Mail Archives: opendos/1997/09/17/02:21:25
> > : [Caldera has sole CP/M-86, Concurrent DOS, etc]
> So.. OpenDOS will _never_ be multitasking OS..
> Too bad.
I don't think this stops OpenDOS becoming a multitasking operating
system, or even a multi-user one (which I think you mean). OpenDOS has
some aspects of a multi-user/multi-tasking system left in it which can
be easily built upon.
The details of where the user ID, permissions, etc are stored in a FAT
directory are relatively unimportant (they happen to clash with what
Win95 does with these fields, but we aren't limited to putting them in
those bytes, nor to FAT, in the long run). The key thing is that there
are system calls to get/set various things we sort of need in "real"
operating systems, and the key change we have to make is for individual
tasks (which *are* possible at the moment, of course) to have their own
copies of system parameters (like User ID, current directory). After
that, it is pretty much a question of what goodies external program add
(like a login program, or telnetd/xdm software) that makes the PC
running OpenDOS useful to others.
Even without any changes to the o/s, many BBS programs "fake" a
multitasking OS of the type you are thinking of, it is just that we can
do better building such stuff into the depts of the system instead of
tacking it onto the side.
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Mark Aitchison, Physics & Astronomy \_ Phone : +64 3 3642-947 a.h. 3371-225
University of Canterbury, </ Fax : +64 3 3642-469 or 3642-999
Christchurch, New Zealand. /) E-mail: phys169 AT csc DOT canterbury DOT ac DOT nz
#include <disclaimer.std> (/' Callsign: ZL3TQE
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