Hi Darik,
> On Nov 11, 2021, at 1:56 PM, Darik Horn <dajh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> [..]
> RAR implements the PKZIP listfile syntax, so the SETUP.BAT invocation
> would change to this;
>
> SET TCPU=8086
> REM vinfo stuff goes here...
> unrar x freedos.rar @%TCPU%.txt
>
> Where the @LISTFILE corresponds to a SLICER /G %TCPU% build command.
>
> Or excluding things that don't run on an 8086 or 80286 processor could
> be more concise:
>
> unrar x freedos.rar -x@%TCPU%.txt
Interesting. I assume it is capable of filtering multiple lists.
>> requiring additional overhead for the install program and multiple passes
>> through the spanned disks.
>
> RAR does only one media pass.
>
> (This is better than PKZIP, which reads the last floppy disk twice.)
Good.
>> Honestly, I don’t really care about SLICER. Outside of the installer, it has
>> almost no use and zero chance for any form of adoption by the community. I’d
>> rather file it in the trash can, use an existing tool and work on other
>> things. But to my knowledge, nothing else can do what it actually does in an
>> acceptable manner.
>
> The demo that I published can already do it.
If you can figure out how to get it to work, then it will be worth considering.
It would come down a couple additional things.
1) Wether or not it’s License is using an acceptable open source
license.
2) Usage is approved. Not up to me. But if licenses are ok, it should
not be a problem.
3) Can be told to create spans of a specific size (so can be used on
all floppy variations, one size fits all).
4) Can replace SLICER with little to no overhead added to the installer
and/or RBE (Release Build Environment)
5) Can provide the same level of flexibility without the need to
manually modify code when there are package/tag changes.
These are of much less important and probable not “deal breakers". But, they
are things slicer does do and should be known/considered. Can it display
general text during the install process? For example, while installing from
slow floppy diskettes, the user is given text regarding the history of FreeDOS
to read at intervals for something to do while waiting. Does it support NLS and
provide text in the users language for prompts? On systems that support
change-line, can it auto-resume without being told to continue? After
completion, can it just return an errorlevel to the installer and not stop with
an “I’m done, Press OK” message?
> What are your SLICER /G inputs when building the installation media?
> -- I will redo the demo to more perfectly replicate current behavior.
Those and other settings are available in the projects SETTINGS directory.
Specifically, the X86_ALL.LST defines what gets what slicer tags for assembling
the archive. The lines label “# tags:” are NOT comments but are directives
processed by the RBE to build the slicer archive. Oh, and that $PKG_ASSIST$ is
a macro. The RBE will insert custom user assistance packages (like screen
readers) at that point when it is being used to create customized versions of
FreeDOS.
Obviously, the tags are cumulative and some things are just assumed for now.
But, eventually they can be fine tuned and tags added/removed as needed.
https://github.com/shidel/FDI-x86/tree/master/SETTINGS
<https://github.com/shidel/FDI-x86/tree/master/SETTINGS>
Jerome
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