Date: Fri, 8 Apr 94 15:08:50 -0400
From: dj AT ctron DOT com (DJ Delorie)
To: mcastle AT umr DOT edu
Cc: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Subject: Re: uploads to cygnus - dll, farptr, V2.0 src

> This is amusing... I remember it taking forever to convince DJ to use DPMI
> at all... and now it's required?  hurm....

Actually, I didn't do the DPMI port at all for 1.X.  Check the sources
- it was contributed.  The need to require it now is because it's the
only way to get rid of the dependency on Borland.

> Any technical comments on why you chose to make DPMI a necessity?  Is it
> just easier to use DPMI to provide the services than writing your own?  So
> you can concentrate on writing libraries that use DPMI system calls (rather
> than having to use go32 to do that)?  Are the services provided for by DPMI
> richer than VCPI?

DPMI is the first true "extender" API.  VCPI just lets you alloc
memory and switch to protected mode; it does no management.

> Or is any of this discussed in the source?

Sorry, there aren't that many sources to put documentation into any
more :-)

> Have you thought about or written any papers on all this for any magazines?
> This is some impressive stuff you're doing DJ... and I think would be good
> material for an article some where....

I've thought about a book on the subject, but I just don't have time
:-(