2ine updated to have preliminary 16-bit .exe support!

From icculus’s patreon

This is nothing short of amazing.  In the last update, 2ine was running simple 32bit programs on Linux, and providing a portable API set to allow strict OS/2 API based programs to run on Linux.

And now Ryan has turned his focus onto 16bit support for 2ine, which you can read about here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/2ine-16-bit-exe-19337541

As you can read right now It’s running a simple OpenWatcom 16bit hello world based program.  The 16bit OS/2 and 32bit OS/2 API’s ended up having different calling sizes, among other issues which had complicated the bridge program.  However Ryan’s newer use of scripts to generate the required glue for the API’s at least mean that adding the 16bit/32bit calling conventions & required bridges/glue is at least now automated.

This is super cool, as this will eventually open the door to Watcom C/Fortran, Zortec C, Microsoft Basic/C/Cobol/Fortran and of course many other languages that burst out into the initial OS/2 scene before the eventual weight of the SDK & associated costs doomed OS/2 to failure.

Seriously, for those among us who love OS/2 and have like $5 to spare, send some encouragement to Ryan… 🙂

14 thoughts on “2ine updated to have preliminary 16-bit .exe support!

  1. So I tried to get os/2 1.0 cmd.exe to work and hit 2 issues right away. First it’s ne exetype is 0 instead of 1. Patched that and then it crashes because the 16bit dll trampoline trashes bx.

  2. Cool! Is it true that ibm/nokia/m$ etc. os/2 1.x versions cannot work with more that 8MB of physical RAM? (Allegedly.) In that case, 2ine solves a pain in the asHtray – better late than never :]

    • I used to run IBM 1.3 in 16MB of a 486… Although I’m not sure to see how much memory OS/2 sees or is available.. I’m thinking 1.1 & 1.2 were OK too.

      And then there is that HPFS386 / Citrix stuff that is 386 only which can use a lot more memory, although in 64kb segments.

  3. Cool, wonder if he talked to the Win3mu guy about the NE file format details?

    I know the support is primary, but what happens if one tries to load a “family API” program that supports DOS and OS/2?

      • 🙁
        I get “You don’t have permission to access /wp/ on this server.” from central Europe Liberty Global/UPC cable connection. At least its not offline, time for proxy :/
        Thank you for the info.

        • I know. I just hope I’m not running into the same kind of issues will it this “unlimited WordPress” host I’m using in America.

          I really don’t care about EU privacy bullshit, and for some reason hosting in Singapore or Hong Kong is hella expensive. Australia is still on dialup and they are too European in their politick for me, so it seems I never really can get out of America

  4. SQL Server tries to start…

    kernel: :
    SQL Server 1.00
    Sat Apr 22 16:12:52 1989:3.4.
    Jul 18 2018 1:44AM kernel: Confidential Property of Sybase, Inc.
    Jul 18 2018 1:44AM kernel: Copyright (C) 1985-1989 Sybase, Inc.
    Jul 18 2018 1:44AM kernel: Copyright (C) 1988,1989 Microsoft Corporation.
    Jul 18 2018 1:44AM kernel: Copyright (C) 1988,1989 Ashton-Tate Corporation.
    Jul 18 2018 1:44AM kernel: All rights reserved.
    Jul 18 2018 1:44AM kernel: Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government
    Jul 18 2018 1:44AM kernel: is subject to restrictions as set forth in
    Jul 18 2018 1:44AM kernel: subdivision (b) (3) (ii) of the Rights in Technical
    Jul 18 2018 1:44AM kernel: Data and Computer Software clause at 52.227-7013.
    Jul 18 2018 1:44AM kernel: Logging SQL Server messages in file ‘errorlog’.
    Jul 18 2018 1:44AM kernel: OS/2 SQL Server start address is 0x44070000.

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