Hi all -
I've been thinking of a couple of possible example apps that I think would be very useful to include with HLA.
They are - a simple public-domain text-editor and a public-domain workalike of the Grub boot-manager.
The text editor would be very useful as an example of how to do windows and menus with HLA. I'm not aware of any explicitly public-domain HLA apps which involve creating an application with a window and menus. If there are any, I'd be keen to know of them.
The Grub work-alike would be useful as a public-domain replacement of Grub (and also as a useful learning tool for the boot process.) As a supporter of public-domain software, it has annoyed me for a while that it is (almost) necessary to
use a non-P.D. app for booting hobby operating systems. If there were a P.D. alternative to Grub, that would be a great step forward in being able to create an OS which is 100% P.D. - from the earliest stages of booting, right through to the command prompt (or GUI).
Just my 2 NZ cents worth..... comments welcome... :)
- latte
You are going to have a l-o-n-g wait on that GRUB-clone. I'm not saying it is impossible, but it would be extremely unwise to attempt to write a GRUB-clone using HLA. NASM would be a much better choice. NASM can generate flat files. HLA targets specific OSs. I suppose, with a little hacking, one could coerce a modified HLA to generate a flat file, but I fail to see the advantage. Also, generating some 16-bit code (every boot-loader requires at least some of it) from HLA is going to be another nightmare.
For a Windows-based text-editor, take a look at the source for HIDE: http://sites.google.com/site/highlevelassembly/downloads/hide
Nathan.
Quote from: Evenbit on March 12, 2010, 05:24:57 PM
You are going to have a l-o-n-g wait on that GRUB-clone. I'm not saying it is impossible, but it would be extremely unwise to attempt to write a GRUB-clone using HLA. NASM would be a much better choice. NASM can generate flat files. HLA targets specific OSs. I suppose, with a little hacking, one could coerce a modified HLA to generate a flat file, but I fail to see the advantage. Also, generating some 16-bit code (every boot-loader requires at least some of it) from HLA is going to be another nightmare.
For a Windows-based text-editor, take a look at the source for HIDE: http://sites.google.com/site/highlevelassembly/downloads/hide
Nathan.
Hi, thanks for your reply!
Ok, that sounds fair enough to me - I will definitely defer to your better knowledge of HLA (I'm just getting started with it). I may have got a bit "carried away" there, given my love of HLA..... :)
Although I'm using Linux, I might have a look at HIDE anyway, out of interest.
Thanks again for your reply - bye for now -
- latte
I am currently working on HOWL (see announcements elsewhere).
This makes creating a small text editor (32K limit) quite trivial in HLA.
Check out the HOWL announcement for more details.