Do not use this app as a main source of information. You may put it as a demonstration piece on your retro-workstation, however consider always checking official/professional sources.
Air Alert is a homemade project made to improve my coding skills and learn more about old Windows (r) OS'es (especially 9x and 3.x) and DOS-like plus their networking capabilities. This app is aimed at retro-PC fans, just like me.
I am not a professional coder, so I may have done basic mistakes so one of motivations to publish the source code was to improve the app with help of others and myself included.
Air Alert - is a live aerial threat tracker for Ukrainian territories, made as a standalone Windows (r) app with old-fashioned design and environment. However, it does not surpass the official sources; in some cases, lacks some functionality: read the disclaimer.
As you may have seen from the source code, it uses unofficial (currently) data source and it may be unreliable and as of now it lacks one of features, including:
- threat status for Crimea (it's always set to on, as of now);
- sub-regions threat statuses;
Do not use this app as a main source of information. You may put it as a demonstration piece on your retro-workstation, however consider always checking official/professional sources.
Windows Defender might report the installer/app on modern OS'es (Windows 10 & 11) as suspicious due to (as far as i can guess) lack of digital certificates on executables. I have reported this issue to Microsoft, but if the problem persists and you know how to fix, let me know.
Currently, there are two "branches" of development with different code, platform and language. If you plan to build the app yourself, I would recommend using original environments to do so:
| Windows 9x (main branch) | MS-DOS (secondary) | |
|---|---|---|
| Environment | Borland Delphi 6.0 |
Borland Turbo C (4.5) |
| Language | Delphi (Object Pascal) |
C (for app) and Batch script (for installer) |
| Dependencies | Basic Components (IdBaseComponent, IdComponent, IdTCPConnection, IdTCPClient, IdHTTP, IdTime, Windows, IdException, plus 14 more) |
stdio, string, dos, stdlib, conio, time |
| External | - |
mTCP TCP/IP Stack, ANSI.SYS/EXE |
"Smart Install Maker" was used to create an installer and "HelpNDoc" to make help files for main branch releases. Currently planning to switch to NSIS or InstallShield.
| Main Branch (Windows 9x) | Secondary Branch (MS-DOS) | Third Branch (W3.11) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main Functionality | ✅ Done |
✅ Done |
⚒ In progress |
| Installer | ✅ Present (SIM), ⚒ Planned to switch to NSIS |
⚒ In progress |
? |
| Multiple Resolutions | By Default |
⚒ In progress |
? |
| 16 Color Support | By Default |
⚒ In progress |
? |
| Settings Menu | - |
⚒ In progress |
? |
| Don't rely on mTCP | - |
⚒ To be planned |
? |
| Fullscreen Mode | ? |
By Default |
? |
| No Connection detector | ✅ Pauses the program |
⚒ To be planned |
? |
| Rewrite in C | ⚒ To be planned |
✅ Already on C |
? |
A third branch is being planned to add Windows 3.11 support, however it's in too early stage and may be merged with one of previous ones/use their features or ideas.
- Portable app "out-of-box" capabilities (additionally pre-made installer is provided);
- Graphical map with active regions displayed;
- Auto and manual update;
- Date & time display;
- Graphical time icons;
- Status list by regions;
- "Days since" counter;
- Help file and installer (built with external tools);
- Pretty much the same features, except fullscreen only (for obvious reasons);
- 16 Color (coming soon) and Monochrome Mode;
- Ability to change graphical characters and their color (coming soon);
- Ability to change between 25 and 50 lines mode (coming soon, 25 by default);
If you plan to use my pre-built code, check up the requirements:
| Main Branch | |
|---|---|
| OS | Microsoft Windows 95 or greater² |
| Processor¹ | Intel Pentium III |
| RAM¹ | 4 MB |
| Graphics¹ | VGA-compatible video card (min. 640x480, 16 Color)³ |
| Network | NIC with Internet access through TCP/IP |
² This includes all the OS'es, including Windows 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, 11, all in-betweens after 95 (builds, etc), plus it can run on Linux through Wine.
