From: firewind Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: DJGPP: DJ's GNU POSIX Platform Date: 12 Sep 1997 07:33:34 GMT Organization: Netcom Lines: 30 Message-ID: <5var8e$f0l@sjx-ixn6.ix.netcom.com> References: <199709120321 DOT WAA24009 AT fly DOT HiWAAY DOT net> NNTP-Posting-Host: elp-tx2-09.ix.netcom.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Precedence: bulk Kurt Wall wrote: > DJ Delorie opined > > Maybe it's time for DJGPP to expand into the 32-bit DOS clone area? > > We could start with Freedos (it's gpl) and rewrite the FAT drivers for > > true long and case sensitive names, real symlinks, and FAT32. > > > > Imagine a 32-bit DOS that uses up around 3k of conventional memory, > > leaving ALL high and upper memory available, even with all your > > drivers installed... > I would also like to replace "\" with "/", true pre-emptive multitasking, > mult-processing support, > installable file systems, security, a smaller kernel with > dynamically-loadable and unloadable device drivers... But this starts to > sound too much like UNIX, and although I like UNIX, prefer the simplicity > of DOS. The filesystem was a huge kludge never intended for such wide use. The switch\path delimiter is an accident of an even more primitive filesystem (originally, FAT had no subdirectories, so '/' was used for switches without a thought of future implications) and only exists in one particular command shell anyway: the MS-DOS kernel groks both '/' and '\' as path delimiters. Although more changes would indeed change the nature and purpose of the OS, I think that these two are definetly worth making. -- [- firewind -] [- email: firewind AT metroid DOT dyn DOT ml DOT org (home), firewind AT aurdev DOT com (work) -] [- "You're just jealous because the voices talk to -me-." -]