Re: Linux syscalls

From: Beth (BethStone21_at_hotmail.NOSPICEDHAM.com)
Date: 06/02/04 

Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 13:43:54 +0100

Jim Carlock wrote:
> Herbert Kleebauer wrote:
> > DOS assembly programing has been declared obsolete. What
> > should we discuss? HLA high level constructs or the Win32
> > interface? Really miss the good old DOS days.
>
> I'm far from a DOS good old days assembly expert... I know
> the basics about DOS assembly, have revectored the keyboard
> interrupt at one time, and done some really simple things
using
> DOS interrupts, but doesn't Windows really upon those DOS
> interrupts still ?
>
> To open a file, if you were to use a Windows API to do this,
> would it not call a DOS interrupt ?

Not anymore; Well, not if Microsoft are to be believed...

Although, for example, it _MUST_ be true for opening a file in
NTFS or file mapping, as NTFS was never supported by DOS and
file mapping wasn't possible either...

The Win9x versions were just a case of "extending" DOS all the
time, slowly replacing parts of it as they went along...but, to
be fair, NT-based Windows _was_ re-written (NT = "New
Technology", after all ;)...and, as I say, NTFS and UNICODE and
various other NT capabilities _must_ have been re-written and
added in since DOS because DOS couldn't do them...DOS never used
device drivers either...

Not to say that I would trust Microsoft completely in saying
some "DOS is completely gone" statement because they _have_ said
this before and it turned out not to be completely true (just
"mostly true" ;)...but something like XP has so many additional
capabilities and different approaches to how DOS worked that
even if DOS was still in there somewhere, it's been slowly
replaced bit-by-bit as the versions have advanced that there's
likely to be nothing particularly significant of DOS left in
there anymore (the "DOS box" on NT is more an "emulation" of
DOS)...if, indeed, anything at all, should Microsoft be trusted
to be telling the truth...for once...

Beth ;)

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