🚀 go-pugleaf

izahi@bsc.no (Raul Izahi Lopez Hernandez) writes:
]   Is a 32-bit version of DOS, viable or desirable?

Only if it is protected mode.  I've worked on various "DOS" platforms
that are not DOS (FlexOS, Concurrent DOS, Digital Research Multiuser
DOS) and the only that I found the most enjoyable to code to was
FlexOS.  Mainly because you were either writing as part of the system
or as a user application.  Never (well, under very strict conditions)
shall the two meet.  I didn't get a chance to write code on the
flatspace 386 version, so I was still stuck with the 64K boundaries in
the segmented version...

]   Is it possible to change DOS in a way that all the non-RAM above 640K
]can be moved somewhere else and that DOS can execute in a flat memory model?
]   I would like to be able to declare arrays larger than 64KB and be able to
]do 32-bit disk accesses.

Borland's huge model doesn't work for you?

]   I would not like the added complexity of OS/2 or Windows, just a true
]32-bit DOS.

32-bit DOS without all of the extra features is both unlikely and
probably dangerously unviable.  There are enough people mucking with
the internals of DOS nowadays or writing directly to hardware.  The
problem is that DOS needs to mature as an operating system.  The
current variants are fine, but they need to provide missing
functionality that force (system and application) programmers to bypass
DOS and sometimes even the BIOS to get the speed that they need.

Areas of improvement are a standardized interface for TSRs to handle
interrupt ownership, a richer functionality environment (exporting
alot of the "undocumented" functions), etc, etc, etc... 

]-- 
]         -----> All opinions expressed here are my own, not IBM's <-----
]Raul Izahi Lopez	Izahi Engineering
]izahi@bsc.no		IBM Bergen Environmental Sciences and Solutions Centre
]			Thormoehlensgate 55, 5008 Bergen, NORWAY (47-05)544653

You might talk to the 4680 people about FlexOS if you're interested. 
As for the opinions, their dated and Novell probably wouldn't agree anyway...
--
Frotz