You asked for it....

Posted by Jim Guerber on January 09, 2009 at 09:53:49:

In Reply to: Comet32 progress posted by Grant Foraker on January 08, 2009 at 14:50:39:

Comet32 Update

Microsoft is about to forcefully switch us to 64 bit only platforms. To ensure application continuity into the future, Signature has undertaken a migration of all of our software away from any dependency on older technology. The last piece of this development is Comet32.

The initial release of the Comet32 code was as coshdll.dll. This was a part of comet16 designed to run 32 bit programs, but it required comet16 to run. We are now working on a new incarnation of comet32 called cosh32.exe. This is a full comet system that will run on 64 bit platforms.

Comet32 includes a rewrite of the IB compiler (COSM32) and the runtime system (COSH32). These have been rewritten into C++ from the old 16 bit assembly language. Since they are written in C++ the Comet System that includes them will be supported in any version of windows including 64 bit systems. The Comet Server code is already written in C++ and that already runs with 64 bit Windows.

Comet32 has some very interesting enhancements such as unlimited string length, enhanced numeric processing and user defined procedures, etc which have been outlined elsewhere. Our current focus with this product is to make it as compatible as possible with your current application software.

We have compiled all of our software using COSM32 and with minor differences, they all compile.

Here is a list of the features that are missing that I consider important.

• Printer support – Printers are working in a limited way. You can open/write/close a printer, but the following are missing at the moment:
  
  • Mnemonics
    
  • DES programs
    
• Support for Windows development.
  
• Support for Other Devices
  
  • X00
    
  • XAP
    
  • Gateways including WinSock and Sort.
    

Here are other less important items in no particular order:

• Background – Background support is included in COSH32, but support for the statements such as activate, terminate, PSTAT, etc. is missing.
  
• Image files
  
• Some minor mnemonics are still not defined in IB32.
  
• Pseudo DOS calls (find string, get handles, etc).
  
• Qantel emulation.
  
• MID instruction.
  
• The ability to launch and execute a Comet16 program from COSH32.
  

What do you think is most important in this list? I would like to hear from you about this.

Other than working on the above items, what is the next step? We could either start to make a rel32 folder, or look into combining c16 and c32. If we combine c16 and c32 systems, the c16 portion will still fail on 64 bit platforms. You will still have to recompile all of your programs.

Follow Ups:

• Re: You asked for it.... Mike Saunders 16:44:17 01/11/09 (0)
• Re: You asked for it.... Barbara Brazil 11:42:40 01/09/09 (3)
  • Re: You asked for it.... Grant Foraker 12:40:40 01/09/09 (2)
    • Re: You asked for it.... Stephen Auerbach 13:56:25 01/10/09 (1)
      • Re: You asked for it.... Greg 15:08:38 01/10/09 (0)

Post a Followup

Each file can be a maximum of 1MB in length Uploaded files will be purged from the server on a regular basis.