/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 ====================================================== |