Mail Archives: opendos/1997/03/13/18:17:29
>Okay, I've updated the wishlist that I'm keeping.
>Here it is:
>
>1] Direct screen write
No. Direct screen write is totally inappropriate in the kernel. It uses up
valuable kernel space (64kB limit, remember?) and reduces flexibility. The
kernel should just pass on requests to the BIOS; if you want direct screen
writes, then you can load a TSR later that hooks the BIOS interrupt. That's
what it's for.
>2] LFN support
Yup.
>3] IFS support
What, you mean support for a *different* IFS than the one we've already got?
Why?
>4] File Descriptions
Better suited for an external program. If I can get gdbm ported to Borland I
might give it a try.
>5] Make OD boot from *any* partion or HD
Yup. (Can't be too hard.)
>6] Compile all drivers in the kernel
You're kidding, right?
>7] Fix EMM386
>8] DPMS version of device drivers (mouse, Personal Netware, etc.)
Yup, yup.
>9] Automount util
The standard DOS IFS already supports invisible automounting. (Floppies,
CD's...)
>10] Make the source compilable by one compiler and linker (not our job, but
>I'm sure a lot
> of people would like this)(DJGPP??????????)
This is definitely needed. But not DJGPP. DJGPP is a 32-bit protected-mode
compiler. DOS is a 16-bit real-mode operating system. We can't use DJGPP for
*any* of OpenDOS apart from, possibly, external utilities, and even then it
would be a Really Bad Idea.
>11] A compiler and linker to re-compile the kernel (DJGPP????????????)
See 10.
>12] Make W95 run from OpenDOS
Almost certainly not possible, I'm afraid; MS-DOS 7 was majorly bent to make
Win 95 work. You're probably stuck with WfW and Win32s (I don't run Windows).
>13] On the fly DLD's (dual mode) (Dynamically Loaded Driver)
Not possible with block devices and file systems, because of the way drives
are allocated. Most other drivers are already dynamic (TSR's).
>14] Add 4DOS's cool stuff
Mmmm... possibly. 4DOS is very complex. I think that anyone who actually needs
the extra features can install 4DOS proper. If a few simple extensions were to
be put into the current shell (passing command lines through the % expander,
%? which returns the error level, SETVAL which evaluates numeric expressions)
that would suffice for most purposes.
>15] Command history (doskey)
Try HISTORY=ON in CONFIG.SYS
>16] Filename completion with TAB
Vital. I find it difficult to live without it. I had a TSR called WCED that
did this, but it doesn't cooperate with the multitasker.
>17] NWCDEX should be able to work with SBIDE.SYS (or the other way around
>perhaps?)
Don't know about this one.
>18] Fix weird DIR behaviour on 1.44 MB disks (probably 'cos of missing
>label and/or serial number)
Never noticed anything.
>19] Setup program needs bugfixing (delwatch, program availability, give
>error when missing files)
I don't use it.
>20] Better multiboot directives (maybe as in MS-DOS 6+?)
The OpenDOS directives are a *lot* better than MS-DOS 6's. Has it occured to
anyone that the following:
INSTALL C:\SYSTEM\UTILS\BOOTMGR.COM
CHAIN NCONFIG.SYS
...is perfectly valid, where BOOTMGR.COM displays a menu and builds
NCONFIG.SYS?
>21] Coredump!!!
Well, I've been doing Unix programming for some years now and I have *never*
found a use for a coredump.
>22] FSSTND
It's too late.
>23] Symlinks
Yup. Interestingly, JOIN and SUBST both have 150% of the necessary
functionality between them. Unfortunately, you can't JOIN a SUBST'ed drive.
Does anyone know where I can find source for freeware versions of JOIN and
SUBST? I would think that it'd be almost trivial to write a version that did
true symbolic links.
[...]
The MOST IMPORTANT thing *must* be to to fix EMM386. It just *doesn't work* properly. Until that's done, everything else must stay at second place.
--
------------------- http://www-hons-cs.cs.st-and.ac.uk/~dg --------------------
If you're up against someone more intelligent than you are, do something
totally insane and let him think himself to death. --- Pyanfar Chanur
---------------- Sun-Earther David Daton Given of Lochcarron ------------------
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