Mail Archives: opendos/1997/08/26/00:39:30
(Forwarding my hopefully final comments on this subject from the "official"
OpenDOS list):
At 12:29 97-08-26 +1200, Mr M S Aitchison wrote:
>IMHO..
>
[much truth snipped]
>> 3. Where does the 'operating system' end? What besides the kernel
>> comprises an operating system?
>
>I can only say: An operating system is more than the kernel - it is the
>all of foundation of software that is needed before you can start
>building on it. There is a messy distinction between O/S and add-on
>utilities (e.g. disk optimisers, Undelete facilities), but I would say
>just about everybody expects the tools like fdisk, sys, and something
>to create your autoexec.bat files. These might be replaced by some 3rd
>party gadgets, in the way you could take the wheels off your truck and
>put better ones on instead, but that doesn't stop people expecting
>wheels to come with any truck they buy.
This is precisely the point I was trying to make in my clumsy way: the
kernel is only the engine. The shell (command.com) is the steering wheel
and other controls. But you need a lot more (the utilities, etc.) before
the vehicle will go anywhere. (Applications like word processors or what
have you are the extra-cost options or aftermarket addons: Mag wheels, if
you like.)
Reading DOSBOOK, the online documentation, is pretty revealing. It defines
an operating system as a *collection* of programS. Which programs are
these? Well, if you look up OpenDOS Commands in DOSBOOK, the folowing is
what you get (many of which are internal to COMMAND.COM). I contend that,
as far as OpenDOS is concerned, the programs that implement these commands
are integral parts of the operating system. With the exception of STACKER,
which is copyrighted by somebody else (and I will happily exempt NETWARS as
well), this is the source code I think we all expected, and awaited avidly
for several months, to be released:
[-] DOSBook
Window Search Help
OpenDOS Commands
? @ :label APPEND ASSIGN ATTRIB
BREAK BUFFERS CALL CHAIN CHCP CHDIR/CD
CHKDSK CHOICE CLS COMMAND COMP COPY
COUNTRY CPOS CREATE CTTY CURSOR DATE
DEBUG DEL DELPURGE DELQ DELWATCH DEVICE
DEVICEHIGH DIR DISKCOMP DISKCOPY DISKMAP DISKOPT
DOS DOSBOOK DOSKEY DRIVPARM ECHO EDIT
EMM386 ERAQ ERASE/ERA EXE2BIN EXIT FASTOPEN
FCBS FDISK FILELINK FILES
FIND FOR FORMAT GOSUB GOTO GRAFTABL
GRAPHICS HIDEVICE HIDOS HIINSTALL HILOAD HISTORY
IF/IF NOT INSTALL INSTALLHIGH JOIN KEYB LABEL
LASTDRIVE LOADHIGH LOCK MEM MEMMAX MKDIR/MD
MODE MORE MOVE NETWARS NLSFUNC NWCACHE
PASSWORD PATH PAUSE PRINT PROMPT RECOVER
REM RENAME/REN RENDIR REPLACE RETURN RMDIR/RD
SCRIPT SET SETUP SETVER SHARE SHELL
SHIFT SORT STACKER STACKS SUBST SWITCH
SYS TASKMGR TIME TIMEOUT TOUCH TREE
TYPE UNDELETE UNFORMAT UNINSTAL UNSECURE UNSTACK
VER VERIFY VOL XCOPY XDEL XDIR
Backtrack _ << Previous _ Next >> _ Exit _
[tidied up a tiny bit for legibility]
Since the online documentation again and again refers to these commands as
part of the operating system (don't take my word for it, go look!), I
sincerely believe we *UNPAID* would-be upgraders are entirely justified in
feeling cheated (I'm afraid I couldn't think of a "nicer" word for it). At
least we can have the satisfaction of knowing Caldera also cheated itself
out of some very willing and able FREE labor!
You have never heard of me. I'd just like you to know that I was a
topnotch, occasionally brilliant, mostly assembly language programmer from
1976-1987, and a fair, but uninspired C++ programmer from 1987-1993. I have
since moved on to other pursuits due largely to the overwhelming prevalence
of "object-oriented" programming these days. I was looking forward to
"getting back to basics" hacking around with these programs. Yes, I have
mucked about with kernels in the past, and in fact was solely responsible
for a complete revamp, totally in absolute assembler, of a very obscure
operating system used by major banking corporations. I was not particularly
interested in kernel hacking this time, though.
Oh, well. That's all.
___ ___ _ | Bill Phillips
(/__) . /) /) (/__) /_ . /) /) . _ _ | ShoeString Projects
/__) (__(__(___ / / )_(__(__(__(_ /_)_/_)_ | DTP Graphic Design
( ( ( | Internet Consulting
<http://www.ziplink.net/~shoestring/> <mailto:shoestring AT usa DOT net>
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