Hi Bernd, general question: How much do we want to know about a kernel without booting it? Because a lot of the information below is available AFTER booting the kernel, be it by human reading of the version description string (21.33xx) or by querying some int 21 functions to check FAT32 support or revision number.
I agree that it would be good to have some thing visible in an easy to access area. Because we would probably use tools like SYS CONFIG to show it, the uncompressed CONFIG kernel data area is a nice place, but we do not have to use text. Instead of K 2040 D 2011-07-31 C 32 F 16 B or the shorter K 40 11-07-31 0 6 W, the encoded data could be for example byte:40 dosdateword:2011-07-31 and one byte-of-bits: FAT32 no, 386+ no, upx yes, cross-compile no, borland no, other reserved features no (actually I think only the first two feature flags are REALLY interesting at the moment). This encoding only needs FOUR bytes (1 byte, 1 word and some bits) to encode a machine readable binary form :-) We can offer a simple Perl script or similar for those who want to know which kernel binary they have but who cannot run "SYS /SHOW-ME-THE-VERSION-OF X:SOMEKERNEL" because SYS does not run in their operating system. I think we should not try to put a version string in the config area which would be visible in a text editor. All suggestions shown below use cryptic text anyway and they are even MEANT to be more machine- than human-readable. In short, I suggest a small, binary version encoding :-) Eric >>> "K2040D2011-07-31C32F16B" >>> "K2041D2011-08-31C16F28W" >>> >>> C is CPU (16 aka 8086 or 32 AKA 80386) >>> F is FAT (16 or 28) >>> W and B are compilers (or is Boreland now dead ?). ... > In typical pre-Y2K-style I'd suggest: > K4011073106W > > K --> kernel > 40 --> kernel 2040 (to 2099) > 11 --> year (to 99 so 2099) > 07 --> month (01..12) > 31 --> day (01..29/30/31) > 0 --> 086+ (valid options [0,3] for 086+/386+) > 6 --> FAT12/FAT16 (valid options [6,7] for filesystems that MSDOS > 6/7 > understand) > W --> Watcom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BlackBerry® DevCon Americas, Oct. 18-20, San Francisco, CA The must-attend event for mobile developers. Connect with experts. Get tools for creating Super Apps. See the latest technologies. Sessions, hands-on labs, demos & much more. Register early & save! http://p.sf.net/sfu/rim-blackberry-1 _______________________________________________ Freedos-kernel mailing list Freedos-kernel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-kernel
