From: gt8134b@prism.gatech.EDU (Howlin' Bob) Subject: Re: dosemu and windows Date: 1 Jun 1993 23:10:02 GMT
In <C7yoyF.5tH@ra.nrl.navy.mil> eric@tantalus.nrl.navy.mil (Eric Youngdale) writes:
> I agree. The way to go is the WABI way - emulating a machine will just
>add a lot of overhead. I should also point out that if we do a good job with
>something along the lines of WABI, there would be no pressing need to write a
>new wordprocessor to wean the DOS users to linux.
From a technical standpoint, this is certainly true.
However, I simply cannot understand how it will be done. Unless
someone can find /dev/manhours, the inexhaustible supply of
programming effort, it just isn't going to happen. The best
programmers among us are UNIX hackers at heart and have little
patience for the arcana of DOS and Windows. Yet I doubt that Ralf
Brown and Andrew Schulmann together--two of the most knowledgeable men
in the DOS world-- would feel up to the task of writing a completely
compatible Windows kernel.
I'm sinking as much time into dosemu as I can, but the infinite undocumented
quirks cause me no end of trouble. Can this get any better with Windows?
As for re-writing DOS, it simply isn't an option for me. I have neither
the time, the patience, nor skill with a disassembler to undertake such
a garguantanly boring punishment. Not only would I have to duplicate
the interrupt-called services, but I would have to replicate all the
internal data structures. I have news for you all: Windows is going
to be the same way. DOS people can't keep their hands out of the OS.
Dr. Dobbs is now running a monthly column on Windows internals.
Undocumented Windows internals. A dozen things every month that
a million programmers will find out *before* you do. Compatibility?
Ha.
And it's not as simple as "remap windows calls to X calls." WE're
not talking about POSIX -> POSIX translation, as Eric is doing with
SYSVR4 binary compatibility. We're talking about fundamentally different
systems. Sure, the ideas can't be too alien, but it won't be as simple
as:
WindowsDoSomethingEntryPoint()
{
FrobArguments();
XDoSomething();
}
But let's not focus on the Windows "kernel" too much. What about the
other parts? The font technology? The printer drivers? The applets?
That alone will be no small task.
I really want somebody to prove me wrong. Rather, somebodies, because it's
going to take a lot of people a long time. But until I see someone doing
the coding, I will believe it's all just an elaborate jest.
Until then, I will continue to develop dosemu as quickly as I can,
and perhaps one day find the time to work on VCPI.
--
Robert Sanders
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
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