28 May
2024
28 May
'24
11:44 p.m.
> So what, then, consitutes a Real Operating System,
and why?
On Tue, 28 May 2024, ben via cctalk wrote:
I am grumpy about OS's like MSDOS, in that
programs kept by passing
DOS to handle screen, and serial IO.
I also favor OS's that don't require one to build a file control block.
Is it not "Real", if it is just crappy?
It was possible to handle screen through MS-DOS, or using ANS.SYS, but,
you had to go below DOS to the BIOS, or even direct to hardware to get
acceptable performance.
MS-DOS 1.xx used CP/M-like File Control Blocks, and the Program Segment
Prefix contained the content of the command line (at 80h), and unopened
FCBs parsed from the first two command line arguments, at 5Ch and 6Ch
BUT,
MS-DOS 2.xx still had all of that, but implemented unix-like file handles,
so programming could be done without requiring one to build a File Control
Block.
Is it not "Real", if it is just crappy?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com