FDNPKG:
I can help you with the changes to FDNPKG to allow it to compile under Open
Watcom and to use mTCP. I would certainly like to see more people using
mTCP to build their applications. However, is moving to mTCP going to
improve FDNPKG enough to make it worth the effort?
(That is just something to think about. I can tell you about what I think
the advantages of Open Watcom and mTCP are offline.)
Hardware support and installers:
This is just some food for thought ...
There are a lot of old systems running around. FreeDOS should be able to
run on anything from an XT all of the way up to a modern PCI system,
assuming the BIOS is reasonable. (And one day I'll add PCjr support.) An
installer can certainly be PCI aware. But assuming PCI or doing something
that makes the installer unusable on an earlier system would be a
regression.
I think that you can assume that a CD-ROM is present. But you should not
assume that a machine is capable of booting from a CD-ROM. We should
support installing from CD-ROM, but be careful to ensure that booting from
CD-ROM is not a requirement.
I think a reasonably good installer would have the following form:
- A bootable CD-ROM image for machines that support it.
- A bootable floppy image with enough support to load the CD-ROM device
driver for machines that have CD-ROM, but can not boot from it.
- Instructions for how to create boot media and diskettes for machines that
do not have CD-ROM. This may assume that the user doing the install has
access to an already installed FreeDOS. (It would be nice if FreeDOS
provided official images, but your typical hobbyist with an XT can follow
directions.)
What is the timeframe for a 1.2 release? I would like to make some
additions to mTCP before another FreeDOS release goes out into the wild. I
was thinking of a utility to make it easier to configure mTCP and diagnose
packet driver problems. I also have the HTTP server, which is not open
source yet but could be if there was sufficient interest.
Mike
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dive into the World of Parallel Programming! The Go Parallel Website,
sponsored by Intel and developed in partnership with Slashdot Media, is your
hub for all things parallel software development, from weekly thought
leadership blogs to news, videos, case studies, tutorials and more. Take a
look and join the conversation now. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net
_______________________________________________
Freedos-devel mailing list
Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
