| 0,0 → 1,56 |
|---|
| |
| *** SVARCOM VS FREECOM *** |
| |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| |
| *** MEMORY FOOTPRINT ********************************************************* |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| SvarDOS does not rely on XMS and performs runtime swapping that works on any |
| IBM PC compatible machine. |
| |
| |
| *** NLS RESSOURCES *********************************************************** |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| SvarDOS will use Kitten-style translations, like other applications. |
| |
| |
| *** CODE COMPLEXITY ********************************************************** |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| |
| *** NON-FREE LICENSE ********************************************************* |
| |
| FreeCOM code is released under the terms of a license that restrains the |
| 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. |
| |
| |
| ********************************************************************** EOF *** |