RE: [MiNT] MiNT and MetaDOS

["Julian Reschke" <reschke@medicaldataservice.de>]

> From: owner-mint@fishpool.com [mailto:owner-mint@fishpool.com]On Behalf
> Of Martin-Éric Racine
> Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 11:22 AM
> To: MiNT List
> Subject: RE: [MiNT] MiNT and MetaDOS
>
>
> On 2000-5-2, Julian Reschke <reschke@medicaldataservice.de> wrote:
>
> > > Besides, Atari themselves clearly stated that MetaDOS was
> > > obsoleted by the XDD/XFS interfaces.
> >
> > XFS still need a way to physically access the device, and a
> > well-defined OS layer is right thing to do.
>
> Isn't low-level hardware access the purpose of XDD?

This is certainly a way to do it, but the XDD would only work under MiNT,
and you would still need another interface for plain TOS and MagiC. So
where's the gain?

> > SPINMAGC.XFS uses BOS drivers.
>
> Does anything else besides SPIN! use BOS drivers, nowadays?
> I'd like to heard some names.

The DOS drivers mentioned below.

> > HSMAY*.DOS, ISO9660F.DOS, HS-ISO.DOS, SPIN.DOS.
>
> All of which have XFS equivalents, both on Magic and MiNT, at
> least as far as SPIN! is concerned, no?

So? The other DOS drivers continue to exist. What if somebody wants to write
a different XFS, let's say for DVD specific filesystems? Why force this
imaginary person to re-implement the physical interface for all platforms?

BTW: is there any *actual* problem with MetaXBS, or is this just an academic
discussion? I don't really think I have enough spare time for the latter :-)