Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 15:45:53 -0400 (EDT) From: "Mike A. Harris" To: Joseph Morris cc: opendos AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: Are you sure you _want_ the sources? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Organization: Capslock Computer Consulting MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Precedence: bulk On Thu, 11 Sep 1997, Joseph Morris wrote: > While I agree with much of what has been said about the release of the > sources, there is one thing that appears to have been overlooked: > > Are you sure that you really want the utility sources anyway? Downplaying it? > The sources are terribly messy, and very hard to understand. > Much of them is not commented, except for what the original authors > felt was important (Three of the key authors are not at Caldera). Yeah, perusing the kernel source shows that as well. > The sources do not use the standard C_libs, instead they use a > portable library known as appslib, which contains all the c-lib functions, but > written in a mishmash of pre-ansi C, RASM86 files, and some freaky > script language that controls the Dual Lanaguage support. > There are some very strange tricks in the code (eg, a 30+ line > multiply routine, to run faster on 8086s). Yes, but one of our plans was to recode it to use a standard FREE C compiler and assembler, or at least make it so it only required a SINGLE C compiler (BCC for example). This would all have been done knowing in advance that the sources were spagetti (which they very much are). > They are all tied into the legendary VersionControlSystem. > Gene will be an old man by the time all these have been made into a > format useful to anyone else. Yeah, but as stated before, releasing them in any format would make the porting process faster. If someone downloads a VCS of DRDOS and it is useless to them then they will delete it. Those that DO have it though can aide the project. > An in-joke at Caldera is "When are you going to re-write it then?" > which is the usual comment made when someone begins editing a utility. > > So there might be some anguish if the sources _were_ suddenly > released.. Heheheh. ;o) Mike A. Harris | Homepage: http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris Computer Consultant | Am I online? - finger or ping capslock.dyn.ml.org My dynamic address: http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris/ip-address.html EMACS: Escape Meta Alt Control Shift :o)