DOS will continue to work until 2038... and LOTS of C programs will stop working then too. Win2000 won't run a dos app in a window, you have to exit windows to run ONE dos app.... for dedicated PC, I wouldn't sweat it... we've got another 39 years of use from DOS. From a slightly different perspective, we are presently running a console as an interface to the computers that run our papermachines with a DOS app that I wrote a few years ago - a simple terminal emulator with a few custom bells and whistles. The only problem we are having is that the PCs use RLL drives and don't support IDE drives. As they fail, we are replacing them with win95 PC's I am finding that win95 running on a p3 500mhz allows a 16 bit DOS app to steal 100% cpu time. In other words, a single DOS app is bringing a p3 500mhz to its knees. Perhaps this is a consideration for your system, I don't know. I remember in win3.11 you could control the time slice of any app, but in win95/98 , you can't that I've seen yet. As an example of how long you can use a dedicated system... The computers I work on at work are Honeywell level 6's, have 8inch disk drives, and were new in 1970. We have to boot them from a special front panel with a very special "hi tech advanced" LED *numeric* display and keypad. This was an improvement over the old system where we had to key the boot strap code in octal. . Of course on the other hand.... most of the software we are now looking out for with this whole y2k problem is based on the fact that NO ONE actually believed that a program written in 1960 would be still in use today. Wes - kd4rdb@qsl.net http://www.qsl.net/kd4rdb Where am I? http://map.aprs.net/kd4rdb-9 http://map.aprs.net/kd4rdb-10 Stupidity should be painful -----Original Message----- From: John Waters To: PICLIST@mitvma.mit.edu Date: Tuesday, September 21, 1999 12:55 AM Subject: Re: [OT] Industrial applications - DOS or Windows? >Hi All, > >As a system integrator, I used to build control systems for customers using >industrial/embedded PCs, but as Windows has replaced DOS in the commercial >sector, unless I packaged my product as a proprietary system, many of my >customers will query if they are advanced enough since they are still >running on DOS. However, to me, I still find DOS the most economical and >programmer friendly o.s. to use in many industrial applications, especially >when a graphical user interface is not needed. >Am I making a wrong decision of retaining a phasing out o.s. in my product? >Or can anyone suggest me some ways to make my customers confident in my DOS >based systems? > >Cheers >John > > > > >______________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com > ________________________________________________________ NetZero - We believe in a FREE Internet. Shouldn't you? Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html