Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!srcsip!nic.MR.NET!umn-d-ub!umn-cs!hall!rosenkra
From: rosenkra@hall.cray.com (Bill Rosenkranz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: ROM disassembly for TOS 1.4
Message-ID: <4576@hall.cray.com>
Date: 6 Sep 89 22:12:43 GMT
References: <9401@chinet.chi.il.us> <1666@atari.UUCP> <71359@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> <1677@atari.UUCP>
Reply-To: rosenkra@hall.UUCP (Bill Rosenkranz)
Organization: Cray Research, Inc., Mendota Heights, MN
Lines: 47

In article <1677@atari.UUCP> kbad@atari.UUCP (Ken Badertscher) writes:
=root@yale.UUCP (Root Of All Evil) writes:
=
=| [good comments about bad application s/w requirements docs]
=
=  Absolutely true!  THANK YOU for recognizing this.  It is the cause

there are SOME of us who write "compliant" code *8^)

=  Another consideration, though, is that the OS sources are in a constant
=state of flux, and they are not pretty.  It would take nearly as much
=effort (probably more!) to "clean them up" so that they could be released,
=as it would to better document TOS.  Given the choice, I'd rather see that
=effort go into better TOS documentation.

as anyone knows who has worked with unix before, the "best" documentation
(for that particular OS) is the source code. i'd MUCH rather have fully
documented source for the OS than an (often) incomplete or erroneous
manual. the src for TOS is readily available to anyone with a disassembler
(and an ST, of course!) but it is quite tedious to wade through that mire
to find how something works. those of us who have had a few years
experience with the ST can easily find out just how something works, just
by a quick peak at the src (the "ultimate" documentation). thos of us
with 1985 versions of the developer's docs know just how many bugs were
in the docs, let alone the OS!

having src in electronic form could also allow developers to fix bugs and
pass them on to atari for inclusion in the next release. that would be
be like having a satellite s/w staff of a few hundred people. atari
could release some sort of source code control system which the public
would be obliged to follow (if they want their mods incorporated) and
atari could have the final word in whether or not to incorporate any
and all mods.

the src released should be the TRUE src frozen at ROM burn time, not some
pre-pre-pre-release version. heck, i'd even volunteer to help comment it!
just think how much more "friendly" atari would seem to developers (over,
say, commodore) if they say "hey, here is the full source on disk, guys".

i don't expect much action on this, but it would sure be nice....


-bill
rosenkra@boston.cray.com

(my OTHER computers are cray-2/4-256's and Y-MP/832's, all of which can
be had with source code *8^)