There is a new development tool for DOS available. If you want to create some stuff for DOS but you only web programming, you might be interested in DOjS, a javascript interpreter for DOS. It can handle sound (digitized and FM syntesis) and graphics (JS canvas, BMP support). For now you can type in a script with your favorite text editor and then run it on a DOS command prompt, using keyboard or mouse. The core DOjs code is MIT license, other components are similar free/open source. More info and download is on the DOjS GitHub.

Mpxplay is a commander-style console audio player for DOS and Win32 operating systems. Laaca announced that a new Mpxplay v1.63 (all console versions) is now released. Major changes between v1.63 and v1.62 include: -added minimalist XSPF playlist file loading (filenames only) -increased max number of audio channels to 11 -added new PCI ids to Intel HDA soundcard DOS driver -corrected ASX playlist file loading -fixed wrong ID3 info displaying after artist/title change -fixed possible buffer overflow at displaying header informations -corrected editor update at file copy from playlist "with Subdirs" -fixed possible crash at exit. You can download the new version at the Mpxplay website.

TK Chia writes: "I have uploaded new packages for the gcc-ia16 toolchain, at Github, tag 20190101. This is a DJGPP/MS-DOS-hosted (32-bit x86) port of the GNU C and C++ compiler toolchain to the IA-16 target (16-bit Intel x86), by Rask Ingemann Lambertsen, Andrew Jenner, myself, and various contributors. The toolchain itself is 32-bit, but it will output 16-bit code. Besides fixing the package descriptions to make them fit onto single lines, I have also included in the packages some compiler optimizations and other minor features that I recently implemented." The notes and change log are in the release. See also the update at Github, tag 20190113 that fixes the URL for GNU MPFR.

The first release candidate for FreeDOS 1.3 is now available for testing! FreeDOS 1.3 RC1 is meant as a test release, and we do want your feedback. Please discuss in either the freedos-user or freedos-devel email lists.

FreeDOS 1.3 RC1 is available as several installation media: USB stick images, VMDK images, and CD images. Two prototypes of LiveCDs are being provided with RC1. However, one will be discarded for the FreeDOS 1.3 final release, depending on feedback. Both types have some live FreeDOS packages at boot and support temporarily installing/removing more by using FDIMPLES. Also, both will automatically start networking support when used inside VirtualBox or VMWare. For other environments, you will need to manually start it. So, let your voice be heard on which (if any) LiveCD you prefer. Download FreeDOS 1.3 RC1 and let us know what you think.

Blocek is text editor for DOS with unicode support. It means that unlike other DOS editors you are not limited to your current code page. It allows you to edit multilanguage documents, translate texts from one language to another, write modern web pages and so on. Laaca has released a new version of Blocek with several fixes. "I uploaded a bugfix release of my text editor and image viewer Blocek. Changes: version 1.62: - fixed a lot of typos in texts - fixed block operations on the single line blocks - solved "undeletable" first char of line which occured in some situations + block conversions to make case up or low." You can download the new Blocek 1.62 from Laaca's website.