Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!np1!nikhefh!gert
From: gert@nikhefh.hep.nl (Gert Poletiek)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Room for change
Message-ID: <527@nikhefh.hep.nl>
Date: 22 Aug 88 17:37:09 GMT
References: <8143@cup.portal.com> <1123@atari.UUCP>
Reply-To: gert@nikhefh.hep.nl (Gert Poletiek)
Organization: Nikhef-H, Amsterdam (the Netherlands).
Lines: 67

In article <1123@atari.UUCP> kbad@atari.UUCP (Ken Badertscher) writes:
>in article <8143@cup.portal.com>, Jinfu@cup.portal.com says:
>>
>> I have an idea, why not provide both 'fixed' Malloc and the
>> old Malloc ... provided the new TOS ROM has enough space to put
>> both versions of Malloc in.
>> 
>> Jinfu Chen
> 
>  Jinfu has hit the nail squarely on the head.  There isn't enough
>room for both versions of Malloc in the ROMs unfortunately.  Believe me,
>folks, these ROMs are packed full o' goodies.  The french ROM, for example,
>has less than 100 bytes free! (sizes vary because of differing desktop and
>AES resources)
> 
>  I also wanted to mention that I have really enjoyed the discussions on
>the net of late regarding why or why not to break old software.  A special
>thanks for letting me read the newsgroup without having to put in eye drops
>to soothe eyes burning from the flames!
>  I personally am more of a TOS "purist" -- I want to see things
>fixed.  Momma taught me: "If it ain't worth doing right, it ain't worth
>doing at all."  Unfortunately, with a consumer product like the ST, things
>aren't so black and white.  Compatibility is a *major* concern for most
>end users, so it must be a concern for us.  There's no easy answer.
>  But the views of all of you in net-land really do help.
>-- 
> Ken Badertscher                 | Hey, umm, the stuff I said up there
> Atari R&D Software Test/Support | is, like, what _I_ think, okay?
> {portal,ames,imagen}!atari!kbad | So, y'know, don't bug Atari about it.

Now if you need more room in the ROMs how about this:

- Kick the desktop and AES resources out of the rom
- same goes for the bios keyboard translation tables
- Even kick out the desktop program itself.
And supply these on disk, to be read at boot time.

What you gain is substantial (I think):

1. Lots of valuable ROM space, which can subsequently be used for a real part
   of the OS. (And a user interface is NOT part of an OS).

2. You don't need different ROMS for different countries.  This will yield
   a substantial costs cut.

3. The desktop resources can be modified to everybodies liking

4. And it provides a way to easily upgrade the desktop.
   (or users can even directly replace it with a command line shell, if they
   like that better)

I'm sure everybody can think of additional advantages...


Gert Poletiek

NIKHEF-H, Dutch National Institute for Nuclear and High Energy Physics
          Kruislaan 409, P.O.Box 41882, 1009 DB Amsterdam, The Netherlands
UUCP:     {decvax,cernvax,unido,seismo}!mcvax!nikhefh!gert
bitnet:   nikhefh!gert@mcvax.bitnet, U00025@hasara5.bitnet

From september 1st 1988:

Gert Poletiek  Dept. of Math. and Computing Science, University of Amsterdam,
               Kruislaan 409, NL-1098 SJ  Amsterdam, The Netherlands
UUCP:          {decvax,cernvax,unido,seismo}!mcvax!uva!gert
bitnet:        uva!gert@mcvax.bitnet, U00025@hasara5.bitnet