mike.irons@lynx.northeastern.edu (10/24/90)
Several people have posted their ideas on what to add to Minix, but how
about improving the stuff that is all-ready there. Bruces db debugger and mdb
work well, if you really know what you are doing, but they could be made much
more user friendly, and the kernel db is very important to a usable teaching
OpSys, as well a a great selling point.
Things that could be added are 1) id'ing breakpoints etc. by their
symbol name. 2) doing memory dumps/edits by type (the simple 'basic' C types
at first, structs et. al. after type info is put into the symbol table). A
simple way to show/change to registers. 3) watching on a memory/variable
location (very good on array over-runs). Maybe turning mdb into a more screen
oriented debugger, like the one that comes with MSC. Codeview is a big help,
and mdb works only only so so.
There are other programs which have been implemented only partially,
or Minix has prograssed beyond them. I sent A message to Fred inquiring about
the missing features in uucp, saying if he wasn't working on adding them that
I would take a look into it. Dis88 can only deal with 88 code, but it would
be nice for it to do the full x86 instruction set. I saw a posting about an
optimizer for Bruces Compiler, maybe Bruce could post info on the structure
of the object code, and the person who wrote the start of the optimizer post
his ideas as to were he would like to see the optimizer go. It would be good
to have it in source. NU has ACK (a recent version no less) but a simpler
project for the compiler class to add an optimizer feature might be in the
scope of the class.
Could the writer/maintainer of elle please put in code to handle use
of the arrow keys, it's a real pain in the butt not being able to use them.
I know that the motto of Minix is 'you don't like it, fix it' but a
person can only do so much, especially if one has to figure out several other
software packages to do his own program. I'm adding a NET server process to go
along with MM & FS and had to figure out how to modify db, build, and shoelace
as well as the bootblok (it still won't let me move it all the way to the very
top of 640K { minus whatever is says in the code} without the db jumping back
to bootblok instead of menu) so that I could get it to work. I got the new
server in, but as I said, I'm still haveing problems moving the bootblok out
ot the way of the system. The enlarged system over-writes the bootblok and
shoelace (I got that patched to accept a new server as well).
If peole post baack to this, please send me a copy as well. I tend to
loose alot of mail, but would like to hear what people have to say, even if it
is just a flame.
mike.irons%lynx@helios.northeastern.edu
PS
While working on 1.6 (aka Ver 2) please keep future expantion in mind.
While working on my project, I wanted to add another message type that was
longer that what is currently being used. I couldn't because then the compilers
wouldn't work. A few extra bytes of message copied wouldn't degrade system
performance, but would make individual student projects easier, which is in
the spirit of the whole thing anyway.
PPS
Please don't take this as a personal attack/flame/whatever other than my
personal musings after using some of the software, and thinking 'gee how could
I make this work better for what I need to do' and after swamping myself with
things I 'could' do, realizing I don't have the time, and don't have the
knowlege to do it right.
mike.irons%lynx@helios.northeastern.edutgcpwd@rwc.urc.tue.nl (Wim van Dorst) (10/24/90)
In article <34358@nigel.ee.udel.edu> mike.irons@lynx.northeastern.edu writes: > Could the writer/maintainer of elle please put in code to handle use >of the arrow keys, it's a real pain in the butt not being able to use them. It _is_ a pain not to be able to use the arrow keys, but luckily there is already support for them. I will mail you my .ellepro.e from home (baron@wiesje.hobby.nl). If more people are interested, let them mail me at home (baron@wiesje.hobby.nl again) and I will send them a copy too. Met vriendelijke groeten, Wim 'Blue Baron' van Dorst. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Blue Baron = Wim van Dorst, Voice (+31) 074-443937, (+31) 02152-42319 (-: baron@wiesje.hobby.nl tgcpwd@urc.tue.nl :-) ---------------------------------------------------------------------
leisner.wbst139@xerox.com (10/24/90)
One of the problems with Ms/Dos debuggers is they run in the same space as the program. If the program is too big, you can't debug it. Also, have you ever seen a program which runs under the debugger but doesn't run standalone? This is commonplace on Mus-Dos. On Unix (maybe Minix) debuggers run in a separate address space. I don't see the same sorta problems. marty ARPA: leisner@xerox.com NS: leisner:wbst139:xerox UUCP: hplabs!arisia!leisner
ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) (10/25/90)
In article <34358@nigel.ee.udel.edu> mike.irons@lynx.northeastern.edu writes: > Could the writer/maintainer of elle please put in code to handle use >of the arrow keys, it's a real pain in the butt not being able to use them. The arrow keys--in fact the entire numeric keypad-- have been fully supported since day 0. When you hit them, they produce ANSI escape sequences. All you need to do is build an elle profile and compile it with ellec. As to other projects, I agree that a good debugger would nice, although real programmers use printf statements. Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)
adrie@philica.ica.philips.nl (Adrie Koolen) (10/25/90)
In article <8040@star.cs.vu.nl> ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) writes: >The arrow keys--in fact the entire numeric keypad-- have been fully supported >since day 0. When you hit them, they produce ANSI escape sequences. All you >need to do is build an elle profile and compile it with ellec. I would propose to use /etc/termcap. The codes, generated when you press cursor keys, depend on the type of terminal. When you're working on a console and on a RS232c connected terminal, it's quite an overhead of switching profiles all the time, when the environment variable TERM reflects the type of terminal. Adrie Koolen (adrie@ica.philips.nl) Philips Innovation Centre Aachen
L.Parkes@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Lloyd Parkes) (10/26/90)
In article <181@rc6.urc.tue.nl> tgcpwd@rwc.urc.tue.nl (Wim van Dorst) writes:
It _is_ a pain not to be able to use the arrow keys, but luckily there
is already support for them. I will mail you my .ellepro.e from
Why bother? We have the OS source (I hope :-) just change the key maps
to give you ^F, ^B, M-V ... and then recompile. That way it works
nicely under CLAM as well.
Lloyd
--
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Lloyd Parkes | The stereotypical young adult male in New
lloyd@comp.vuw.ac.nz | Zealand is a good reason for being lesbian.
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