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Mail Archives: djgpp/1999/04/21/23:15:35

From: "M. Schulter" <mschulter AT value DOT net>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Future of DJGPP: FreeDOS32?
Date: 21 Apr 1999 04:26:47 GMT
Organization: Value Net Internetwork Services Inc.
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Message-ID: <7fjk27$hj4$4@vnetnews.value.net>
References: <Pine DOT SOL DOT 3 DOT 91 DOT 990420083526 DOT 21845B-100000 AT travelers DOT mail DOT cornell DOT edu>
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

Hello, and having considered this theme over the last couple of years,
please let me try and make the case for a cautious approach.

Trying as best I can to place myself in the position of DJ or Eli or any
of the many others who have indeed made DJGPP a premier "partially POSIX"
environment for DOS, what I'd like to say is that designing a 32-bit OS is
a nontrivial task, especially if that OS is supposed to work reliably.

(One can debate whether commercial developers have always met that
standard, as has been pointed out, for example, CWSDPMI can catch pointer
bugs that commercial DPMI servers may miss.)

An OS simply isn't something to take for granted, and as responsible
developers the DJGPP team individually and collectively knows this
probably as well as anyone. Unlike many commercial vendors, they have
contact with the users and provide free technical support on a day to day
basis right here: and many articles and sigs here testify to their
excellence.

What I'd like to say is that regardless of what happens on the "DOS32" 
issue, this team has already scored an immense triumph by making good old
DOS16 an environment for 32-bit applications ranging from Emacs to TeX to
something as simple and delightful as gdate. Maybe whether the 32-bit
support is part of the OS itself or of a separate DJGPP environment isn't
as important as the fact that the choice is there. 

Most respectfully,

Margo Schulter
mschulter AT value DOT net

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