Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!ccplumb
From: ccplumb@watmath.waterloo.edu (Colin Plumb)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Where's CAOS (was: Re: Are you playing with (enough) power?)
Message-ID: <16076@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 4 Jan 88 04:14:04 GMT
References: <4124@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <4459@pyr.gatech.EDU> <1150@sugar.UUCP> <15998@watmath.waterloo.edu> <19975@amdahl.amdahl.com>
Reply-To: ccplumb@watmath.waterloo.edu (Colin Plumb)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 47
Confusion: U. of Waterloo, Ontario

I've heard various people say that Intuition isn't "really" a device.
Can someone describe how it's not?  I seems that AmigaDOG opens it to
provide a CLI window, at which point it opens the WB screen and the
input.device and grabs sprite 0 and the copper.  Is any of this
forbidden to a device?  How could (as I have heard) another six months
of software development time have fixed this?  Can it be retrofitted?

More on the subject of deficient system software:
In article <19975@amdahl> kim@amdahl.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) writes:
> In article <15998@watmath>, ccplumb@watmath.waterloo.edu (I) write:
>
>> Well, the question everyone's asking is:
>> Where do I get it [caos]?
>
>At a recent FAUG meeting, it was mentioned by "someone who should know",
>that there was still a lawsuit pending between CBM and the individual
>who left C-A holding the bag WRT the original Amiga OS (CAOS).  [I don't
>believe this was Karl, and don't mean to imply that at all.]
>
>Since the issues are in the hands of lawyers, you *might* be able to get
>ahold of it near the year 9595 ... but I doubt it!
>
>Too bad!  If it was as well done as Exec, Intuition, etc, it would've been
>a real killer ...

My thoughts exactly.  I've been exploring the innards of AmigaDOG and
grown to loathe the BPTR.  I've been dreaming about a replacement for
it.  Since the most complex thing AmigaDOG seems to do is overlays
(please correct me if I'm terribly misguided - other than that, it
seems to do less than Minix), which isn't *that* hard, I've also been
toying with the idea of starting to consider perhaps beginning to
contemplate the possibility of implementing this hypothetical DOS.

Of course, I somehow suspect that Karl's spec is better than mine, and
would dearly love to steal ideas.  I don't really see how the lawyers
could care who sees the spec.  All parties concerned with the lawsuit
know it intimately.

Can anyone at C-A add some information, even to explain why you can't
say anything?  Failing that, does anyone know of an address for anyone
not at C-A (Karl, maybe?) who could describe what it does, even in
general terms?  Resource tracking sounds like a job for Exec, not Caos,
but I'd be fascinated to hear how to do it well at that level.  Reading
spec sheets is my idea of fun, and this would probably be much more
intersting than most I've ploughed through.
--
	-Colin (ccplumb@watmath)