🚀 go-pugleaf

The use of interrupts via Ctrl-C is purely limited to calls to Gemdos.
When the normal I/O functions of Gemdos are called and there is a need
to put a character on the screen there is first a check whether the
BIOS (via Bconstat) has a new character and if so whether this is one
of the special characters (Ctrl-S, Ctrl-Q, Ctrl-C and a few more).
If so the appropriate action is taken. This makes it necessary for
Gemdos to have its own input buffers. During the programming there
came a small bug in those and if one has a program that uses input
characters, but slower than the user types them in it is possible to
crash (hard to do intentionally).
If there is a need to circumvent the Ctrl-C there are two possibilities:
1: use Crawio for all screen I/O. This is one of the few Gemdos functions
   that doesn't test for Ctrl-C etc.
2: Get the characters via Bconin and write them via Bconout. This last
   method is the faster, but in a shell it is now impossible to redirect
   the screen I/O. Using Bconout with device number 5 allows the user
   to also put the non ASCII characters on the screen.

Concerning the above bug and the recent remark from DRI:
I think it is quite impressive that one person put Gemdos together in one
month. It leaves however more questions than were answered:
Why is it then so difficult to have somebody spend another month making it
into a great file system with speed and even fewer bugs?
It would result in something that DRI could be proud of rather than that
many people complain about the piece of work that they sold.
What are the great programs that this kind of people make during all
those other months?

Jos Vermaseren
T68@nikhefh.hep.nl