Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!phigate!prle!prles2!cstw68!meulenbr
From: meulenbr@cstw68.prl.philips.nl (Frans Meulenbroeks)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: The (A?) future for minix ST (was: Re: minix ST 1.5.0)
Keywords: minix, atarist
Message-ID: <1203@prles2.prl.philips.nl>
Date: 6 Mar 90 12:06:50 GMT
References: <1990Mar6.012337.20707@max.sunysb.edu]
Sender: news@prles2.prl.philips.nl
Reply-To: meulenbr@cst.prl.philips.nl (Frans Meulenbroeks)
Organization: Centre for Software Technology, Philips Eindhoven
Lines: 85

In article <1990Mar6.012337.20707@max.sunysb.edu] figuei@max.sunysb.edu (Francisco Figueirido) writes:
]I agree with this. What I would like is that the screen driver become
]part of the standard distribution of minix for the ST. As far as I see
]now there are two distributions (maybe more?): 1.5.3 (although I
]haven't seen kernel diff's posted yet) and the gnukernel. I would like
]to know whether they are going to merge in the future or we have to
]choose which path to follow. Personally I would like to have some of
]the drivers in the gnukernel (midi, screen, faster rs232) incorporated
]into the standard distribution, but I am sure the people involved have
]given much more thought to this than myself so I would appreciate any
]clarification to this point. 

This has been a dilemma to me.
I've decided to keep the official ST version modelled as close as possible
to the PC version. That way the book is useful for both PC and ST
version. Currently this means that
- fs, mm and test are identical.
- lib is identical except for the assembly stuff.
- include is identical with the exception of 2 or 3 files.
- tools is not identical, but we use the same init.c
- kernel is partly identical. The ST follows the same structure and
  shares quite a lot of files with the PC version (e.g. proc.c, system.c)

For the future I've more or less decided to stick to this strategy
(although there are some functions in gkernel that I would like to
incorporate).
Effectively this means that parts that are identical between all
versions will stay identical. So I won't put new functionality in fs,
unless Dr. Tanenbaum does in the PC version as well.
I'll also want to do some more integration in the kernel (mainly tty.c)

I've decided to stay as compatible as possible to cut down the
maintenance time. 

Of course there are certain parts which will never be shared. Think
about the drivers. They rely on the ST hardware, so it will be hard
to share these. I want to rework some of these drivers after 1.5
to improve them. If gkernel provides something useful I'll surely use
it. For instance I will definitely look into the gkernel wini and
floppy drivers (one thing which will be added is supporting both Supra
and Atari extended partitioning. Also I want to merge /dev/fd0 and
/dev/dd0 into one device).

To be more precise, here is my opinion on the following topics:
- mm/fs changes: only if the PC also incorporates them
- screen/mouse: only if the PC provides something similar
- virtual screens: idem. I expect this to be implemented
- faster rs232: yes, with the PC 1.5 tty driver
- console/vdu driver enhancements: yes.
- merge ss/ds floppies into one device: yes
- extended partitioning: yes
- midi: don't know. Does anyone use this? how?
  I still have to find a use for it
- tape driver: no, can't test it.
- support for removable media: yes (but can't test it).
- TT support: Hah. No. I haven't seen a TT after August '89.
Note that these are not promises for 1.6/2.0, but things I consider
implementing. The things which get implemented depend on the amount of
time that I have, and on what is contributed by others.

If you have something which you want to see incorporated, send me 
the stuff. If it is ST specific, I'll see. If it also influences the
PC, supply some good arguments, and if you convince me I'll try to
convince Dr. Tanenbaum.

]Another thing: I compiled the commands for 1.5.3 and there were only
]three problems, which I haven't seen mentioned on the net: login.c 
]didn't patch (the .cdif was far larger than the original!), mkdir 
]and rmdir didn't work (they are owned by root and setuid). I noticed
]that the new sources were much smaller than the older ones.

login.c: did other people have problems with this as well??
mkdir/rmdir: These only work for a 1.5.3 system.
Someone else explained this in detail a few messages ago.

]I tried ps but it complained that it couldn't read some kernel tables
](I was root). Is this because it only works with the 1.5.3 kernel? 
]If so I will wait till Frans Meulenbreoks posts the new diff's.

I've fixed ps. Diffs will be in the next release. In order to work with
ps you should generate fs/mm/kernel with a symbol table.
There are also some diffs in ps.c required. stay tuned.
Frans Meulenbroeks        (meulenbr@cst.philips.nl)
	Centre for Software Technology
	( or try: ...!mcsun!phigate!prle!cst!meulenbr)