
  1. About
  
  This is the HX DOS extender runtime. It allows HX DOS extended
  or standard Win32 console applications to be executed in DOS.
  HX has been tested to run with MS-DOS, FreeDOS, OpenDOS (DR-DOS)
  and DOSEMU 1.3.
  

  2. Installation
  
  To install the HX DOS extender do:

  - unzip HXRT (possibly done already) in a directory of your choice, 
    for example C:\HX.
  
  - include the BIN subdirectory (C:\HX\BIN) into the PATH environment
    variable, which usually is set in CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT.
    Or copy the files from C:\HX\BIN to a directory included in PATH.
    
  - now to run standard Win32 console apps in plain DOS I would suggest
    to use HXLdr32. This is a DOS-TSR and it doesn't require any parameters.
    Just type HXLdr32 and then try to start the Win32 apps you want to run.
    View Doc\HXLdr32.txt for more details. 
    There exists another way to run Win32 apps. It requires to modify the
    binaries to run. The modification is done by a small tool called 
    PEStub.exe. View Doc\PEStub.txt for more details.
    
  To create new HX DOS extended apps you will need HXDEV. This may
  be downloaded from http://www.japheth.de/Download/hxdev.zip


  3. Compatible Compilers and Assemblers

   Created binaries of the following compilers/assemblers may
   run under HX in DOS:
  
                       Compiler + Linker may
   Name                run under HX as well
   -----------------------------------------------
   MASM                  yes
   TASM                  yes
   FASM                  yes
   NASM (Win32)          yes
   LZASM (Win32)         yes
   Visual C++ (MS)       yes
   Borland C++           yes
   Digital Mars C++      yes
   MinGW C++             yes
   Pelles C              yes
   LCC-Win32             no
   Open Watcom (Win32)   yes
   Delphi                yes
   Free Pascal (Win32)   yes
   Pascal Pro            yes
   PowerBasic            no (?) 
   Free Basic (Win32)    yes
   MF Object Cobol       no

   Of course only Win32 console applications may run under HX, no GUI apps.
   Please read Doc\compat.txt for more details.
   There surely may exist other development tools not listed above. If you
   know of one, please send me a note.
   
  
  4. Files Overview
  
  a. Tools for 32-Bit applications:
  
  - HDPMI32.EXE: DPMI server for 32 bit clients. Used in plain DOS only.
    Will be executed automatically if necessary. View HDPMI.TXT for more
    details. In directory Unsupp is a version which supports LFN. It
    should only be used if a working driver for LFN in plain DOS is installed.

  - HXLdr32.EXE: TSR program to execute PE apps in plain DOS. View
    HXLdr32.TXT for more details.

  - DPMILD32.EXE: PE file loader. Usually this file is executed
    automatically either by HXLdr32.exe or DPMIST32.exe. View DPMILD32.TXT
    for more details.

  - PESTUB.EXE: Tool to modify MZ-Header of a PE file. Usually used
    to add DPMIST32.EXE to an existing PE app. View PEStub.TXT for more
    details.

  - DKRNL32.DLL, DUSER32.DLL, DADVAPI.DLL: Win32 Emulation dlls which 
    will be loaded by DPMILD32 instead of the standard windows dlls 
    KERNEL32.DLL, USER32.DLL and ADVAPI32.DLL. View DPMILD32.TXT for more
    details.

  - OLE32.DLL, OLEAUT32.DLL: Some more Win32 Emulation dlls which have 
    identical names as the dlls they are emulating. Rarely used. View
    DPMILD32.TXT for more details.
    
  - DPMIST32.BIN (DPMIST32.EXE): these are MZ stubs to be added to PE binaries.
    They are used either by PEStub.EXE or the linker. DPMIST32.EXE exists
    for compatibility with previous versions of HX and doesn't work with
    ALINK. DPMIST32.BIN is a newer version which should work with all linkers.
    View DPMIST32.TXT for more details.

  b. Tools for 16-Bit applications:

  - HDPMI16.EXE: DPMI server for 16 bit clients.
  - DPMILD16.EXE: NE file loader.

  c. Documentation in Doc subdirectory.


