>>>>> Alessandro Rubini writes:
>> Right now I am completely consumed by designing and building
>> infrastructure for GRUB 1.0.
AR> If I understand correctly, it means that the current source tree
AR> is comdemned to die. If so, it looks like I'm wasting my time in
AR> fixing the details (like the docs and user interface issues -- I
AR> have a few of them), as only the core will be brought to the new
AR> infrastructure.
Not at all. In fact, it is the opposite. Things like UI and manuals
are difficult to develop properly, and they will almost certainly
survive.
AR> Or will figure only prvide the low-level library for GRUB, thus
AR> adding portability without changing much of the program?
Exactly. It would be senseless to throw out the lessons we have
learned thus far. I just want to make the project easier to change
without having to recompile all the time, or redesign everything from
scratch.
So yes, Figure is not a rewrite of GRUB, it is a library that I hope
will be used by GRUB.
>> For those who are interested in helping me with infrastructure,
>> please see my Figure web pages: http://fig.org/figure/
AR> It isn't clear at all whether multi-platform support (or at least
AR> infrastructure) is planned or not.
It is planned. The first platform to be supported is `Posix C'. ;)
The platform we will need for GRUB is `i386 BIOS with GRUB asm and C
functions'. Figure will not provide any magical answers, it will just
be a restructuring that will hopefully make it easier to understand
and work with GRUB code, even as it is ported to different platforms.
AR> [...] so I can't tell if it will be structured to be portable
AR> or not.
Yeah, that's hard to see until it's actually been done. I'm trying
quite hard to maintain portability, choosing interfaces that make
sense in both embedded and distributed environments, on different
proccessors, for different process models, etc. But only time will
tell if I did a reasonable job.
--
Gordon Matzigkeit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> //\ I'm a FIG (http://fig.org/)
Committed to freedom and diversity \// I use GNU (http://www.gnu.org/)
