Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!computer-science.birmingham.ac.UK!RiddCJ
From: RiddCJ@computer-science.birmingham.ac.UK (Chris Ridd)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Who owns the ROM code?
Message-ID: <8912061211.aa03001@benjamin.Cs.Bham.AC.UK>
Date: 6 Dec 89 12:11:27 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 31

A slightly off-beat question, but I've been wondering for a while.

Who owns the object and source codes to the parts of the Atari ROMs?  ie,
the BIOS, XBIOS, Line A, GEMDOS, VDI, AES?  My own thoughts are:
   BIOS  : Atari written
   XBIOS : Atari written and altered as time passed (blitter call)
   Line A: Atari written and altered to handle blitters
   GEMDOS: DRI written, but Atari altered in TOS 1.4
   VDI   : DRI written, has Atari ever altered it?
   AES   : DRI written, Atari HAS altered it with new calls (eg fsel_exinput)

What claims does Digital Research have on the VDI, AES and GEMDOS?  From the
Hitchhiker's Guide et al, I thought that DRI wrote GEMDOS, if so how can Atari
alter it?

For a fairly simple enhancement to GEM, how about allowing more windows, like
16, instead of the current meagre 8?  This would allow all the DAs a window,
and lots for the App (encouraging the use of modeless dialogues).  If I ever
designed something like the AES, I would have written #define NWINDOWS 8 or
some such-like, so would be able to change it later.

Shades of the MS Write discussion earlier this year!

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