On May 3, 2012, at 9:29 AM, Michael B. Brutman wrote: > If you want to really modernize DOS you are going to have to fix or > break a lot of things that exist today. You can implement a simple OS > that uses the INT 0x21 programming interface, but if it doesn't run > existing software (because you have a 32 bit kernel that doesn't > handle > segment wrapping correctly), doesn't load existing TSRs, has a > different > memory map, and doesn't allow direct access to hardware, is it really > DOS anymore? No it isn't, but *some* dos programs will still run, and folks *may* be willing to write others (if it's dos-like, but with modern features), I for one would be very interested in such a system, something fast, clean, simple, able to access loads of memory, and still (mostly) use dos development tools, would be a great thing for a lot of embeded developers if nothing else. Yeah, it might break 75% of dos programs, but that's still 25% that will still work, and that's 25% of software you don't need to rebuild. Not a bad headstart (imo) As pointed out before, oses are wide and varied, I think it's about time somebody did something with dos, even if it does break it somewhat for older programs,, this happens on os releases all the time, and nobody complains (at least not that the commercial companies listen anyway) so a new updated dos with all new features such as memory, usb support, int21 compatibility, and support for things like sd cards, flash drives, multicore processors, multitasking and so on, would be a fine addition to the existing set of operating systems out there. I agree with Jim here, go for it, and see what comes of it. If it turns into nothing, then no harm done, but if it turns out to be a better dos, even at the expense of breaking backward compatibility, to some degree, then it may still fill a much needed nich.
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