More about DOS systems

[Tony Baechler]

Cleverson wrote:
> I don't know how Provox compares to other DOS screen reader, but as far
> as I know, it's the only open source one. Hence, I would also enjoy it
> being able to speak through the ESpeak soft synth, especially because
> it's the only synth capable of speaking Brazilian Portuguese that has a
> DOS version.
>
>   
Hi,

I think you're right.  I don't know of any other open source screen 
readers for DOS.  One thing I can say is that Provox is very small.  
It's rather old though and doesn't have some features of other screen 
readers.  However, I had to use it once when I had a low memory 
situation and it definitely seems to take the smallest amount of RAM.  I 
should also add that I never really took the time to learn it so perhaps 
I missed some key features.

> Besides it, in addition to FreeDOS, there is another DOS that's free
> for non commercial use. It is Enhanced DR-DOS (EDR-DOS). According to
> its author, its kernel supports pre-emptive multitasking. See:
> http://www.drdosprojects.de/
>
> and:
> http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0503736/php/drdoswiki/index.php
>   


Yes, but it has a few issues.  First, it is not free.  It's freeware but 
not free software.  Second, I don't think it's as stable as FreeDOS.  I 
ran OpenDOS for a while which is I think the same as DR-DOS and it 
worked well enough but wasn't as stable for me.  Finally, FreeDOS is 
always being expanded and I think it will eventually have multitasking 
support.