Hi, > On Nov 25, 2024, at 1:39 PM, E. C. Masloch via Freedos-devel > <freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > > On at 2024-11-16 01:59 -0500, Jerome Shidel via Freedos-devel wrote: >> Hi All, >> As we are most likely approaching the release of FreeDOS 1.4 in the very >> near future, we are coming to the point where we will begin to look at the >> monthly Interim Test Release builds of the operating system as Release >> Candidates. >> At that point any large or complex changes will no longer be made until >> after the next OS release. T2412 may be the final Interim build and T2501 >> could very well be the first Release Candidate. >> Since T2411, there have only been a couple suggestions for changes. Mostly >> in regards to reducing the size of a couple packages. Eric and I updated >> several of those packages to save some space on the install media. >> Likewise, yesterday a I updated BWBasic to version 3.30 that dropped a >> couple days ago. Including, UPX compression of the binary which will cut its >> installed size roughly in half. >> Are there any general or package groups changes anyone would like to see >> made before we move from Interim Builds to Release Candidates? > > I have two points to add: > > 1. It seems that lDebug is still not included in the interim builds. I > checked the FullUSB [1] and BonusCD [2] images and didn't find an lDebug > package in either. (Besides, I found that it was difficult to find the links > for downloading the interim build. The freedos.org website doesn't seem to > point to them anywhere, so I had to look at the mailing list announcement [3] > to find the links.) It would most likely go to the DEVEL section. FreeDOS > Debug is included in BASE but I don't think lDebug should go there.
I certain this was simply an oversight. Possibly from all the the package, group and media shuffling. We have a version of lDebug in the FreeDOS GitLab Archive for it to be included. However, it was missing from the various lists of packages and the report generated by the RBE. Therefore, I added it to the appropriate package list. It will be included on both the BonusCD and FullUSB media user the DEVEL group in the next Interim Test Build (T2412). It will be great when the RBE4 is ready and replaces the current version. Under the RBE3, it is very easy not notice an unintentionally excluded package. The RBE4 operates in a completely different manner. It would be very difficult for such an omission to slip through on an OS or Interim build. The RBE4 will even be capable of detecting an excluded available package. Most likely, I will have put up a warning message to the builder when that is going to happen. Unfortunately, that is something which just isn’t possible under the RBE3. It is another one of those “features” that have motivated me to start working on the RBE4. That work is coming along nicely. But, it is a big long-term project and will be a while before it can replace the current RBE3. > Relatedly, I am about to finish the next release, lDebug release 9 [4]. It > will likely be done prior to the new year. It includes some bugfixes and a > bunch of new Extensions for lDebug (ELDs). I just added a DCO7 (Debugger > Common Options) flag to avoid a crash when loading the debugger as a device > driver (in CONFIG.SYS or using a patched DEVLOAD) and specifying a flat > binary file on the device command line. I'm considering to default enable the > immediate assembler (inspired by D86) and the Heatshrink compression of help > pages before the release. Further, this updates the lDOS boot32 loader > included in instsect.com to the FSIBOOT5 revision, the latest and greatest. I think that T2501 will possibly be FreeDOS 1.4-RC1. When RC1 is release, there will be a semi-freeze on packages. Basically, bug fix mode. All BASE and other packages critical to the OS will only be updated to fix bugs. There will be no more updates any large or complex packages. Updating, packages like FPC are very time consuming and easy to make mistakes. Updating things like lDebug are easy to do and are not critical to the OS. So, I do not see an issue with provide a limited number of such updates to some packages after RC1. But when RC2 is released (possibly T2502), a full freeze will go into effect. No more updates. Only important bug fixes to critical OS packages. > > 2. I think that the UPX binaries shipped by FreeDOS are linked with the NRV > compressor library, which is nonfree and closed source. This is obviously not > desirable. I am not saying you are wrong. Or, there is no problem. But, I would like to get some clarification. The UPX site[5] states: • free: UPX is distributed with full source code under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2+; either under the pure GPLv2+, or (at your option) under the GPLv+2 with special exceptions and restrictions granting the free usage for all binaries including commercial programs as stated in the UPX License Agreement We do not build UPX from source. We use the official pre-compiled versions they provide on GitHub[6]. Also if I understand you correctly, you are referring to the UPX binaries themselves and not the binaries compressed with UPX. > > Regards, > ecm > :-) Jerome [5] https://upx.github.io/ <https://upx.github.io/> [6] https://github.com/upx/upx/releases <https://github.com/upx/upx/releases> > > [1]: > https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/test/FDT2411-FullUSB.zip > [2]: > https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/test/FDT2411-BonusCD.zip > [3]: https://sourceforge.net/p/freedos/mailman/message/58836419/ > [4]: https://pushbx.org/ecm/doc/ldebug.htm#news-r9 > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-devel mailing list > Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
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