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"Black Box" Approaches. (Announce)

posted by Jack E-mail, Fresno, California USA, 19.06.2010, 20:51
(edited by Jack on 19.06.2010, 21:46)

> Whilst hunting out further SYS drivers as fodder to test with, I happened
> to notice in passing that [FreeDOS IBiblio] are now very behind on your
> recent driver releases ...
They always were. FreeDOS is a "volunteer" project, and there are not
enough volunteers to go around.

>> It is now obvious USBDRIVE will never call UIDE for caching.
>
> Watching this unfortunate situation deteriorate further saddens me ...
And me, whether people believe so or not. I was not put on this Earth
to cause problems -- but I will respond to problems others throw at me.

>> UIDE shall now ignore a /E switch, and its "external entry" routines
>> have now been summarily deleted.
>>
>> But for USB units, this change does not affect any UIDE users, as in
>> fact, no other drivers ever called UIDE's "external entry" routines.
>
> Whilst I whole heartily commend what I know are very good intentions on
> your side to prevent risks of data corruption, you are removing more
> functionality. Once you start removing functionality without any end
> user benefit people just start looking at alternatives or they stick
> with earlier versions instead.
They are welcome to try. If they do, and USBDRIVE is permitted to use
DOS and UIDE hard-disk logic for "removable" drives, resultant problems
will not be my fault. If people say they are, I will go back to using
capital letters -- a lot of them!!!!

>> UIDE.SYS shall now be 111 bytes smaller!
>
> Whilst I like small programs, I am sorry but I can't personally see an
> upgrade benefit.
Well, many on this forum have been speaking about "unloading" drivers to
save memory. Saving 111 bytes permanently is one class of "unloading",
or as we in the U.S. might say, "taking a dump" to be rid of unnecessary
[word I was asked not to use]!!

>> Sadly I think unless you and Bret can seek some middle ground (i.e.
>> take more of a black box approach to each others work) then all you
>> are likely to achieve from your collective efforts is simply to
>> alienate/encourage more people to just give up on DOS which surely
>> is exactly not what either of you wish to do, is it?

In my case, no, or I would never have re-released UIDE to general use in
2009. However, do consider this --

The "UIDE black box" was complete, running well, and had no outstanding
"bug reports" of which I was aware.

The "USBDRIVE black box" is noted as being not-yet complete, but to deal
with it, I was asked to make changes I felt were not necessary. Only 2
people -- Bret and me -- need to deal with cache-unit numbers, or likely
ever may, with the dearth of DOS driver development, and I was perfectly
willing to state in UIDE's documentation that cache-units 56 to 63 would
be reserved permanently for USB, same as 48 to 55 are for CD/DVD drives.

That has been continuously noted as being (A) unacceptable, which is his
choice and not mine, (B) dangerous, with which I disagree since only two
people are involved, and (C) something "I must!" fix or eliminate.

As this became an unceasing and insufferable issue, fine: I eliminated!

If you wish to talk of "black box" approaches, I will let you GUESS with
whom you should speak first.

And if you really wish to "keep the peace", you also need speak to those
who address my "psychics", as on Bret Johnson's forum this morning.

---
(Account disabled on user's request.)

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