Thoughts on an OS...

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Embrance

Joined: 14 Mar 2004
Posts: 116
Location: Greece

Embrance 03 Feb 2007, 21:20

Hi guys! Now I had an idea on a simple DOS-like OS. I have seen quite some examples + the ones that were posted here. Now, i had that idea:
1)Well, pretty much make the simplest DOS clone i can with all basic command(and studying other peoples code as well)
2)Create GUI similar to SEAL (http://sealsystem.sourceforge.net/)

Now my problem isn't how exactly i will make the DOS-Clone, but the creation of the GUI. I was wondering about the language i should use. I'm familiar with C,Basic,Pascal and a bit of asm.

I want the OS to be a light as it could be, to run on low-end PCs(I will be testing it,on an old 286 if possible and on an Intel Pentium 100Mhz -lol-).
Another thing i want, is to make the graphics processing software based, so even if you don't have a graphic card to be able to run some stuff.Also that graphic routines would be used to create the windows,menus,etc of the OS.

Roughly the coding structure would be:
50%~ ASM (some thing coded in ASM would run faster for sure)
50%~ other language. Now regarding this, i would use only ASM, but it would be easier for me to use a higher level lang, like pascal(FPC to be more specific) and after a certain point i would like to convert the whole thing to ADM only to see if the speed difference is worth it.

Thanks for your time! Smile

03 Feb 2007, 21:20

vid
Verbosity in development

Joined: 05 Sep 2003
Posts: 7105
Location: Slovakia

vid 03 Feb 2007, 22:03

sorry, but... what for? hobby project, or do you await some real world usage? because for second possibility, you would have to think pretty differently and still you have minimal chance of success. (not to discourage you)

03 Feb 2007, 22:03

Dex4u

Joined: 08 Feb 2005
Posts: 1601
Location: web

Dex4u 03 Feb 2007, 22:59

You will have some problems, with coding it like you say you want to.

1. First do not think that just because it's coded in asm, that it will be faster than higher level language, (smaller yes).
2. How are you going to run FPC progs on a 286 ?.

Good luck anyway.

03 Feb 2007, 22:59

Embrance

Joined: 14 Mar 2004
Posts: 116
Location: Greece

Embrance 04 Feb 2007, 06:02

Nah,i want it for personal coding only. To see how some stuff could be archieved. No real world coding lol.

04 Feb 2007, 06:02

rugxulo

Joined: 09 Aug 2005
Posts: 2341
Location: Usono (aka, USA)

rugxulo 05 Feb 2007, 20:45

OctaOS -- definitely check this out, requires Pentium but is GUI, mostly ASM, a tiny drop of C
Menuet -- also good, requires Pentium, GUI but quite different to OctaOS, some C used (DOSBox, Quake)
TCC4ELKS -- using Turbo C w/ Linux (ELKS/8086)
Alexei Frounze's OS snippets -- could be useful for you
MiniDOS -- very small DOSish clone by Dex
PicoDOS -- another very small, incomplete DOS
RxDOS -- medium-sized (imperfect) DOS clone
FreeDOS -- of course!
OS News -- all about OSes!

05 Feb 2007, 20:45

bogdanontanu

Joined: 07 Jan 2004
Posts: 403
Location: Sol. Earth. Europe. Romania. Bucuresti

bogdanontanu 05 Feb 2007, 20:59

And SOLAR OS Wink

http://www.oby.ro/os/index.html

ASM + GUI

05 Feb 2007, 20:59

Embrance

Joined: 14 Mar 2004
Posts: 116
Location: Greece

Embrance 07 Feb 2007, 00:12

I had been looking for SolarOS since last time i checked their webpage was down Razz

THanks guys.

07 Feb 2007, 00:12

bogdanontanu

Joined: 07 Jan 2004
Posts: 403
Location: Sol. Earth. Europe. Romania. Bucuresti

bogdanontanu 07 Feb 2007, 00:33

AFAIK the page is up an running Wink

I do check it every day from different locations...
... maybe you have a routing problem...

but anyway thanks for checking Wink

07 Feb 2007, 00:33

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