Re: [Freedos-kernel] Patch: Allow seeing ZIP disk serial number
Did you run guest to load the drivers for the parallel port Zip Drive? Yes, and it worked for me. I tried it three months ago and I could not get it to work. Kernel version is 2.1.34. I had composed a simple batch file (LOADZIP.BAT) to replace GUEST and consume less memory. It's dated 2 May 2004 so it had worked with build 2034, as GUEST did. Here it is @dynaload c:\iomega\aspippm1.sys file=byte.ilm speed=1 info @c:\iomega\scsicfg.exe /v @dynaload c:\iomega\scsidrvr.sys --- SF.Net email is sponsored by Shop4tech.com-Lowest price on Blank Media 100pk Sonic DVD-R 4x for only $29 -100pk Sonic DVD+R for only $33 Save 50% off Retail on Ink Toner - Free Shipping and Free Gift. http://www.shop4tech.com/z/Inkjet_Cartridges/9_108_r285 ___ Freedos-kernel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-kernel
Re: [Freedos-kernel] Compilers (the eternal topic :)
Hallo Bart, Question is how much of a difference can you tolerate? From you I get the impression that a 100K uncompressed kernel that compresses to 3 bytes would be preferable to a 64K one that compresses to 4 bytes. ;-) I could never use an uncompressed kernel that is below 64 KB. OpenWatcom makes the FAT32/80386 unstable kernel 66330 bytes long. The maximum size that UPX accepts is 65350 bytes. The difference is almost a kilobyte. How could we reduce the kernel further without crippling it? It's difficult! I've seen compressed differences between Turbo C++ 1.01 and OW going down over the years. As for Borland, is it worth spending $59+postage for an unsupported product on an obscure Ebay site when so many free compilers are available? It's not worth a penny because it can be freely downloaded from Vietnam (I posted the URL here ;-) How about Digital Mars for instance? A very good compiler in my opinion, backed by Walter Bright's C++ great compiler know-how, but Tom once wrote that he gave up porting the kernel to it as he didn't see advantages. I experimented a bit -- as it turns out once the uncompressed size goes to 64K you can stick on a SYS header to kernel.sys, UPX the already exeflatted SYS file and use that. For some reason in this case UPX is better than APACK by the way. Well I got it down to ~41300 bytes vs. your 40957. Now you're just lucky that 40957 is just below the 80 sector boundary but the difference is gone at 40961 bytes. Does that 64K kernel support FAT32? Hardly. The 40K one at my site does. So that's an incorrect comparison. Besides, aPack doesn't compress .SYS files at all. An incorrect comparison again. Did I say it was bad? I just claim it's not the best tool for our job and has several other disadvantages. You're right, but I have to put up with its disadvantages for one big advantage - KING SIZE! ;-) Do Datalight really use it because the entropy is lower so the compressed size goes down? Their DOS is not compressed at all, although I offered them some stubs to compress a 64K kernel. Of course they lost the race (MSVC, Intel, GCC) when Sybase took over and eventually stopped development. And from what I gather 11.x however introduced various obscure linker bugs, and loop optimization bugs (most are fixed in OW now). And OW still has years to catch up in terms of C++ standards (slowly getting there). The information about loop optimisation bugs is very important. So, not all of them are fixed yet? For example a colleague of mine discovered such a bug which I reported to them. It's present in all Watcoms since 11.0 but wasn't there in 10.6! Unfortunately, there are no bug-free compilers :-( Regards, Lucho --- SF.Net email is sponsored by Shop4tech.com-Lowest price on Blank Media 100pk Sonic DVD-R 4x for only $29 -100pk Sonic DVD+R for only $33 Save 50% off Retail on Ink Toner - Free Shipping and Free Gift. http://www.shop4tech.com/z/Inkjet_Cartridges/9_108_r285 ___ Freedos-kernel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-kernel
Re: [Freedos-kernel] Information wants to be free
Hallo Tom, It's not worth a penny because it can be freely downloaded from Vietnam (I posted the URL here ;-) I know bulgarians think that way. Not only Bulgarians. 3/4 of the world thinks so. And many Americans and Germans too, by the way. It's still theft. It would be a theft if I *move* the files. If I copy them, I don't deprive anybody form anything. The whole nature of information allows copying, so it cannot be private property of anyone. All information but some reasonably secret and personal data must be free for everyone. Quite the contrary, corporations steal our money when they ask us to buy their software. Microsoft stole everything they released. The criminals are they, not we. There is no fair (honest) way to become a millionnaire or a billionaire. And because we're not millionaires or billionaires, we're not criminals. Good programmers who really deserve money, like you or Joergen Ibsen, get it even from people like me. I registered my copy of aPack! Would I register it if it it was made by a corporation like Borland? Never! They're too rich anyway! Copyright is dying, long life copyleft! ;-) Regards, Lucho --- SF.Net email is sponsored by Shop4tech.com-Lowest price on Blank Media 100pk Sonic DVD-R 4x for only $29 -100pk Sonic DVD+R for only $33 Save 50% off Retail on Ink Toner - Free Shipping and Free Gift. http://www.shop4tech.com/z/Inkjet_Cartridges/9_108_r285 ___ Freedos-kernel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-kernel
Re: [Freedos-kernel] Patch: Allow seeing ZIP disk serial number
