Subversion Repositories SvarDOS

                               === SVARCOM ===


SvarCOM is the SvarDOS command line interpreter, known usually under the name
"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.


*** 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.

- 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

  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.

  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.

  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.

- FreeCOM code is released under the terms of a toxic (GPL) license that
  restrain the freedom of its users due to its virality.

  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.