Crate dos_like

Rust high level bindings to dos-like, the library/framework for writing applications that look like MS-DOS programs from the 1990’s.

This API was designed to expose the original C API while maintaining Rust’s idiomatic naming and safety guarantees. Note however, that some functions in the framework cannot be made completely memory safe without introducing runtime overhead. In any case, should you find it useful, the low level unsafe bindings are available in dos_like_sys.

Using

This crate does not function as a regular library, because it already defines a main function by itself. Attempting to create your own executable with its own main function will result in a linker error. For the building process to work, the main source file needs the no_main attribute and to define an extern C function dosmain instead.

#![no_main]

#[no_mangle]
pub extern "C" fn dosmain() -> i32 {
    // your code here

    0
}

A utility macro is available as an alternative to declaring the function:

#![no_main]

dos_like::dos_main! {
    // your code here
}

Moreover, since the initiator is based on routines in C, this also means that panic unwinding will not work, so it is best to configure your project to abort on panic. Add this to your Cargo.toml and any other custom profile:

[profile.dev]
panic = "abort"

[profile.release]
panic = "abort"

Cargo features

• disable-screen-frame: when enabled, compiles dos-like so that the CRT screen frame around the viewport does not appear. The other CRT screen effects will remain.

Re-exports

pub use dos_like_sys;

pub use input::*;

pub use music::*;

pub use sound::*;

pub use video::*;

Modules

input

Module for keyboard and mouse input functions.

music

Module for music related functions and constructs.

sound

Module for sound related functions and constructs.

video

Module for video related operations, including graphics and text output.

Macros

dos_main

Declares and defines the main application function.

Enums

FileError

General error type for file loading functions which can fail

Functions

shutting_down

Checks whether the application should shut down.

wait_vbl

Calls waitvbl, which waits for a vertical blanking signal.