DS4QB2

eevee · Post by **eevee** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 3:29 pm

I'm trying to put together a simple system that will display photographs, some with commentary. Ideally this system will consist of a fairly modern machine but with DOS6.2 and a compiled QB program.

In my hunt for suitable software I came across DS4QB2 by David Schnur. The author - if I have Googled correctly - seems to have moved on to other things, so I thought I would ask elsewhere.

David's text does credit Nekrophidius and a search for that led me here!

My query relates to the following extract: "..... allows a DOS program to communicate with Windows sound resources - specifically DirectSound. It does this through the excellent bass.dll sound library ....."

Not being a PC systems programmer, does the above mean that only the two .dlls supplied with the package are all that is needed or does one need to have some version of Windows installed? Would be nice if Windows was not required.

If Windows is a must, what would be the 'oldest' version I could use?

Regards,

Eevee

{Nathan} · Post by **{Nathan}** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 8:30 pm

Wow, you really are thourogh and want the job done! You can use google well too. As for your other questions... I have NO CLUE.
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JB_ · Post by **JB_** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 9:13 pm

It requires windows, as it hooks on to the same device as the windows media player.

Z!re · Post by **Z!re** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 6:05 am

It "works" under win98, and probably under win95 too.

Basically, it is a program that works as a slave drive to a DOS program, allowing the DOS program to utilize windows sound system, playing MP3s etc.

eevee · Post by **eevee** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 7:53 am

I take it that by 'works' you all mean a full Windows install?

Not just that it requires a load of other files to be present?

Regards,

Eevee

Z!re · Post by **Z!re** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 9:25 am

It requres multitasking (Windows 9x and up) and DX sound system things to be installed.

So, for win95 you could probably take it down to around 30-50MB (Even less if you sacrifice some things, the record for a bootable version of windows 95 is 7MB, and for a non-rebootable one it's ~3MB, but then you couldnt turn it off or it would not start again. Win98 is 7MB non-bootable)

DS4QB and DSQB++ require windows, and DX (Actually, Direct Sound, which is a subsystem to DX)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 10:27 am

It's doing my head in!

Problem I have is that I am running a Win98 machine and do not have another at hand to run in DOS6.2. Thus anything I try, I cannot be sure whether it has a Win requirement or not.

It would appear I have a solution as you describe, but it would still be nice not to have to use Win. I guess the hunt is still on thus any pointers would be welcome.

The target program will display
1) pictures to a background track or
2) display a picture to a background commentary for the life of that one picture.

Thus using something like DOSAMP (is this one none-windows?) I could SHELL for situation 2 but because control is not returned to my program after launch I cannot do situation 1.

Perhaps someone can suggest other software/libraries I should look at.

Lastly, the sound track is largely commentary so it need not be MP3. I just thought it would be nice to run something relatively new-fangled like MP3 - the last time I looked at PC sound files must be about 20 years ago!

Having said this, with situation 1 sometimes lasting 10 mins or so, I have winced at the size of WAV/VOC files!

Regards,

Eevee

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 10:38 am

Just realised that, regardless of whether DOSAMP uses Win components or not, it is not suitable - it is much too intrusive.

Regards,

Eevee