WDE ( DOS Disk Editor, 16bit, GPLed )

[japheth]

Hello,

Here's the binary and source ( Masm style ) of a modified WDE. In case you don't know: WDE is Ben Cadieux's famous DOS-based disk editor, originally written for Tasm. I added the source for a Win32 VDD, called WDEVDD, which allows to run this cool program in a Windows DOS Box (NTVDM). The current source is supposed to be assembled with JWasm and linked with WLink.

Please be careful with this little gem! It's size is just 18 kB, but it isn't a toy at all and will cause severe damage if you don't know what a disk editor is and does.

It should be mentioned that WDE is primarily intended for FAT file systems, it won't be that useful for NTFS disks.

http://www.japheth.de/Download/wde031.zip

[BlackVortex]

You really like your DOS, don't ya ?   :green

Kinda offtopic, but do you know/use Far Manager ? It's a norton commander clone, it's now opensource and it's x86 and x64. Its plugin system is very powerful, maybe you could play with that, too ? (plz? haha)

http://www.farmanager.com/

[japheth]

@admins: This thread was intended for the Laboratory. Please move!

You really like your DOS, don't ya ?   :green

Of course. An assembly programmer who doesn't like DOS simply does not exist. :eek

Kinda offtopic, but do you know/use Far Manager ? It's a norton commander clone, it's now opensource and it's x86 and x64. Its plugin system is very powerful, maybe you could play with that, too ? (plz? haha)

FAR manager is my "IDE". But I don't miss anything there, sorry!

[hutch--]

 :bg

> Of course. An assembly programmer who doesn't like DOS simply does not exist.

Where do you get nonsense like this from ? I hated DOS segmenr/offset addressing with a vengeance, thank God for FLAT memory mode instead of that clapped out old junk.

[dedndave]

i think he was refering to the DOS console   :P
most of us know our way around DOS commands better than the average user

as for the 16-bit code, i do miss the simplicity
segmented addressing wasn't that hard
INT 21h was much simpler than windows API - of course, no GUI  :bg
optimizing code was much simpler - no out-of-order execution
and, back in the early days, there were less than 10 different processors to run on
now there are probably 100 different processors or more - all different cache configurations
it is harder to judge what "optimal" means

[BlackVortex]

Do you have anything that needs to be optimized ? My asm programs are so small and with no overhead that they run even before I doubleclick them.  :green

P.S.: Personally, by DOS, I mean the console+interface+way of doing things.

[japheth]

Do you have anything that needs to be optimized ? My asm programs are so small and with no overhead that they run even before I doubleclick them.  :green

Yes, of course. That's why it's posted in the Laboratory. Speed improvements isn't an issue, though. But some points which deserve improvements, for example:

- display the LFN info in the directory entries in a human-readable format
- display deleted entries in directories in gray color
- display the TOC of audio CDs
- ...

P.S.: Personally, by DOS, I mean the console+interface+way of doing things.

Ok, if you prefer... but now show us that you are able to do something serious!  :thumbu

[BlackVortex]

 :red
Hey, I was replying to dedndave

[dedndave]

that's ok - i was replying to Hutch   :bg

....what Japheth said

[TASMUser]

japheth does go the right way with supporting DOS.
If you ever had a HD crash or unreadable sectors on a HD, such a program will come to value.
What will you do if your HD becomes unaccessible because of wastage and you can't start your beloved 64bit windows to play the latest FPS? I know: you choose the simplest solution: buy a new computer. But I would create a DOS Boot disk, start the computer with it and try to retrieve what I can.

Anyway, I think the data on today's multi giga/tera/peta byte HDs isn't valuable to be restored (which consist mostly of ISO games, music mp3s and and bare little monkey videos, anyway).
In these cases (99%) it is easier to ditch an almost half year "old" computer and to buy a new one than to "get in trouble" with restoring the data on the HD with such an "outdated 16bit" program.

Unfortunatly inventive people have to fight with simplemindedness and have no chance to gain visibility with developing of useful thoughts because all these unillumined commercialized 64bit icon clicker zombies are outnumbering them with their density.

[BlackVortex]

The days of DOS recovery diskettes are over, even floppies are extinct. Personally, I'd boot BartPE on a flash disk, or even some linux livecd. Then again, my OS is always stable.

Anyway, I find DOS-like interface refreshing, that's why I do a lot in batch files, don't use a full IDE, I do my binary comparisons with fc.exe, my hexediting with HIEW, and create a lot of console apps.

This tool would be a fine addition to FreeDOS by the way.

[MichaelW]

Is "unillumined commercialized 64bit icon clicker zombies" copyrighted, or can anyone use it  :lol

[BlackVortex]

Is "unillumined commercialized 64bit icon clicker zombies" copyrighted, or can anyone use it  :lol

Only TASM users can use that   :cheekygreen:

[hutch--]

Our generation called them Windows Icon Mouse Pointers.

[Farabi]

It would be good to studying how did the FAT32 really works. Can it read the disk sector by sector? On which sector the FAT32 is?