cc:
[email protected]
cc:unofficial bugs list
cc:unofficial FAQ
cc:unofficial patches
Current list of FAQ to me (
[email protected])
As some of may know I am attempting to round up the
code writers/beta testers/interested parties in the FDC &
QIC-40/80 project. At the present I have received a response of
about one dozen people, 1/3 interested directly in code writing.
All have asked me a series of questions that I beleive would be
best answered in this way.
Who will help?
--------------
While the reponse has been very good I will still
attempt to apply for more help. Not only will I try to engage
those of the 386bsd community, but also those of other
PC unix-like-OSs, such as linux, minix, mach386, and even the
commercial implementations, like coherent & SCO.
This idea, as I see it, is overly ambitious and
sentenced to doom. Then why attempt it? There are other
groups similar to ours attempting similar projects and I am a
great beleiver in not "reinventing the wheel".
In the past, I have thrust my head, more that one, in
the direction of a bearing wall and with only this in mind, I
would consider it a great favor to have more critics than
villeins(1).
(1) villein - a feudal serf.
serf - an oppressed laborer.
How will the group be organized?
--------------------------------
I have a few ideas, the are more rules of tradition,
than original thoughts. To this I am open to all suggestions.
Unfortunately, at the present I am the prosecuter, judge and
jury of your thoughts, which will not sit well with some and
even less with me, but in order to give direction and a new
starting point to this project I will do this, for a very short
time.
Concurrent to this I will solicit all involved for IDEAS
on organication & IDEAS on development. Dispenseful of all other
preconceptions you are all free to suggest anything, I really
don't care how radical (to the left or right politically) it is.
What are the immediate priorities of the project?
-------------------------------------------------
Make the FDC bullet-proof.
Get the QIC-40/80 into betas.
What other things are in the "pipeline" (not streams :^) ) ?
------------------------------------------------------------
1. Get a bug/FAQ/patch list coordinated and past around to
the unofficial bug/FAQ/patch groups.
2. Get the "mtools" working.
3. investigate auto-format detection including MS-DOS,
MAC, SPARC, AMIGA...etc.
4. investigate auto-detection of chip sets for the FDC.
5. investigate a possible format for the 386bsd.
6. investigate the backward-compatibility issue
(dd/cpio/tar..etc)
7. investigate the using/hiding the floptical as a floppy
drive
8. investigate cross-compatible related devices
9. investigate the QIC-385, predecessor to the QIC-40/80
" the QIC-100, for cross-compatibility
10. jump start other device driver groups
video-consol/hard drive & controllers/communication/etc.
Do we have any help from the commercial sectors?
------------------------------------------------
Some help is coming. Most of these people will not be
identified. They have real jobs in thes fields and it
encompasses most of their time. The other reason is that some
work for organizations of a "paranoid nature"(2).
(2) By "paranoid nature", I mean these are usually
companies which beleive "open systems technologies"
is a good marketing buzz word, not a way of doing
business.
Do you have more questions?
---------------------------
See my messages to code writers/beta testers/interested
parties in comp.os.386bsd.development .
