On 15 Dec 2000, at 23:20, Ben A L Jemmett wrote:
> > Then basicly, putting an OS such as Linux on a game machine such as
> > the dreamcast has only two reasons:
> >
> > 1)Allow an easier port of Linux programs to the Dreamcast enviroment
> > (Silly excuse. Nothing prevents them of making a compiler that makes
> > ROM
> > files instead of ELF)
> Uhr, if you could make a ROM file containing your program, it'd crash pretty
> quickly, since the services the kernel provides aren't there. No
> filesystem, no memory management, no scheduler => no processes, no device
> management, no networking or communications of any sort, and no console so
> no user I/O! It'd be like burning something like the in-memory image of
> EDIT.COM to ROM without DOS - you wouldn't get very far.
Actually, this is the way that most development is done. "Cross-
compilation" is the technique of running a compiler on one system,
that produces code that targets another processor/system.
The GNU compiler (gcc) is supposed to handle this quite readily,
though I've never used that particular compiler for cross-targeting.
The trick to it is that you can't call any of the standard library
routines: you have to use libraries targeted for your target platform,
or avoid those standard routines altogether. So, trying to do a
"prinf()" to stdout in your Dreamcast source is pointless, but I'm
sure that libraries could be obtained or written for the Dreamcast,
with appropriate calls.
> > 2)"Because we CAN". That looks like the real reason. And i'm all for it!
> The true reason behind all geekdom - long live useless projects!
You betcha! Hey, have a look at this - it's a coversion of at console
Atari 2600 system into a GameBoy like handheld!
http://pocket.ign.com/news/25551.html
Anthony Albert
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Anthony J. Albert [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Systems and Software Support Specialist Postmaster
Computer Services - University of Maine, Presque Isle
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