Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!amiga!cbmvax!jesup From: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Re: Unix V7 functionality under (or along with) AmigaDOS? (*LONG*) Message-ID: <6276@cbmvax.UUCP> Date: 15 Mar 89 03:49:33 GMT References: <6157@cbmvax.UUCP> <6185@cbmvax.UUCP> <473@laic.UUCP> Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup) Distribution: comp Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA Lines: 49 In article deven@pawl.rpi.edu (Deven Corzine) writes: >AmigaDOS, however, just plain sucks. It's a shame that people get >such a poor opinion of the Amiga's OS in general when it is only the >DOS which is so lame. Such is life. AmigaDOS needs to be replaced. >IMHO. AmigaDos isn't totally bad. It has some nice paradigms, some that are much nicer than standard Unixes: easily mountable devices and handling of removable media, user process filesystems (ala Mach), a message based filesystem interface (as opposed to a monolithic kernel), unlimited numbers of open files, some support of file locking (not totally complete yet - mainly an fs issue). It is _currently_ written in BCPL and some asm. This can be fixed. Some of the interfaces use BPTRs and BSTRs, these can be mildly annoying but aren't a big problem for most people, since most developers see only the C- compatible dos.library interface. Shell writers are the one exception to that, and in 1.4 we hope to make it easier on them. Sparse documentation on some things didn't help either, but again it mostly affects shell-writers. The other major thing involved are the commands in the C directory. They're not the same as Unix or MsDos, just close enough that people can get confused sometimes. They were originally low on functionality in some places, that has been and is being improved (look at 1.3 for some good examples). Most are still in BCPL, that will change. If you prefer, there are the arp commands written in ASM, and using the arp.library. They are smaller, and the arp people added a number of options. The 1.3 AmigaShell is an improvement over the CLI. Even Matt Dillon (of csh fame) seems to really like it, and has switched over to it from his own shell. Essentially what I'm saying is that it's been "fashionable" to denigrate AmigaDos, with some justification, but not as much as people often imply. The justification is much smaller in 1.3, with AmigaShell, new command options, FFS for faster HD access, etc. The justification will get much smaller in 1.4. The worst remaining problem, that of people writing shells, should be dealt with fairly well (or I'll eat my terminal :-). Lastly, it's easy to say "AmigaDos sucks, we should throw it away and start over", but in reality that's not a good option. We would throw away all the work people have done to work under AmigaDos, all old disks would no longer be useable, old programs wouldn't work, we'd trade our current annoyances for a brand spanking new set of _bugs_ and annoyances, and destroy what confidence we have generated in the Amiga. Plus it would take a MAJOR effort to do that, compared to fixing what problems exist with it. -- Randell Jesup, Commodore Engineering {uunet|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!jesup