>
> I doubt that you will even see one (1) 32-bit version of FreeDOS. Whoever
> is seriously claiming on working on that just doesn't know what they will
> get themselves into. MS/PC/DR-/FreeDOS is at its very core 16bit/x86. You
> get yourself in one development hell if you try to change that. And what
> advantage does a 32bit FreeDOS supposed to have? What application would you
> run on it?
>
I've detailed the advantages in several other emails, and so far as what
applications would run on it... both traditional DOS apps and new 32-bit
applications as well.
What exactly would you mean by "32 bit kernel"? What is "the kernel"? I
> always get the impression that people that mention stuff like this don't
> know how DOS works and take their "inspiration" from Linux or other,
> similar sized and focused OS...
>
The kernel, in the case of MS-DOS, would be IO.SYS. For FreeDOS it's
KERNEL.SYS - basically the core of the DOS, minus the interface shell.
Do you even remotely have an idea on how many function calls (INT21h)
> within DOS this is required/expected? Not to mention things like video
> both for INT10h or direct write access?
>
Yes, 114 in interrupt 0x21, not including the others in the 0x2x series
which DOS uses. I'm sure there are some I'm missing, not to mention the
video BIOS routines and such which you mention, so I would guess around two
to three hundred functions total. That's actually not that many compared to
other operating systems - the classic MacOS and Windows both have literally
thousands of function calls and services.
Sorry, but that way is just a "road to nowhere". As you would loose the
> "100% application compatibility" in a heartbeat...
Compatibility would not necessarily be lost, as I've detailed in other
emails as well.
All that said, I have no problem with FreeDOS staying 16-bit. Perhaps
Microsoft would not have integrated 32-bit support and just packaged their
own extender, as Aitor noted. Regardless, we have an excellent piece of
software capable of doing amazing things no matter how we choose to evolve
it. I'm not fighting for one side of the argument or the other here, I'm
just presenting my thoughts on either way the outcome could be.
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