Comments on: Can you run other OS/2 Presentation Managers on other versions?

By: raijinkai

raijinkai — Sat, 02 Mar 2024 22:56:13 +0000

On ReactOS, to be able to run Win32 core with their kernel, they had to implement interfaces along the NT Kernel and the userland modules (Basesrv, Winsrv, Csrss, Smss, Win32k, User32, Kernel32, GDI32, DxG), and assuming compatibility between their data structures. These days they can replace only a handful of modules, mostly but not limited to, Windows Graphics Engine ones (GDI and DirectX Kernel Graphics DxG) mostly to be able to run Microsoft DirectX Runtime. But they also can run Windows Kernel32 and User32 if required for testing.

Would be Presentation Manager requires similar steps to make its modules run in a different environment, with the difference that, unlike Win32, it seems to be more coupled internally between its different components.

By: Brian L.

Brian L. — Sat, 02 Mar 2024 19:24:01 +0000

In reply to neozeed.

This is definitely one of the areas that I’m truly disappointed hasn’t been exploited by a GPT yet – One would think a computer would understand the translations between C and opcodes better than any of us mortals and be able to extrapolate binaries back to source, and yet nobody seems to have done that yet!

(though I don’t know how necessary that really is, watching reverse engineers work through their process on YouTube definitely seems to indicate existing tools are more than up to the task at this point)

By: neozeed

neozeed — Sat, 02 Mar 2024 18:41:12 +0000

In reply to Brian L.. The real magic is people decompiling stuff, I’m just a monkey swapping rocks around to varying success lol

By: Brian L.

Brian L. — Sat, 02 Mar 2024 12:46:37 +0000

I'm still amazed at how readily you mix and match compiler versions and would have absolutely no idea how to do that myself, and now you go and do this ^ clueless and innocent Unix developer