to Linux.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Reilly Burke
</STRONG></P>
<!-- end 3 -->
<P> <hr> </p>
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<hr>
<CENTER><SMALL><STRONG>
<h5>
<br>Copyright &copy; 2002
<br>Copying license <A HREF="">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A>
<BR>Published in Issue 85 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2002</H5>
</STRONG></SMALL></CENTER>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<SMALL><CENTER><H6 ALIGN="center">HTML script maintained by
<A HREF="mailto:star@starshine.org">Heather Stern</a> of
Starshine Technical Services,
<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A>
</H6></SMALL></CENTER>
<HR>
<!--startcut ======================================================= -->
<P> <hr>
<!-- begin tagnav ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::-->
<p align="center">
<table width="100%" border="0"><tr>
<td align="right" valign="center"
><IMG ALT="" SRC="../../gx/navbar/left.jpg"
WIDTH="14" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0" ALIGN="middle" border="0"
><A HREF="../index.html"
><IMG SRC="../../gx/navbar/toc.jpg" align="middle"
ALT="[ Table Of Contents ]" border="0"></A
><A HREF="../lg_answer.html"
><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/answertoc.jpg" align="middle"
ALT="[ Answer Guy Current Index ]" border="0"></A></td>
<td align="center" valign="center"><A HREF="../lg_answer.html#greeting"><img align="middle"
src="../../gx/dennis/smily.gif" alt="greetings" border="0"></A> &nbsp;
<A HREF="../../tag/bios.html">Meet&nbsp;the&nbsp;Gang</A> &nbsp;
<A HREF="1.html">1</A> &nbsp;
<A HREF="2.html">2</A> &nbsp;
<A HREF="3.html">3</A> &nbsp;
<A HREF="4.html">4</A>
</td>
<td align="left" valign="center"><A HREF="../../tag/kb.html"
><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/answerpast.jpg" align="middle"
ALT="[ Index of Past Answers ]" border="0"></A
><IMG ALT="" SRC="../../gx/navbar/right.jpg" align="middle"
WIDTH="14" HEIGHT="45" BORDER="0"></td></tr></table>
</p>
<!-- end tagnav ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::-->
<!--endcut ========================================================= -->
<P> <hr>
<!--startcut ======================================================= -->
<CENTER>
<!-- *** BEGIN navbar *** -->
<!-- *** END navbar *** -->
</CENTER>
</p>
<!--endcut ========================================================= -->
<!--startcut ======================================================= -->
</BODY></HTML>
<!--endcut ========================================================= -->
Reference in New Issue View Git Blame Copy Permalink