Re: [MiNT] freemint & xaaes release

["Jo Even Skarstein" <joska@online.no>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mint-bounce@lists.fishpool.fi
> [mailto:mint-bounce@lists.fishpool.fi]On Behalf Of Frank Naumann
>
> Ok, I'll ask gokmase :-) Regarding EasyMiNT: it's written in GFA BASIC as
> far as I know, so I can't do anything on it (I don't know if Marc
> published the source or have time to modify the EasyMiNT installer; time
> is such a critical resource ...)

As I see it we need three things:

1. An installer capable of installing the correct binaries from TOS.
2. An installer capable of updating an existing FreeMiNT installation,
either from TOS or MiNT.
3. A configuration program running under MiNT/XaAES, capable of configuring
all aspects of the kernel and AES.

I wrote (1) years ago but never released it properly. It was an installer
for a minimal distribution called "NewbieMiNT". I would think that atleast
parts of this code (C) can be re-used. The initial installer should be very
simple anyway - it must be able to autodetect the hardware and install the
correct binaries. Could easily be done with an absolute minimum of user
interaction.

I can also write (3) without too much effort (have spent lots of time the
last months developing a small library that takes most of the pain out of
developing AES applications) if such a thing doesn't exist already. The GUI
will be easy and can be done in a couple of evenings, it's handling the
configuration files that worries me. Writing my own code means duplicate
efforts every time an option is added to the configuration files. I would
prefer to have the configuration for both the kernel and XaAES available for
both reading and writing through a proper OS-call.

(2) I'm not so sure about. I don't really think it's needed for a basic
FreeMiNT setup, as long as  new releases are available in a sensible archive
it's not difficult to upgrade manually.

Jo Even