BeOS FAQ

BeOS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Getting help before posting:

Read the Manual
Take a look at the examples section of this site
Try using the search function on this message board
Look through the rest of this post

If none of the above help, feel free to make a new post detailing your problems. We ask that you use the appropiate section for your questions. If the problem isn't assembly related, use the Heap section. If it's a general question (not specific to an operating system), use the Main section. If it's a bug or question about FASM itself, use the Compiler Internals section. Feedback on the message boad should go in the Feedback section of course. Finally, if it's a question about programming or using Fasm under a specific OS, please use the section for that OS.

There are a few other sections as well: Macroinstructions, OS Construction, and IDE Development. Feel free to post in these sections if they are better suited to the question.

Please try to name your topic something relevant to the question. It's much easier to spot a topic called How to recompile FASM under BeOS? than a topic called easy question. We also ask that you use the {code} {/code} blocks (replacing {} with []) around code samples: it makes it much easier to read. Include as much information as possible so we can assist you better.

Beginning of FAQ

This thread/sticky is intended to be a good list of FAQs (or simply usefull things), it's understandable that from time to time the search function might be a little tricky to use and it might take a while to find what one is looking for (especially when one isn't too familiar with the art of searching).

If you think some question in this FAQ is missing, please post a reply here with a link to the thread, and a short/brief motivation - the reply will then be deleted if approved and the entry added to the FAQ, if the entry is rejected a reply will be made to the post explaining why it's rejected, the request and the answer will then be kept for about an week and then both will be deleted to keep this thread as clean as possible.

What is BeOS?
BeOS is a compact, high-performance operating system created by Be, Inc. A few years ago, Be, Inc was purchased by Palm, Inc. Yellowtab produces Zeta which is an updated version of BeOS R5.1 (Dano), and the Haiku project is working on an open source clone that is source and binary compatible with BeOS R5.
How can I build and install FASM for BeOS?
Get the latest version of the source and run make followed by make install. You can also add an icon to the binary by doing make icon after running make.
Does Fasm work under Zeta?
It should work under Zeta, but this has not been tested yet so we aren't sure
Does Fasm work under Haiku?
When Haiku is complete, Fasm for BeOS will run under it without any changes. At this time it has not been tested.
Why do you use libc rather than syscalls
The system calls for BeOS are not well documented and have changed slightly between releases of BeOS. We are attempting to learn all of the BeOS system calls to do a fully native port to BeOS. Sadly Haiku and possible Zeta are not compatible with BeOS R5 at a system call level, which limits us somewhat.
Why is the version of Fasm for BeOS out of date?
I maintain this port as a volunteer effort. Currently I don't have a modem which works with BeOS, so I can't easily download the latest sources to bring my source tree up to date very quickly. This is expected to change by the end of 2004, so in 2005 the lag between the main Fasm release and the BeOS port will be smoothed out.

Other Faqs
General FAQ (Main)
DOS FAQ
Windows FAQ