OpenChess

I figure this might be a good place to ask this question. I have used Chess Genius by Richard Lang for a long time. I know it isn't the strongest program but I like the interface and really enjoy it. He hasn't had a real upgrade in several years and now I can no longer use it because Genius will not run on a 64 bit Windows system. My question is, how hard is it to rewrite a program to go from 32 bit to 64 bit? I have written Richard Lang but haven't received a response yet. Would anyone know if there plans to do this? Thanks a lot for any information.

I am not familiar with this particular software...but I doubt it's a 32-bit application. x64 Windows do not support 16-bit applications. You need the right environment to go from one architecture to the next, and some data changes; int, long...

I got my answer. Genius is written in assembly language and cannot be converted over without a compete rewrite so I guess Genius will die the slow death. The only thing I don't understand is why other older chess programs work fine in Windows 7 64 bit. They must not be in assembly language. Thanks again.

biscuit1953 wrote:I got my answer. Genius is written in assembly language and cannot be converted over without a compete rewrite so I guess Genius will die the slow death. The only thing I don't understand is why other older chess programs work fine in Windows 7 64 bit. They must not be in assembly language. Thanks again.

The others are probably 32-bit applications. 32-bit executables continue to work on 64-bit Windows.

That Genius was written in assembly language means that it can't easily be "recompiled" into a 32-bit or even 64-bit application. Had it been written in C or something like Turbo Pascal, the 16-bit executable would still not work on 64-bit Windows, but then the original source code could (with some effort, probably more for Turbo Pascal than for C) be made to compile for 64-bit Windows (but one would need the source for it, so basically only Lang could do this).

On 32-bit Windows XP you could still run 16-bit programs due to the fact that Windows provided an emulator (NTVDM.exe) inside which 16-bit programs were run. On 64-bit Windows this is no longer possible:

In an x86-64 CPU, virtual 8086 mode is available as a sub-mode only in its legacy mode (for running 16- and 32-bit operating systems), not in the native, 64-bit long mode. Rather than update the NTVDM to correctly work on 64bit versions of Windows, Microsoft choose to no longer include it thus versions of Windows NT for 64-bit architectures (x86-64 and IA-64) are unable to run DOS or 16-bit Windows applications. The only possibility to run them is to use Windows XP Mode or other virtualization software.

(link)

This is not an asm issue. Today's cpus execute 16 bit instructions just fine, regardless of the operating system used. This is an issue about system calls and I/O, which doesn't work correctly, not because of the hardware, but because old programs did I/O with 16 bit file offsets and the like which are simply incompatible with today's library APIs.

My old electronic chess board application, written in z80 asm runs flawlessly on today's hardware, since it does no I/O of any kind through a system call interface...

Dear;

If y really want to run ChessGenius under Windows 7, here's the way to do it.

It's a bit hard to do, but it's worth and it will let you get familiarized with a REAL operating system.

1. Install a free version of VMware (server) on your computer; you can find it there : http://www.vmware.com/
VMware allows you to manage virtual machines on a single computer.

2. Create a virtual machine environment and install a linux distibution on it; if you're not familiarized with this operating system, I suggest you to install a Ubuntu distribution from here http://www.ubuntu.com/ , but any linux distro will work fine.

3. As linux is not able to run Windows applications directly, you will need to install the Wine software that can.

4. Install the ChessGenius app using wine software.

Done!!!

This will work for both 32 and 64 bits linux distros.

Let me know the state of the art. If you need more help, do not hesitate to contact me.

Greetings.

Bye.

hpa wrote:Dear;

If y really want to run ChessGenius under Windows 7, here's the way to do it.

It's a bit hard to do, but it's worth and it will let you get familiarized with a REAL operating system.

1. Install a free version of VMware (server) on your computer; you can find it there : http://www.vmware.com/
VMware allows you to manage virtual machines on a single computer.

2. Create a virtual machine environment and install a linux distibution on it; if you're not familiarized with this operating system, I suggest you to install a Ubuntu distribution from here http://www.ubuntu.com/ , but any linux distro will work fine.

3. As linux is not able to run Windows applications directly, you will need to install the Wine software that can.

4. Install the ChessGenius app using wine software.

Done!!!

This will work for both 32 and 64 bits linux distros.

Let me know the state of the art. If you need more help, do not hesitate to contact me.

Greetings.

Bye.

Thanks. Chess Genius seems to run fine in Linux Mint using wine and I am using Windows less and less. I guess I just don't understand Richard Lang's mindset. He is constanly updating his mobile phone apps so it seems he would take the time to write a program for the PC 64 bit system. I know nothing abouit programming so I don't know how difficult it is but maybe his age has something to do with not wishing to write a new program from scratch even though I believe it could be profitable for him.

Why not just install 32 bit Windows, instead of Linux and Wine?

Also, the vmware site is vast.

It appears that Vmware Player is now the correct choice. Is that correct?

Thanks.