Re: Just my 2 penny worth..

[Stephen Usher <Stephen.Usher@earth.ox.ac.uk>]

>Wow.
>
>Let's make just two remarks.
>
>1) I don't see any problem with the AHDI type harddisk driver
>interface. Don't blame other drivers for things you don't like in
>ICD. There is already an interface for non-blocking I/O (background
>DMA) which is used in MagiC, and I am sure that those driver authors
>who support it are more than willing to support a similar one in
>MiNT.

The main reason I suggested it was that if you're going to have a full
virtual memory environment these programs won't be able to work.. and also
it's so difficult trying to get the XFS's to work with all of them. Add to
that, the current crop just can't drive the hardware at full speed. (The
TT's SCSI hardware is not slow, contrary to popular opinion. It's basically
the same as used in the Sun 3 computers but with added DMA, which can make
it quicker. It's the drivers which don't take full advantage of it.)

Also.. have you every tried getting some drivers to boot if you have
non-standard filesystems on some of your partitions? I have.. AHDI 5.x locks
the system after bombing, sometimes hard hanging it. Some versions of the
ICD utilities work, others don't.

If MiNT is going to support a wide range of filesystems it's going to have
to take these pieces of software out of the loop and get disk access under
its control. It also allows the kernel to schedule processes properly so
that those waiting for I/O don't sit in the run queue, allowing others to
get on with other things.

>2) Generally, what you are proposing seems to be a Linux which is
>able to run TOS and GEM programs. If you really want that, you should
>put your time into these emulation projects...

Nope.. I'm looking at it from the other direction.. I'm talking of a system
which gives maximum compatibility to TOS/GEM applications IN THE KERNEL but
which also allows people to use extra features if they don't mind
restricting their programs to the new system.

Sure.. if the people writing the new system are smart they may borrow code
form Linux/68k as who wants the re-invent the wheel, but you can't use the
Linux kernel as it won't have any basic support for TOS/GEM full
compatibility which will have to be fully integrated into the memory
management system from the ground up.

Also, if you want to be able to give as many of the advantages as possible
to the 68000 crowd playing with emulators under Linux (which have to do a
total emulation in software, and hence run like treacle) is not an option.

I'm trying to be inclusive here.. allowing the ST users to get as much out
of it as possible and also giving the TT & Falcon owners the full use of
their machine's abilities, and hopefully not slowing things down for either
group, maybe even speeding things up.

>Regards, jr

Steve

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