RiddCJ@computer-science.birmingham.ac.UK (Chris Ridd) (12/06/89)
A slightly off-beat question, but I've been wondering for a while. Who owns the object and source codes to the parts of the Atari ROMs? ie, the BIOS, XBIOS, Line A, GEMDOS, VDI, AES? My own thoughts are: BIOS : Atari written XBIOS : Atari written and altered as time passed (blitter call) Line A: Atari written and altered to handle blitters GEMDOS: DRI written, but Atari altered in TOS 1.4 VDI : DRI written, has Atari ever altered it? AES : DRI written, Atari HAS altered it with new calls (eg fsel_exinput) What claims does Digital Research have on the VDI, AES and GEMDOS? From the Hitchhiker's Guide et al, I thought that DRI wrote GEMDOS, if so how can Atari alter it? For a fairly simple enhancement to GEM, how about allowing more windows, like 16, instead of the current meagre 8? This would allow all the DAs a window, and lots for the App (encouraging the use of modeless dialogues). If I ever designed something like the AES, I would have written #define NWINDOWS 8 or some such-like, so would be able to change it later. Shades of the MS Write discussion earlier this year! /* * Snail mail address: * Chris Ridd, "Wave after wave, each mightier than the last * School of Computer Science, 'Til last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep * Birmingham University, And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged * UK Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame" * */
covertr@force.UUCP (Richard E. Covert) (12/08/89)
In article <8912061211.aa03001@benjamin.Cs.Bham.AC.UK>, RiddCJ@computer-science.birmingham.ac.UK (Chris Ridd) writes: > A slightly off-beat question, but I've been wondering for a while. > > > For a fairly simple enhancement to GEM, how about allowing more windows, like > 16, instead of the current meagre 8? This would allow all the DAs a window, > and lots for the App (encouraging the use of modeless dialogues). If I ever > designed something like the AES, I would have written #define NWINDOWS 8 or > some such-like, so would be able to change it later. Chris, I can't speak for Atari or the programmers there BUT the original TOS was written on a shoestring budget in a BIG hurray. So, some things wer left out. The new TOSes are just extensions of the original TOS. Added such features would increase the size of the ROM code. I can see why, with all the work being done on the TT's TOS, the ST TOS hasn't been changed dramatically. In fact, I would rather that Atari incorporate your suggestions into the TT. Make the TT a super multi-window multi-tasking machine. Make the TT much more wonderful than the ST. > > Shades of the MS Write discussion earlier this year! Hey, I like MS WRITE!!! I bought it a year ago and for the few letters that I write MS WRITE is fine. -- Richard E. Covert (covertr@gtephx) (602) - 581-4652 | AG Communications Systems, Phoenix AZ | UUCP: {ncar!noao!asuvax | uunet!zardoz!hrc | att}!gtephx!covertr
RiddCJ@computer-science.birmingham.ac.UK (Chris Ridd) (12/10/89)
In digest #770 Richard Covert writes: >In article <8912061211.aa03001@benjamin.Cs.Bham.AC.UK>, > RiddCJ@computer-science.birmingham.ac.UK (Chris Ridd) writes: >>For a fairly simple enhancement to GEM, how about allowing more windows, like >>16, instead of the current meagre 8? > > {stuff deleted} > ... Added such features would increase the size of the ROM code. > > In fact, I would rather that Atari incorporate your suggestions into the TT. My point was Richard, that the enhancement could be easily made IMHO and would improve life on the basic STs. Adding such features would NOT increase the size of the ROM code, but would eat at a little RAM (how much RAM does GEM need for a window, by the way? can't be more than a couple of 100 bytes) TOS '030 has a limited future in my book, with the release of a real Unix TT with X-Windows (or something) sometime in the 90's. As we've heard before, a multi-tasking TOS is probably out of the question. >Hey, I like MS WRITE!!! I bought it a year ago and for the few letters that >I write MS WRITE is fine. I agree! Lots of people don't have working copies of Write here in the UK although I do. Nice design. Shame Microsoft didn't sell Atari the sources, just the binaries... Chris /* * Snail mail address: * Chris Ridd, "Wave after wave, each mightier than the last * School of Computer Science, 'Til last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep * Birmingham University, And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged * UK Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame" * */