Manuel, > Since ASCII is planning to open up all docs and maybe even the sources of > e.g. MSX-DOS2 (inc. ROM/BIOS), wouldn't it be possible to make some kind of > [...] > Can we actually get those docs and sources? > Should we mail to our Japanese friends to ask them about this?
Who said ASCII is going to release the sources, or even the documents? Who started this rumour? Unless things have changed a lot since July, ASCII *CANNOT* release the sources nor the documentation. When I was in Tokyo in June-July I had an interview with Ryozo Yamashita and asked him several things. I told him about the lack of documentation and software. We were talking about MSX-C and its documentation, MSX-DOS and MSX-DOS2, and the MSX2 Technical Handbook. My idea was to make these items available in aamsx.org with ASCII's support, sort of an 'official' developer's package. We were talking for a long time, and he was very kind and helpful during all that time. He even searched on his shelfs and handed me *THE* original of the MSX2 Technical Handbook (with corrections handmade by him before publication). He consulted ASCII's legal department and told me that ASCII doesn't have the copyright for these products. As a publishing company, they only have the distribution rights. MSX-DOS was made by Microsoft, MSX-DOS2 by Madge Corp. (http://www.madge.co.uk), and MSX-C was made by a company called LSI-Japan. And redistribution of these programs (even on their website) would cost ASCII money, so they won't do that. About the MSX2 Technical Handbook, I suggested him making a PDF/PostScript version of it and making it freely available. But he said that was not possible. He said that a reprint COULD be done, if there were enough users insterested on it (I told him that I'd be very surprised if more than 100 users bought the book). Anyway, I don't think that having the sources of MSX-DOS(2) would help. Cloning an OS is not that hard: we know all the functions and their input and output parameters. We also know the system variables. Cloning MSX-DOS would be as easy as cloning the behaviour of its functions. Moreover, the MSXDOS.SYS file is just 2Kb long. Not too hard to dissassemble and understand. And the case of the MSX2 Technical Handbook is even easier: Nestor Soriano typed the whole text and there are many, many photocopies of it running around. It wouldn't be too hard for a group of people to type the text using LyX or LaTeX (or copy & paste from Nestor's transcription), and draw the figures using xfig. I've made this already with MSX-DOS2 documents and the resulting PostScript file is available in http://www.ag0ny.com/docs (136 pages). So you want an OpenSource MSX-DOS clone and full documentation? Ok, then let's start working on it. I've been thinking about this for sime time now, and I think it's time we start. I even registered the domain some time ago (http://www.msxsg.org) but didn't have the time or motivation to start working on it. I'll post information about the project(s) this week. I'll post a message here as soon as the information is available, but people interested in helping please send me an email now so I include you in the list. Regards, -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] - http://www.aamsx.org -- For info, see http://www.stack.nl/~wynke/MSX/listinfo.html
