Mail Archives: opendos/1998/10/01/09:56:59
Due to the success of my last suggestions for DR-DOS:
I propose to collect all the suggestions for DR-DOS of the users of this
mailing list, and regulary report them to dosbeta AT calderauk DOT com and to
dos DOT support AT caldera DOT com for improving this product.
The list will look like this (of course completed with your suggestions)
and each suggestion would include the e-mail of the author.
I sincerely think that will increase the feedback between the users of
DR-DOS and Caldera, making this way a better product.
SUGGESTIONS
þ Include in each new release a file called WHATSNEW.TXT with
the history of improvements, bugs fixed, ... for every part
of DR DOS (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ Implementation of the SERIAL command for allowing the user
to change or view the serial number of his disks
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ FASTOPEN and DOSKEY (HISTORY) should be out of the kernel,
this way users that do not use it, will not have an
overhead in the system. An the one who want to use them,
can load them in any moment (like in MS-DOS and PC-DOS)
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ Support for Windows 9x VFAT (good work with the betas of
long file name, but still not finished) and FAT32. (Also
Windows NT HPFS?) (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ Rename the programs called in DR-DOS 6 as xxxMAX to xxxMgr
(Eg: TaskManager, MemoryManager, ViewManager).
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ What about ViewMax in DR-DOS 7 based in GEM Desktop
that was shipped in previous versions?
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ Include the 'Starting Caldera DR DOS...' message using
color 10 (Caldera Green) like in Mathias Paul IBMBIO.COM;
it makes my prefered DOS different compared with the
others... and was very nice. (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ Have you seen PTS-DOS (www.phystechsoft.com)? It has nice features that
could be implemented in DR DOS. For instance, pressing
Ctrl-Alt-Del, automatically flush all the buffers, and performs
a quick reboot (similar to those available in QEMM). It is very
useful in most cases. Also the support for the key SysReq
included in it is great. Anyway PTS-DOS has a very interesting
features that could be included in DR-DOS. (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ Try to compress DR DOS files using PKLITE 2.01 (or later)
and do not use the old PKLITE 1.50 nor PKLITE 1.15; this will
reduce the size of the files and the decompression time. Also
there are some files that could be compressed with PKLITE,
but there actually uncompressed. (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ IBMBIO.COM can be packed using packers like COMPACK 5.1,
will be a good idea to distribute it packed (for minimizing
disk space). (Also could this solve the problem that Mathias
Paul comments about its size?). I have it packed with COMPACK
5.1, and now IBMBIO.COM ocuppies 19K. If you decide to do that
the dual decompression routined could be removed. Also if you
decide to use it in IBMBIO.COM, what about using it for all
the COM/EXE/SYS files? (It has a better ratio that PKLITE,
and a fastest decompression speed). Check out COMPACK at
ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de/pub/msdos/mirrors/stuba/pc/pack.
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ Probably you will get more speed if compile your C/C++
source code with a newer Borland C/C++ compiler (Eg. version
4.52) and not with Borland C/C++ 2.0 (althought the file size
and the memory requeriments will be increased, this is not
important because the resident parts of DR DOS are written in
assembly). (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ Multiple configuration files (CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT)
should be supported with compatibility against MS DOS and
PC DOS. (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ DISKCOPY, and DISKCOMP may use XMS, EMS, or disk and
so avoid changing disks when coping or comparing from/to the
same drive (also aplyable to COPY, MOVE, XCOPY).
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ HIMEM.SYS ocuppies a lot of memory compared with the
version shiped int MS DOS 6.22 and in PC DOS 7.0 (about 4
times more). Try to reduce its size in memory. The easy way
is reducing and removing the innecessary text messages
(the startup message: 'HIMEM.SYS 2.32' should be removed,
so some bytes will be saved, and a prettiest look will be
obtained). (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ EMM386.EXE is very unstable, and hangs the system
frequently. (What about releasing some versions of EMM386
for beta testing?). (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ Some processes are still a bit slow (reads from disk, memory
alocation) compared with their competitors. Please spend some
time optimizing it. (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ Improve the method for searching in the help overlay of
COMMAND.COM, so this file can be compressed with PKLITE too.
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ Support for the european 'Euro' currency, like in PC DOS.
Here are their details:
PC DOS provides support for the new Eurocurrency symbol defined by
the European Community as part of the European Monetary Union (EMU).
