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From: dana@locus.com (Dana H. Myers)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: MS-DOS OS "architecture"
Keywords: MS-DOS
Message-ID: <1991Jan21.200131.2848032@locus.com>
Date: 21 Jan 91 20:01:31 GMT
References: <1991Jan18.140350.11175@cbnewsl.att.com> <366@bria>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Locus Computing Corporation, Inglewood, CA
Lines: 22

In article <366@bria> mike@bria.UUCP (Michael Stefanik) writes:

>What I expect from an operating system is the following capabilities:
>
>1. A uniform and reliable way of communicating with devices

>1. This is DOS' strongest point; character device drivers are relatively
>   uniform, and actually have something that vanilla UNIX doesn't: the 
>   ability to add devices without relinking the kernel (although you *do*
>   have to reboot the machine).

  Well, it isn't true that device drivers MUST be loaded in at reboot.
Config.sys is read and interpreted directly after the boot, before the
shell is executed, but there is nothing preventing one from writing a
utility to load device drivers well after boot, from a user program.
Merge 386, for instance (a commercial DOS under Unix product from Locus)
uses such a technique.

-- 
 * Dana H. Myers KK6JQ 		| Views expressed here are	*
 * (213) 337-5136 		| mine and do not necessarily	*
 * dana@locus.com		| reflect those of my employer	*