| Secondary Branch | |
|---|---|
| OS | MS-DOS 3.10 or greater³ |
| Processor¹ | Intel 8086 |
| RAM¹ | 1 MB |
| Graphics¹ | 80x25 Monochrome or VGA-compatible video card (16 Color)⁴ |
| Network | NIC with Internet access through TCP/IP |
| Hardware | Clock/calendar chip⁵ |
| Extra | mTCP Config⁶ |
¹ Some of the parameters were not fully checked due to lack of real hardware and they were set to minimum OS requirements, so the real values may be even lower, like 486 Processor and etc.
³ It can run on pretty much all MS-DOS versions, however older than 3.10 were not tested. It can also run on OS'es with DOS apps support, which includes Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME and XP. Windows 3.x is out of this list, unfortunately it won't work - it's quite complicated.
⁴ Monochrome adapter will be enough for now, since there are no colors in the app yet. CGA video card may work too, if it supports somewhat close to specified resolution and 16 Colors.
⁵ Most modern motherboards include it by default, however on pre-AT machines or MS-DOS 3.10 (etc) it will require a setup solution to change date/time, if you have the chip. More info in the next chapter below.
⁶ An installer will attempt to add own if none found and insert a SET value to autoexec.bat, in case you never/don't use mTCP stack.
Due to my temporary inability to write own network connectivity (or to borrow it from somewhere else) built into my app, I have used one of mTCP apps to perform HTTP requests and a DHCP tool with the same origin. Thus it requires mTCP config to be specified in your autoexec.bat file and NIC interrupt code written into the first one. I have written a quick guide on how to properly do it, it's in Release package's readme and here is the part with explanations:
This program relies on the HTGET executable that is a part of mTCP stack.
If you have never used mTCP, it requires its config file to be specified in autoexec.bat file of your DOS using a SET command. You do not need to store full mTCP package on your hard disk, you only need the previously mentioned file and DHCP.EXE tool if you wish to add IP settings automatically.
- To install a config file, you can copy it from the installation media for this program to any directory you want and add the next line to autoexec.bat:
set MTCPCFG = [DIRECTORY]\config.cfg
Name and extension can be anything, it will be read successfully.
- Next step is specifying packet manager interrupt integer (default: 0x60) in the config file. Then you will need to scroll to the bottom and input your IP settings manually, or as said before use a DHCP.EXE tool from mTCP package
As stated before, I have some plans to make the app independent from external executables and their stuff, but it might take a while.
tldr; you need an mTCP config with NIC packet manager interrupt code and DHCP (or manual IP & gateway address, etc) info into it and set the location of the config in your autoexec.bat file;
It is necessary to have the correct date and optionally the time.
If you have an incorrect date set on your PC, the program will exit with an according message. Date is being used in calculation that is displayed on the screen and data receiving, thus having wrong date will corrupt it. On the other hand, time may be set to any value if it meets the current day frame.
While running the app on pre-AT system and/or for example MS-DOS 3.10, make sure the date and time is being saved to your clock chip and you have the corresponding utilities to address the chip.
Even though you are able to set the date before the real one, the calculation will succeed, but the data will be still corrupted. The app does not check the date and time using network, it is up to you.
To prevent garbage data, I have added a kill-switch that exits the program if the year is set to less than 2023 (in newer versions, it's set to 24.02.2022).
tldr; set your date and (optionally) time correctly or somewhat close to it;
If you have decided to download a pre-built package by me, you may have noticed it comes in two variants (since v. 1.0.1):
- IMA Floppy Image - authentical 1.44M image for retro workstation;
- ZIP Archive - for modern machines, to be run out-of-box; Their contents should be the same, including the app itself, "promo" materials, help files and installers. Source code does not come with it.
You contact me here through:
- the Issues page,
- E-mail: kotsumehaku@gmail.com
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kotsumehaku.bsky.social
Currently looking for fellas with a real hardware to test on!