  5. History
  
  - 06/14/2005, V1.20: HDPMI V1.8.7, DPMILD32 V2.8.9, DKRNL32 V2.8.15
  - 06/07/2005, V1.19: HDPMI V1.8.6, DPMILD32 V2.8.8, DKRNL32 V2.8.14
  - 06/05/2005, V1.18: HDPMI V1.8.6, DPMILD32 V2.8.8, DKRNL32 V2.8.13
  - 06/02/2005, V1.17: HDPMI V1.8.6, DPMILD32 V2.8.8, DKRNL32 V2.8.12
  - 05/22/2005, V1.16: HDPMI V1.8.6, DPMILD32 V2.8.8, DKRNL32 V2.8.11
  - 05/20/2005, V1.15: HDPMI V1.8.6, DPMILD32 V2.8.7, DKRNL32 V2.8.10,
                      HXLdr32 V1.3, OLEAUT32 V1.2, DUSER32 V1.5
                      HX's PE Loader (DPMILD32) should now run on OpenDOS
                      without errors.
  - 05/14/2005, V1.14: HDPMI V1.8.5, DPMILD32 V2.8.6, DKRNL32 V2.8.9,
                      HXLdr32 V1.3
  - 01/08/2005, V1.13: HDPMI V1.8.4, DPMILD32 V2.8.6, DKRNL32 V2.8.8,
                      HXLdr32 V1.3
  - 12/03/2004, V1.12: HDPMI V1.8.3, DPMILD32 V2.8.6, DKRNL32 V2.8.7,
                      HXLdr32 V1.3, DUSER32 V1.4
  - 11/25/2004, V1.11: PEStub V1.9, HDPMI V1.8.2, DPMILD32 V2.8.5,
                      DKRNL32 V2.8.6
  - 10/24/2004, V1.10: PEStub V1.8, HXLdr32 V1.2
                      DPMIST32.BIN added to support ALINK.
  - 10/10/2004, V1.9: HDPMI V1.8.0, DPMILD32 V2.8.4, DKRNL32 V2.8.5
                      MinGW GCC, AS and LD run under HX.
                      Free Pascal (Win32 version) runs under HX.
  - 10/06/2004, V1.8: DPMILD32 V2.8.3, DKRNL32 V2.8.4 
                      DKRNL32.TXT added.
                      DPMILD32 History added to DPMILD32.TXT.
                      MF Object Cobol apps may run under HX now.
  - 10/02/2004, V1.7: HDPMI V1.7.9
  - 09/30/2004, V1.6: HDPMI V1.7.8, DKRNL32 V2.8.3
                      Open Watcom BINNT\VI.EXE runs now with HX.
  - 09/18/2004, V1.5: HDPMI V1.7.7, DKRNL32 V2.8.2, OLEAUT32 V1.1
                      HX now supports running BCC32.EXE + ILINK32.EXE of
                      free C++ Builder Command Line Tools. MS LINK.EXE now
                      works when creating large libraries. NASMW runs
                      with HX.
  - 09/13/2004, V1.4: HDPMI V1.7.6
  - 09/11/2004, V1.3: HDPMI V1.7.5, DPMILD32 V2.8.2, DKRNL32 V2.8.1 
                      Tools DPMIRS32.EXE and DPMIRS16.EXE deleted.
  - 08/31/2004, V1.2: DKRNL32 V2.8.0
                      DPMILD16.EXE added.
  - 08/29/2004, V1.1: DKRNL32 V2.7.9, HXLdr32 V1.1
                      Unsupp\HDPMI32.EXE added (LFN version)
  - 08/27/2004, V1.0: HX runtime first version. Consists of the former
                      packages HDPMI and DPMILDXX (partially).

  For details about version changes view HDPMI.TXT, DPMILD32.TXT,
  DKRNL32.TXT, HXLDR32.TXT and PESTUB.TXT.


  6. Copyright

  The HX DOS extender runtime is freeware and may be used for any purpose.
  
  Japheth   (Web: http://www.japheth.de, Email: mail@japheth.de)

