| 9,44 → 9,62 |
|---|
| For the time being, it is an incomplete, "work in progress" project. The goal |
| is to make SvarCOM the default SvarDOS shell, replacing FreeCOM. |
| |
| Why replacing FreeCOM, you ask? See FREECOM.TXT for details. |
| |
| *** Why replacing FreeCOM, the FreeDOS COMMAND.COM? *** |
| |
| FreeCOM 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. |
| Since SvarCOM is a work-in-progress effort, it still lacks a few things: |
| |
| - FreeCOM is not suitable for low-memory machines. It takes about 55K of |
| conventional memory when XMS is unavailable. XMS being a 386+ thing, FreeCOM |
| is a poor fit for pre-386 machines. There is the KSSF hack, but it is a |
| kludge 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 (or "museum computers", as they refer to them). |
| https://www.mail-archive.com/freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net/msg23472.html |
| - no support for redirections or pipes (eg. file.exe | more > out.txt) |
| - no batch file support |
| - few internal commands missing: BREAK, CHCP, CLS, CTTY, LH, REN, COPY, DATE, |
| TIME, VOL, PAUSE, ECHO, IF, REM, SHIFT |
| |
| SvarDOS will not rely on XMS, and performs runtime swapping that works on |
| any IBM PC compatible machine. |
| |
| - FreeCOM requires custom NLS files. While the vast majority of FreeDOS |
| programs use a single "standard" (CATS/Kitten), FreeCOM uses a different |
| approach with pre-compiled NLS strings, which makes it necessary to |
| distribute as many binary blobs as there are supported languages. It also |
| makes the translation process much more difficult. |
| Latest version available here: http://svardos.osdn.io/svarcom |
| |
| SvarDOS will use Kitten-style translations, like other applications. |
| |
| - FreeCOM is a complex beast: it aims for compatibility with multiple |
| compilers and supports many embedded features. This makes the code uneasy to |
| follow and changes require careful testing on all supported compilers and |
| all possible build variants. |
| === INTERNAL COMMANDS ======================================================== |
| |
| SvarDOS, on the other hand, is meant to be simple and universal. It is meant |
| to be compiled with OpenWatcom only, which makes a ton of IFDEF's go away. |
| It also won't integrate features that can be reasonably implemented as |
| third-party tools (typically: DOSKEY). It strives to reimplement the |
| functionalities of MS-DOS 5/6. |
| SvarCOM implements the following internal commands. For help on each command, |
| run it with a "/?" argument. |
| |
| - FreeCOM code is released under the terms of a toxic (GPL) license that |
| restrain the freedom of its users due to its virality. |
| CD/CHDIR - displays the name of or changes the current directory |
| DEL/ERASE - deletes one or more files |
| DIR - displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory |
| EXIT - quits the command.com program (command interpreter) |
| MD/MKDIR - creates a directory |
| PATH - displays or sets a search path for executable files |
| PROMPT - changes the DOS command prompt |
| RMDIR - removes (deletes) a directory |
| SET - displays, sets or removes DOS environment variables |
| TYPE - displays the contents of a text file |
| VER - displays the DOS version |
| VERIFY - tells DOS whether to verify that files are written correctly |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| === LICENSE ================================================================== |
| |
| SvarCOM is published under the terms of the MIT license. |
| |
| Copyright (C) 2021 Mateusz Viste |
| |
| Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy |
| of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal |
| in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights |
| to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell |
| copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is |
| furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: |
| |
| The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all |
| copies or substantial portions of the Software. |
| |
| THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR |
| IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, |
| FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE |
| AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER |
| LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, |
| OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE |
| SOFTWARE. |
| |
| |
| ==================================================================== [EOF] === |