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Arachne web browser port for 80286/80287?

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First post, by Jo22

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Hi everyone,

I hope that's the right forum to post,
I almost was going to post it in software,
but decided against it, because it's not about games.

Ok, what is it about?

Well, I've just gotten Arachne to work on my 80286 PC, a Schneider Tower AT 220! 😊

The PC merely has one Megabyte of RAM installed for the moment (all slots are occupied, an EMS card is planned), but also an 80287 co-processor.

Now, the "problem" is, that there are just two types of official binaries.
The full version for 32-Bit 386/486 PCs and a lite version for old grandpa (IBM PC, 808x):

http://glennmcc.org/arachne/

(Edit: The 8086 version has no x87 support, unlike the normal version.)

Does anybody know, if there's a semi-recent version with x87 support and "normal" 16-Bit compiled code (80186/NEC V30/286)?
Something that's not an offense to PC/AT owners? 😉

Preferable some port that can handle HTTPS servers?
They're about everywhere by now! 😒

Thanks in advance! 🙂

Best regards,
Jo22

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 1 of 4, by keenmaster486

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You won't find a version of Arachne that has modern HTTPS support. For that you should use the WebOne proxy.

I think DOSLYNX works on 286 also.

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 2 of 4, by Tronix

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I looked at the source code v1.99 and didn't see heavy use of floating point math. The only place where it is used is the arc drawing procedure in the LOPIF library.
The project also uses the WATTCP library, but I did not find its source codes, only pre-compiled .LIB file included.
In any case, I recompiled the LOPIF library and the program itself with the compiler switches set to generate 286 and 287 opcodes.

I don’t know how much this can affect the execution speed, but now the binary code uses ENTER / LEAVE opcodes, shifts (SHR,SHL) by imm greater than 1, push imm/ pop imm, coprocessor commands FINIT, FLD, FMUL etc.

Arachne core V1.99 286/287 in attachment

Last edited by Tronix on 2022-09-25, 14:07. Edited 1 time in total.

https://github.com/Tronix286/

Reply 3 of 4, by Tronix

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Okay, found WATTCP library source code here: http://www.jkmicro.com/Downloads-TCP-IP.html
I also recompiled them for the 286 processor and rebuilt the program again. Since I cannot check whether the TCP/IP stack will work at all after this, I will leave both versions (message earlier and this).

https://github.com/Tronix286/

Reply 4 of 4, by Jo22

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Thank you very much! 🙂

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

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