Thread: DOS graphics library

Hi,

Can anybody recommend a good, free DOS graphics library for producing windows style user interfaces?

I heard that Allegro was OK, but not sure on the licensing conditions. The license agreement needs to be free for commercial use.


Thanks for reading.

i think its free for commercial use

Hmm, just checked Allegro, the license is fine, but according to the 'readme' there is no chance of using it with my compiler (Borland 3.1)

Any other ideas ?

dev c++

Originally posted by Salem
> my compiler (Borland 3.1)
Either live with the standard BGI library you have, or as XSquared says, get a better compiler.

You'll be glad you did - no more icky segment offset near and far nonsence.

If he's writing for true DOS (and not just a Windows command-line program) he has no choice but to either use segment-offset addressing or use another program (DOS4GW, for example) to put it into protected mode (or write his own, but that would be a slight pain in the butt). DOS programs, without the aid of an extender like 4GW, must operate in real mode; it's a real mode OS.

dieselpower, do you care if the program is a DOS program, or a Windows command-line program? (I.e. do you care if it runs on systems without Windows installed?)

The program has to run under true DOS only at the moment.

Then you're pretty much stuck with an old compiler like you have. Your best bet will be to use its built-in DOS graphics capabilities. You'll have to build all the GUI features yourself just tracking mouse clicks/releases and keyboard activity.

Greetings,

Get DJGPP, it's free and Allegro supports it.

Like augur said, DJGPP is the way to go. I used it with the Allegro library under DOS 6.2 a few years ago and it worked beautifully.

It will also force you to use more standard and portable code, and you won't have to worry about ugly things like farmalloc().