Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 13:00:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Mike A. Harris" <mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca>
Reply-To: "Mike A. Harris" <mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca>
To: OpenDOS Mailing List <opendos AT delorie DOT com>
Subject: Re: BIG suggestion for Opendos Features
In-Reply-To: <v01540b02afb3158c9233@[130.217.243.103]>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.970531125712.11495B-100000@capslock.com>
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On Thu, 29 May 1997, Perry Lorier wrote:

> >The fact that older machines won't benefit from some of the
> >additions to OpenDOS/16 is irrelevant.  EMM386 is a good example.
> >Should we remove it from OpenDOS/16 because 286 users can't use
> >it?  I think not.  Should we remove Windows 3.x support from OD
> >because 286 users can't run windows?  No.  So why should we halt
> >any efforts to improve OD/16 for 386+ users?
> 
> I personally think we should have a XT/286/386 optimised version of the
> kernal, we can make use of optimisations (like compacting multiple
> SHR/SHL's in the kernal, which I've done already) and also remove some of
> the dead stuff in versions that aren't going to be able to support it.  (eg
> Windows 386 enhanced mode compatibility/optimisations aren't going to be
> required on 286/XT versions)
> 
> I think we should have something like:
> IBMBIOX.COM  IBMDOSX.COM
> IBMBIO2.COM  IBMDOS2.COM
> IBMBIO3.COM  IBMDOS3.COM
> 
> I also think a boot manager that boots before the OS (a bit like lilo,
> possible even lilo) that you can select a multiboot section, and/or an OS
> and have it detect which CPU your running on and run which kernal you need
> accordingly.
> 
> None of this is particularly hard... Adding the minor changes for the
> optimisations for the ASM for the above isn't difficult, and changing the
> "Target" on the C compilations is trivial.  Having it autodetect on startup
> which kernal to load is the tricker part :)

Well that is possible, but a 32bit OpenDOS would come with 32bit
utilities and 32bit *everything* so 286 users would have a bunch
of crap installed that would not be used.  The time to detect the
kernel to use is at install time, not boot time.  Also, who wants
to download 20megs that supports x86/286/386/??86 when 50% or
more of the archive is utils for a lesser or greater
architecture.

Waste of bandwidth, diskspace and time.  Separate distributions
is much better.


Mike A. Harris        |             http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris
Computer Consultant   |                  Coming soon: dynamic-IP-freedom...
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URL: Caldera                             http://www.caldera.com