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From: cs504aa@unm-la.UUCP (`The Boy in the Box')
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Minix questions
Message-ID: <624@unm-la.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Mar-87 13:35:03 EST
Article-I.D.: unm-la.624
Posted: Wed Mar 18 13:35:03 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Mar-87 01:36:37 EST
Organization: University of New Mexico - Los Alamos
Lines: 51
Keywords: stupid


I ordered a copy of The Book at the beginning of the month from
a local bookstore.  They claimed it would be in in three weeks.
Yesterday I got a call and they said the warehouse is out of stock
and it will take at least another month.  AARGGHHHH!

The reason I am posting this is that I have decided to send in
for the disks from P-H before I get the book.  (With the way
the disks have been delayed, both may arrive at roughly the
same time :-) )  Before I send in my $79.95, I have a few
questions to ask:

1.  My PC is `between sizes' in memory - it has 512 K, not 256
    or 640.  How easy is it to modify the source of the 256K
    minix to make it take advantage of the full 512K on my PC?
    Pointers on exactly what modules to modify would be especially
    helpful.  On the same subject, how much difference is there
    between the 256 and 640 versions?  Are there any significant
    features missing in the 256 that could work on my PC's 512K
    of memory?

2.  My computer is an XT with the standard 20meg IBM hard disk.
    How easy is it to get minix to use a disk partitioned with
    fdisk?

3.  Does minix have any utilities that allow it to read files
    from DOS formatted floppy or hard disks and convert them
    to mimix format?  What about the ability to run a DOS
    executable (.EXE or .COM) file from under minix?

4.  What kind of floating point code does the minix C compiler
    generate?  Is is necessary to have an 8087 math chip or
    is a floating point emulator included?

5.  From several other articles in this newsgroup, I have gotten the
    impression that minix does not have a device driver for the
    RS232 port.  Is this true?

6.  I have had the oppertunity to see an AT running minix.  I could
    not locate the standard editor, ed(1), anywhere on the system.
    There was a screen editor called mined.  Is it possible to
    place mined into an ed-like mode?  (Ed can be very useful
    in shell scripts and the like.)  Does ed exist at all on minix?

Please reply directly to me and I will summarize to the net in
a week or so.  Thanks for your patience in reading through all
these simple questions!
-- 
[Ignore all other names    ]-->  David Barts  N5JRN      "The Boy in the Box"
|in the header and else-   |     unm-la!cs504aa@lanl.arpa
[where.  They are aliases. ]     ...ihnp4!lanl!unm-la!cs504aa