0,0 → 1,56 |
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*** SVARCOM VS FREECOM *** |
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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. |
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*** MEMORY FOOTPRINT ********************************************************* |
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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. |
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SvarDOS does not rely on XMS and performs runtime swapping that works on any |
IBM PC compatible machine. |
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*** NLS RESSOURCES *********************************************************** |
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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. |
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SvarDOS will use Kitten-style translations, like other applications. |
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*** CODE COMPLEXITY ********************************************************** |
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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. |
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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 external |
tools (typically: DOSKEY). It strives to reimplement the functionality of |
MS-DOS 5/6. |
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*** NON-FREE LICENSE ********************************************************* |
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FreeCOM code is released under the terms of a license that restrains the |
freedom of its users due to its virality (GPL). |
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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. |
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********************************************************************** EOF *** |