RE: [MiNT] XaAES / GEM memory issues

[Noah silva <nsilva@sparcy.atariuniverse.com>]

On Wed, 10 Jan 2001, Konrad M. Kokoszkiewicz wrote:

> 
> > > No, don't. So far we have a kernel which is less or more independent of a
> > > gui, and no type of a gui is favourized. While the AES gets intergrated
> > > 
> > There's no reason *not* to implement basic GUI-stuff in the kernel, since
> 
> There is. Like it was several times pointed out, we should not mix GEMDOS
> with GEM. MiNT is GEMDOS, AES is GEM. These are two different layers
> sitting on two different levels, where the GEMDOS is lower one.
> 
> > Whether to statically link this or load it as a kernel module or device
> > driver I really don't care.
> 
> To be strict, this makes a big difference.
> 
> I may be wrong, but I feel that - apart from anything else - the will to
> incorporate AES - or parts of it - into MiNT is caused by an assumtion,
> that such an incorporation will make the method of accessing the parameter
> arrays by GEM (overriding memory protection) more legitimate. No way. This
> is a hack and this will remain a hack eventhough the king of Saudi Arabia
> comes and states otherwise. :-) 

LOL.  Why is it a 'hack"?  It is a "hack" because it doesn't seem like a
clean design to people who think of the AES as a non-system process.  To
me, the AES is a very important part of the system for a desktop system.
The origional atari roms didn't even have a command interpreter for this
reason.  Instead of trying to contort the AES to make it run under a
strict unix system, why not allow MiNT to be a bit different and support
an AES with special privlidges.  Somehow I am sure it would be faster this
way.  But, if the AES is to run with special privlidges, then it must do
some things like pointer checking to ensure that it cannot easily crash.
Just my opinion...

> Even if there would be made a decision
> about the incorporation to be done, the AES should be *first* redesigned
> in the way that allows it to operate without special privileges; currently
> the access rights owned by N.AES for example are higher than MiNT itself
> has. This is sick situation and results in sick behaviour during problems.
> 
> --
> Konrad M.Kokoszkiewicz
> mail: draco@atari.org
> http://draco.atari.org
> 
> ** Ea natura multitudinis est,
> ** aut servit humiliter, aut superbe dominatur (Liv. XXIV,25)
> *************************************************************
> ** Taka to juz natura pospolstwa, ze albo sluzy ono unizenie,
> ** albo bezczelnie sie panoszy.
> 
> 
>