Re: New file system IDs and others.

[Anthony Jacques <jacquesa@zetnet.co.uk>]

> Well I have been reading a lot lately here. And I don't quite agree
> with many people comments, such as: "Like in magic."
> Like if it EVEN correctly worked. 

I think the scariest example was the suggestion of a splash screen...
I remember when win95 came out with its splash-screen, and Atari ppl
took the piss, and now... (no offense - I wouldn't mind a spash screen,
just point out the change of view...)

> Shared lib? like magic? why would MiNT need the magic one?
> compatibility reason? 

Yes.

> We haveto stay clear, and know what we want, do
> we want magic compatibility with their own way of doing? or more

Obviously we should implement the most appropriate scheme, but if
for a "low cost" we can (also?) implement a compatible method, at least
we can run Magic apps...

> Handle Background DMA like in magic? "magic does it already blah blah

Because Background DMA is a feature we would want. Yes, Magic already
has it, but people wanted it before Magic implemented it (in fact,
ever since Atari claimed that the machines could do background DMA).

> with Hddriver blah" , Does it even work in the so perfect Magic OS? 

Maybe its a crap implementation, but who says the MiNT one would be?

> same at all. What do I do? provide extra RSC for magic user? or change
> the look from within my code that IF magic detected?

Blame Ash for this one - but I haven't seen any proposals on here
about copying the Magic object drawing routines in any of the
free AES's.

> Why is pexec reacting differently from magic to mint? what is the

Because they decided the MiNT method wasn't logical, and so refused
to implement it the same way. There is nothing we can do about this
now, so forget about it.

> I mean come on, shouldn't we try to direct MiNT kernal toward
> something a little bit more robust? following posix threads for 

I agree that we shouldn't just copy magic features for the sake of
it, but wherever possible MiNT should be compatible with existing
standards (its not our fault if ASH decide that Magic *wont* follow
existing standards, as layed down by MiNT). 

> Magic can be good? ok prove it to me. coz I have 5.1x and it is really
> not convincing at all. Please help me. This is driving me nuts. Why
> Magic if it doesn't bring anything good? am I missing something
> obvious?

Yes, you are.

People use Magic. People write programs for Magic (this includes
most of the new commercial apps...). MiNT will just disappear into 
the shadows if we refuse to stay compatible with Magic, simply because
they are the one setting the standards in the mainstream of Atari
software...

Anthony
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Anthony Jacques           IRC: AnthonyJ | Lithium-Eraser... is it possible?
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jacquesa@zetnet.co.uk                   | Check my WWW pages after 1 July 98
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