| /svarcom/trunk/freecom.txt |
|---|
| 2,9 → 2,13 |
| === SVARCOM vs FREECOM === |
| SvarCOM is a DOS command interpreter (shell), similar to COMMAND.COM in MS-DOS |
| and FreeCOM in FreeDOS. But why not using FreeCOM in the first place? |
| The FreeCOM project is an impressive piece of software, but there are a few |
| things that I do not like about it. SvarCOM is my attempt at addressing these |
| things. |
| things through a completely new implementation. SvarCOM is composed of |
| entirely original code and does not borrow any code from MS-DOS or FreeCOM. |
| === MEMORY FOOTPRINT ========================================================= |
| 15,7 → 19,7 |
| with many limitations. As pointed out by one of the FreeCOM authors, FreeCOM |
| is designed with 21'st century machines in mind and not IBM PC compatibles. |
| SvarDOS does not rely on XMS and performs runtime swapping that works on any |
| SvarCOM does not rely on XMS and performs runtime swapping that works on any |
| IBM PC compatible machine. |
| 29,8 → 33,8 |
| changes made to the LANG environment variable). It also makes the translation |
| more difficult. |
| SvarDOS uses CATS-style translations in a precompiled form and loads the |
| strings that match the LANG variable. |
| SvarCOM uses CATS-style translations in a precompiled form and supports |
| dynamic language changes through the %LANG% environment variable. |
| === CODE COMPLEXITY ========================================================== |
| 40,7 → 44,7 |
| changes require careful testing on all supported compilers and all possible |
| build variants. |
| SvarDOS, on the other hand, is meant to be simple and universal. It is |
| SvarCOM, on the other hand, is meant to be simple and universal. It is |
| compiled with OpenWatcom only, which makes a ton of IFDEF's go away. It also |
| does not integrate extra features that can be reasonably implemented through |
| external tools (typically: DOSKEY). It strives to reimplement the baseline |
| 53,7 → 57,7 |
| freedom of its users due to its virality (GPL). |
| SvarCOM is released under the terms of a liberal and permissive (MIT) license |
| that does not impose limitations on how users may or may not use it. |
| that does not impose limitations on how users may or may not use the software. |
| ====================================================================== EOF === |
| /svarcom/trunk/internal.txt |
|---|
| 2,6 → 2,16 |
| === SvarCOM implementation notes === |
| === SWAPPING ================================================================= |
| While conventional RAM is scarce, a command line interpreter must make effort |
| to reduce its memory footprint when launching applications. SvarCOM does that |
| by installing a small executable module in memory, called RMOD (for Resident |
| MODule). SvarCOM pre-sets RMOD so knows how to execute the external program |
| and removes itself from memory, letting RMOD do the job. RMOD executes the |
| application, waits for it to finish and then calls back SvarCOM. |
| === NLS strings ============================================================== |
| SvarCOM can output information in many languages. To do so, it relies on a |
| /svarcom/trunk/svarcom.txt |
|---|
| 6,19 → 6,20 |
| "COMMAND.COM". It is designed and maintained by Mateusz Viste, and distributed |
| under the terms of the MIT license. |
| For the time being, it is an incomplete, "work in progress" project. The goal |
| is to make SvarCOM the default SvarDOS shell, replacing FreeCOM. |
| For the time being, it is an incomplete, "work in progress" project. SvarCOM |
| version 2021.0 must be considered as a "preview" version. |
| The goal is to make SvarCOM the default SvarDOS shell, replacing FreeCOM. |
| Why replacing FreeCOM, you ask? See FREECOM.TXT for details. |
| Since SvarCOM is a work-in-progress effort, it is missing a few things yet: |
| - no support for pipes (eg. file.exe | more) |
| - no support for batch (*.BAT) files (hence no AUTOEXEC.BAT execution) |
| - a few internal commands missing: CALL, CTTY, GOTO, IF, LH, SHIFT |
| Since SvarCOM is a work-in-progress effort, it still lacks a few things: |
| SvarCOM is minimalist and I'd like to keep it that way. It aims to be |
| functionaly equivalent to COMMAND.COM from MS-DOS 5.x/6.x. |
| - no support for pipes (eg. file.exe | more) |
| - no support for batch (*.BAT) files (hence no AUTOEXEC.BAT execution) |
| - a few internal commands missing: CALL, CTTY, GOTO, IF, LH, SHIFT |
| Latest version available here: http://svardos.osdn.io/svarcom |
| /svarcom/trunk/todo.txt |
|---|
| 2,7 → 2,7 |
| === SVARCOM TODO LIST === |
| Below is a loose list of things that I'd like to implement within SvarCOM. |
| This is a loose list of things that I'd like to implement within SvarCOM. |
| === BEFORE NEXT RELEASE ====================================================== |