From: mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 05:12:40 -0500 (EST) Reply-To: mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca To: Richard Hoskins cc: OPENDOS AT mail DOT tacoma DOT net Subject: Re: [opendos] OS advancements and old technology: My viewpoint. In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Organization: Total disorganization. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-opendos AT mail DOT tacoma DOT net Precedence: bulk On 10 Feb 1997, Richard Hoskins wrote: > > ls writes to the screen amazingly fast in Linux. Although I > > don't have the sources handy, I'd bet that it does use direct > > screen writes.. > > Just for the record, GNU/Linux systems usually use the `ls' from the > FSF's file utilities package. > > ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/fileutils-3.16.tar.gz You neglected to quote my full message. I stated that ls in Linux runs faster than DIR in DOS. Meaning that DIR in DOS uses direct screen writes (ala 4DOS). Therefore either ls uses direct screen writes in Linux, or else the Linux term I/O routines are faster than the 16 bit code used in DOS/4DOS. My entire point being that Linux doesn't necessarily HAVE to have direct writes to be fast. > These almost assuredly don't write to a screen, but use the systems > termio. Writing to the screen would be a very un-Un*xish thing to do. > For one thing, ls would have to be run suid root. Yes, it would have to be suid root. Regardless, it is FAST. > If you still don't think that DIR's slowness is due to DOS's horrible > term IO (which should be fixed no matter how this particular argument > is resolved), just compile the file utilities on a Win32 system and > try `ls'. Naw, I'll just use Linux. Oh, and I'll code direct screen writing into COMMAND.COM. Mike A. Harris | http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris Computer Consultant | My webpage has moved and my address has changed. My dynamic address: http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris/ip-address.html mailto:mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca Close windows, and OpenDOS! http://www.caldera.com/dos/dos.htm