python-dos-like 0.0.1

Python bindings for the dos-like programming library

python-dos-like is a set of Python bindings for the dos-like programming library by Mattias Gustavsson.

Usage

python-dos-like can be used in the same way as dos-like by calling dos_like.start on your main function:

from random import randrange

import dos_like
from dos_like.dos import *


def main():
    setvideomode(videomode_320x200)

    while not shuttingdown():
        waitvbl()
        for _ in range(50):
            setcolor(randrange(256))
            line(randrange(320), randrange(200), randrange(320), randrange(200))
            setcolor(randrange(256))
            fillcircle(randrange(320), randrange(200), randrange(30))
            setcolor(randrange(256))
            circle(randrange(320), randrange(200), randrange(30))

dos_like.start(main)

You can also use python-dos-like in the Python REPL by calling dos_like.run_in_background:

>>> import dos_like
>>> from dos_like.dos import *
>>> dos_like.run_in_background(['-w'])
>>> cputs('hello world!')

Note

Why the ['-w']? This passes the -w flag through to dos-like, which tells it to run in windowed mode. Without it, dos-like starts in full screen and you have to press F11 to enter windowed mode.

Warning

The current version of dos-like does not update the screen while its window is out of focus. Since this is inconvenient for experimentation, you can build your own version of dos-like where you modify the app_has_focus function to always return true.

Building

Building python-dos-like requires C development tools to be installed.

On Linux and macOS, the SDL2 and GLEW libraries are required.

If building from a git repository, you must update submodules to get the dos-like source.

$ git submodule update --init --recursive

$ python -mvenv .venv
$ . .venv/bin/activate
(.venv) $ pip install -e '.[dev]'
(.venv) $ coverage run -m unittest && coverage report

Limitations

This library has been tested on Linux and Windows. It builds on macOS, however running in the background raises an AppKit assertion. Building on WebAssembly should be a real challenge.

The lifecycle of graphics, music, and sound loaded from dos-like is not managed, and is likely leaking memory.