interesting loading option, I have SCSI internal zip100 iomega drive. Does DEVLOAD 3.13 also work for you instead of DYNALOAD? (no idea if we have put it online somewhere, though :( ) I haven't tried it, but there is no reason why it shouldn't work. --- SF.Net email is sponsored by Shop4tech.com-Lowest price on Blank Media 100pk Sonic DVD-R 4x for only $29 -100pk Sonic DVD+R for only $33 Save 50% off Retail on Ink Toner - Free Shipping and Free Gift. http://www.shop4tech.com/z/Inkjet_Cartridges/9_108_r285 ___ Freedos-kernel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-kernel
Re: [Freedos-kernel] Information wants to be free
Hello Luchezar, It's not worth a penny because it can be freely downloaded from Vietnam (I posted the URL here ;-) I know bulgarians think that way. Not only Bulgarians. 3/4 of the world thinks so. And many Americans and Germans too, by the way. there is a german saying 'hey guys - eat shit! Billions of flies can't be wrong' It's still theft. It would be a theft if I *move* the files. If I copy them, I don't deprive anybody form anything. The whole nature of information allows copying sorry - no. information is as much a product as a car or a house, and it costs similar effort. and the people who made this product must be paid - some way or the other. just because you can technically copy it (whithout causing me any direct harm) does NOT imply you MAY do that. please accept the fact, that there is FREE information, and for some other information you have to pay, or you will kill the producer in the long run (because he will starve to death) Quite the contrary, corporations steal our money when they ask us to buy their software. it's simple as that: they want your money IF you use their software. they offer you a deal, which you can accept - or deny. stop using their software, and you don't have to pay them a dime. Copyright is dying, long life copyleft! ;-) I assume your company produces some sort of (hardware) gadget, that it sells - which in the end ends up as salary in your pockets. I wonder what happens if I rip off your gadgets design and internal software, 'reengineer' the gadget, produce it myself (at much lower cost as I don't have to pay the engineers), and sell it at a price below your gadget. probably neither your employer nor you what be very glad in the end. tom --- SF.Net email is sponsored by Shop4tech.com-Lowest price on Blank Media 100pk Sonic DVD-R 4x for only $29 -100pk Sonic DVD+R for only $33 Save 50% off Retail on Ink Toner - Free Shipping and Free Gift. http://www.shop4tech.com/z/Inkjet_Cartridges/9_108_r285 ___ Freedos-kernel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-kernel
Re: [Freedos-kernel] Compilers (the eternal topic :)
On Thu, 19 Aug 2004, Luchezar Georgiev wrote: Hallo Bart, Question is how much of a difference can you tolerate? From you I get the impression that a 100K uncompressed kernel that compresses to 3 bytes would be preferable to a 64K one that compresses to 4 bytes. ;-) I could never use an uncompressed kernel that is below 64 KB. OpenWatcom makes the FAT32/80386 unstable kernel 66330 bytes long. The maximum size that UPX accepts is 65350 bytes. The difference is almost a kilobyte. How could we reduce the kernel further without crippling it? It's difficult! Well if I claim I can get it under 64K I'm not lying. OW compiles *plain 2035* as 66318 bytes uncompressed for me for FAT32/386. Why your kernel is bigger after all these optimizations is a puzzle. I've read that on low memory machines its optimizer may be limited but I can't think of anything else. For the unstable branch it's 64700 or so. Changing the calling convention to #pragma aux default parm [ax dx cx] modify [ax dx es fs] in portab.h (careful, don't do that for SYS EXEFLAT) and making LoL (init-mod.h, main.c) extern struct lol FAR * const LoL; (see the const) chops of another couple 100s of bytes. I've seen compressed differences between Turbo C++ 1.01 and OW going down over the years. As for Borland, is it worth spending $59+postage for an unsupported product on an obscure Ebay site when so many free compilers are available? It's not worth a penny because it can be freely downloaded from Vietnam (I posted the URL here ;-) The smiley implies that it can't be freely downloaded from Vietnam. Maybe you can but I can't. Everything can be physically downloaded. But that's a silly argument and by publically encouraging it you're not doing this project a favour. How about Digital Mars for instance? A very good compiler in my opinion, backed by Walter Bright's C++ great compiler know-how, but Tom once wrote that he gave up porting the kernel to it as he didn't see advantages. Sure, Tom's primary interest wasn't compressed kernel sizes at the time, just the uncompressed time (IIRC this was before compressing was even on the radar screen). Does that 64K kernel support FAT32? Of course. Besides, aPack doesn't compress .SYS files at all. An incorrect comparison again. Right, checking again I see it compresses a SYS file like a COM file. Well with some hand holding (load at 50:100) you could treat kernel.sys like a COM file too. Haven't tried that though. Bart --- SF.Net email is sponsored by Shop4tech.com-Lowest price on Blank Media 100pk Sonic DVD-R 4x for only $29 -100pk Sonic DVD+R for only $33 Save 50% off Retail on Ink Toner - Free Shipping and Free Gift. http://www.shop4tech.com/z/Inkjet_Cartridges/9_108_r285 ___ Freedos-kernel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-kernel