The symbol is provided in code page 850 at offset 0xD5. You can
invoke the symbol through the keyboard by using the same AltGr or
AltCar + character key sequence that is used for many other
country-specific symbols (the AltGr and AltCar keys are the same as
the right-hand Alt key). For additional information, see the
"Multiple Characters on a Key" section in the PC DOS 7 Keyboards and
Code Pages book which is sold separately. The table below shows the
particular key sequence for each country supported.
The symbol comes in 8x8, 8x14 and 8x16 pixel resolutions in code page
850 in both the EGA.CPI and EGAX.CPI code page information files, and
in 8x16 pixel resolution in code page 850 in the ISO.CPI file. These
CPI files are specified in the MODE command that is placed in the
AUTOEXEC.BAT file by SETUP.
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ PASSWORD command should include a warning for preventing the
protection of itself with a password (doing that, the password
could not be removed unless you have it in a disk).
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es)
þ Renaming DR-DOS system files from IBMBIO.COM and IBMBDOS.COM to
DRBIOS.COM and DRBDOS.COM for avoiding problems with installed
PC-DOS, and be more coherent with DR-DOS philosophy (like in
version 6). (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ The same with NWCACHE, NWCDEX, ... should be DRCACHE, DRCDEX,
this will increase the homogenity with the new DRMOUSE.
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ TaskMgr should implement multitasking for 8086+ and not only
task switching. Anyway it should be optimized in speed and
memory consumed.
þ Related with above, what about including the old DesqView
2.70 from Quarterdeck? (www.qdeck.com) (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ Internal commands like DIR, COPY, when invoking help with
the /? switch should include the two lines of the top like
the external commands. The example above is taken from the
external command FASTOPEN.COM
FASTOPEN R1.00
Copyright (c) 1988,1997 Caldera, Inc. All rights reserved.
and look more or less like:
DIR R7.03
Copyright (c) 1988,1998 Caldera, Inc. All rights reserved.
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ DIR command should have the "standard" options used by the
MS DOS, PC DOS and 4DOS DIR command; specially the /S
command for subdirectory search.
(here is a redirected output from the 4DOS DIR help).
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es)
Display information about files and subdirectories.
DIR [/1 /2 /4 /A[[:][-]rhsda] /B /C[HP] /D /E /F /H /I"text"
/J /K /L /M /O[[:][-]acdeginrsu] /P /R /S /T[:acw] /U /V /W
/X /Z] [file...]
file: The file, directory, or list of files or directories
to display.
/1 (one column) /L(ower case)
/2 (two columns) /M (suppress footer)
/4 (four columns) /N(ormal display)
/A(ttribute select) /O(rder)
/B(are) /P(ause)
/C[HP] (Compression) /R (disable wRap)
/D(isable colour) /S(ubdirectories)
/E (use upper case) /T (aTtribute)
/F(ull path) /U (sUmmary information)
/H(ide dots) /V(ertical sort)
/I (descriptions) /W(ide)
/J(ustify names) /X (display short names)
/K (suppress header) /Z (use FAT format)
þ Include in DR DOS the great 2M utility (from Ciriaco
Garc¡a de Celis -Grupo Universitario de Valladolid-) it will
be a good idea; specially if DR DOS FORMAT command could
handle 2M disks. (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ What about including newer STACKER (Eg. version 4.10) and
not STACKER 3.10? (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ What about distributing in the same DR DOS package the 4DOS
command interpreter from JP Software? (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ What about including a ZIP file picker (similar to the used
in DJGPP www.delorie.com) for downloading only the wanted or
updated files? Also is very interesting to distribute DR-DOS
files in a ZIP file with no installation program for fast
and easy updates. (guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ A status of DR-DOS column will be very nice, explaining where
are you working, who is working ... In this chapter you should
inclue previews/alpha versions of the files.
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ A great adverticement/offer using e-mail or standard mail to
the most important publications (Byte, PC-Magazine, PC-World,
...) informing them that a new version is released, and
granting permission for including it in a CD or disks.
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
þ And finally the magic suggestion more speed, less memory
requeriments and more features (impossible?).
(guti AT bbs-ce DOT uab DOT es).
I expect that those brief comments would help you in
developing a new better release of DR DOS, and finally only
one question: when releasing a newer DR DOS? (I can not wait).
Special thanks to you for making this great product free for
students, in other case I would not have installed it.
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