TinyComputers.io (Posts about visual basic 3)https://tinycomputers.io/categories/visual-basic-3.atom2024-03-28T02:59:51ZA.C. JokelaNikolaWindows 3.1 on Raspberry Pi CM4https://tinycomputers.io/posts/windows-31-on-raspberry-pi-cm4.html2023-01-22T17:59:10-06:002023-01-22T17:59:10-06:00A.C. Jokela<p>I got my start with computers in the late 1980s on an Apple IIe. By 1990, my father had been bringing home a laptop from his work. When he was not working, I would use Microsoft QBasic (here is a <a href="https://github.com/smhanov/qb.js/">JavaScript implementation</a> of QBasic). Three years later, we had a Gateway 2000 desktop computer. It sported an Intel 486 50Mhz with 24MB of ram and about 512MB of disk space. Also in 1993, I was able to get a real copy of Visual Basic 3 from a friend who had gone off to college; he bought it for me from the campus bookstore.</p>
<p>Fast forward thirty years, and here, in 2023, I'm all about single board computers, and in particular, Arm-based SBCs.</p>
<p>Can one run software that was written thirty years ago that was intended to run on a completely different architecture? The answer is yes, and it is damn simple, too.</p>
<pre>
<code class="command">sudo apt install dosbox</code>
</pre>
<p>Download <a href="https://archive.org/details/windows-3.11-sgvm">Windows 3.11</a> from <a href="https://archive.org/">archive.org</a>.</p>
<p>Unzip the archive</p>
<p>Run <code>dosbox</code></p>
<pre>
<code class="command">dosbox</code>
</pre>
<p>Mount the Windows 3.11 directory as drive <code>c:</code></p>
<pre>
mount c /home/pi/win3.11
c:
setup
</pre>
<p>Follow the instructions on the screen.</p>
<p>Installing Visual Basic 3.0 is also simple. Download an <a href="https://archive.org/details/ms-vbpro-30">ISO from archive.org</a>.</p>
<p>Mount the ISO to a directory in your home directory on the Raspberry Pi, copy the contents and execute in Windows 3.11.</p>
<pre>
<code class="command">mkdir cdrom</code>
<code class="command">sudo mount -o loop VBPRO30.ISO cdrom</code>
<code class="command">mkdir win3.11/cdrom; cp -R cdrom/* win3.11/cdrom/; chmod -R 755 win3.11/cdrom</code>
</pre>
<p>I found I needed to restart <code>dosbox</code> in order for the new directory to show up. Repeat mounting <code>/home/pi/win3.11</code> in <code>dosbox</code>.</p>
<pre>
mount c /home/pi/win3.11
c:
cd Windows
win
</pre>
<p>Navigate with <code>File Manager</code> to <code>c:</code> drive, open the <code>cdrom</code> folder, go to <code>DISK1</code> and execute <code>SETUP.EXE</code></p>
<p>As a helpful note, to release the mouse from <code>dosbox</code>, simply press <code>CTRL+F10</code></p>
<p>You might be asking, <em>what's the point of this exercise?</em> - It is <em>because it can be done</em>.</p>
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