Mail Archives: opendos/1997/02/05/14:12:12
On Sun, 2 Feb 1997, Mark Habersack wrote:
> > It just shows that there are some VERY dedicated programmers out
> > there, and if they want something, THEY WILL PROGRAM IT!! I'm sure
> > you will agree with this one eh? I think that not only will we have
> > FAT32 & ext2 in OpenDOS, but that we will have EVERYTHING else that
> > people have mentioned that they want.
> Can you see any other possibility? ;-) When we have the sources, nothin' can
> stop us. The only thing that worries me is the mess that may result from that
> if everything is not well coordinated. I mean we should know *exactly* on
> what do Caldera programmers work, what is scheduled for the nearest future,
> what is available for volunteers etc.
Yes, there will definately have to be some kind of co-ordination
with Caldera for "Official" releases, however I'm sure there will
still be countless hacks and patches around. I'd personally like
to se a mouse driver that is written in 100% ASM and has a small
footprint! Also the ability to recompile that driver and take
out shit that most programs don't need by means of an option to
make or something.
I hope the Caldera sources have neat little "dialog" style menus
to pick conditional compilation options from. In the Linux
kernel "make menuconfig" fashion.
> > Boy I can't wait until we get those sources eh Mark?
> Yyyyup! And the cherry on top, please! ;=-) Yeah, I'm getting paranoid about
> checking this mailing list and Caldera's site to see whether they've already
> gave some sources away... ;-)
I'm sure there will be a BIG announcement when they do! I fear
that it will be several months however.
> > > Nothing prevents from writing a driver as soon as the sources are out. I'm
> > > sure that more than 80% of users will switch to ext2fs after a while.
> >
> > Oh, I certainly agree. We wont NEED programs like speeddisk then!
> > EXT2 is fantastic! Waste's virtually no space at all (compared to
> > FAT), and is very rugged. It is much better than any M$ filesystems.
> I'd add only two features to ext2fs - (1) a built-in encryption of data (not
> necessarily on the C2 level, but it'd be very useful sometimes), (2)
> compression-on-demand (sorta that on NTFS)
I'm not entirely sure, but I think Linux may have those features
now (I read something about them in the HOWTO's). I'm not sure
if I read that they EXIST, or that they are easily added.
I think that OpenDOS is going to inherit a LOT of cool things
from the wonderful world of Linux. Some of which are: ext2, and
other FS support, different cool shell features, etc...
Also, I think LINUX will benefit by bonusing on some DOS code
too! This will help to make DOSemu more stable, in fact I think
it will triple DOSemu developement.
> > The way I see it, the only problems of including filesystem support
> > for any of the new modern filesystems from an application's
> > viewpoint are:
> >
> > 1) Long filenames
> > 2) Symlinks
> > 3) Drive letters / device names
> >
> > A SINGLE API could be written to accomodate all of these problems for
> > once and for all. (kinda a IFS layer). This layer would report to
> Exactly. An structure-independent layer. But I think it should be done on the
> IOCTL level.
Yes, it will have to be at the low level.
> > DOS programs the proper filenames regardless of the underlying
> > filesystem (FAT32/ext2/HPFS/NTFS/minix/whatever)
> I think that OpenDOS should stick to the usual DOS notation for drives,
> filenames etc. (VFAT compatible to be precise) on the application API
> level and the specific driver should worry about translating the
> filename/path to its own format. Perhaps, DOS high-level API should also
> recognize network notation.
Correct. I agree completely. NO new drive letter HACKS should
be introduced. It should be kept sensible and sane. There is no
need for drive letters with ext2 anyways. Just have a C: and
mount an ext2 drive on root. Mount other drives off of dirs on
this one. Or you could mount them on different drive letters if
you wish. Either way, who would ever need more than 26 drive
letters if you could mount on a subdir?
I use subst'd drives very heavily and I only go to P:. I could
easily reduce that if need be. I'm sure everyone can too.
> > I agree that ALL existing filesystems should be available under
> > OpenDOS, however why couldn't you install Corel Draw on an ext2 drive?
> > Or even a plain old FAT drive?
> But Windoze 95 won't work on ext2fs or plain FAT - at least for now.
If Windows 95 will run off of a networked drive, then it should
work with ext2 now. ala the LREDIR method. I'm sure
direct support will be added before too long.
> P.S. Shouldn't we move with this discussion to OPENDOS-developer? ;-)
Yes, lets do so. (I've moved it allready.)
Mike A. Harris | http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris
Computer Consultant | My webpage has moved and my address has changed.
My dynamic address: http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris/ip-address.html
mailto:mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca
Caldera sues Microsoft - Visit Caldera's website: www.caldera.com
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