DOS ain't dead - New RxDOS memory subsystem source code

New RxDOS memory subsystem source code (Developers)

posted by ecm , Düsseldorf, Germany, 16.06.2009, 21:23

> One cannot run this thing, it cannot be assembled

True. Why should you assemble it? (Except for debugging separately from a finished kernel, which won't interest you that much either I think.)

> and it doesn't contain bugs to find.

Feel free to search any.

> good, perhaps this comes in handy in the not so far future,

For example in a DOS kernel..? I fixed the memory management stuff first because the process loading (RxDOSEXE.ASM) relies on it and it isn't that much source.

> but I have doubts, it is GPL, which I prefer to ignore for
> certain reasons.

Because you can't use the source to make money? Although I don't fear to release my own work with a 2-clause BSD-type license (or sometimes as Public Domain), I don't think using the GPL is too egoistic either.

However I'm not that sceptic about giving little hints about the binary's operations to people either. Think of it as technical documentation, which of course is usable for software licensed any way. Just don't copy the provided source code because that's restricted to the GPL.

> But it's a good opportunity to tell once again

You always find a good point, don't you? How optimistic.

> that Nasm's syntax looks
> desperately ugly. I especially hate the absence of ASSUME, OFFSET, ADDR
> and PTR keywords.

Strange that I feel the exact opposite about the absence of these keywords ;-)

I recently re-read a good comparison of assemblers and came to the conclusion that type checking, after all, isn't that bad. But I consider myself advanced enough now to write programs without it (and to find the bugs caused by wrong typed access). Plus MASM's type checking is error-prone by relying on correct ASSUME usage. Type checking of course doesn't force the syntax to include OFFSET and PTR to tell the assembler whether memory is accessed or not. NASM's handling of requiring square braces for all memory access I find much easier to understand.

If you have anything else to complain about my ugly NASM source, don't hesitate ;-)

---
l

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Complete thread:

New RxDOS memory subsystem source code - ecm, 15.06.2009, 21:33 (Developers)
- New RxDOS memory subsystem source code - Japheth, 16.06.2009, 17:21
  - New RxDOS memory subsystem source code - ecm, 16.06.2009, 21:23
    - GPL vs. BSD - Rugxulo, 19.06.2009, 06:54
      - GPL vs. BSD - marcov, 20.06.2009, 14:09
        GPL vs. BSD - Rugxulo, 21.06.2009, 04:37
        GPL vs. BSD - marcov, 21.06.2009, 14:30
        GPL vs. BSD - Rugxulo, 22.06.2009, 10:11
        GPL vs. BSD - marcov, 22.06.2009, 16:07
        GPL user restrictions ? - ecm, 23.06.2009, 00:35
        GPL user restrictions ? - marcov, 23.06.2009, 10:11
        GPL user restrictions ? - ecm, 23.06.2009, 13:05
        GPL user restrictions ? - marcov, 23.06.2009, 16:39
        GPL user restrictions ? - ecm, 23.06.2009, 20:55
        GPL user restrictions ? - Khusraw, 24.06.2009, 20:08
        Commercial philosophs - ecm, 25.06.2009, 02:51
        Commercial philosophs - Khusraw, 25.06.2009, 08:47
        Commercial philosophs - ecm, 25.06.2009, 16:31
        Commercial philosophs - Khusraw, 25.06.2009, 16:50
        Commercial philosophs - marcov, 25.06.2009, 21:44
        Commercial philosophs - ecm, 25.06.2009, 23:34
        Commercial philosophs - marcov, 27.06.2009, 14:09
        Commercial philosophs - Khusraw, 28.06.2009, 13:16
        Commercial philosophs - Rugxulo, 01.07.2009, 22:52
        GPL user restrictions ? - marcov, 25.06.2009, 21:24
        GPL user restrictions ? - ecm, 26.06.2009, 11:27
        GPL user restrictions ? - marcov, 26.06.2009, 23:59
        GPL vs. BSD - rCX, 25.06.2009, 18:01
- New RxDOS memory subsystem source code - ecm, 03.05.2018, 12:55
  - New RxDOS memory subsystem source code - rr, 28.10.2018, 19:44
    - New RxDOS memory subsystem source code - ecm, 05.11.2018, 14:24
      - New RxDOS memory subsystem source code - rr, 05.11.2018, 20:52