A couple of Questions

[Stewart Brodie]

In message <aba20ca04a.Tony at mk-net.demon.co.uk>
          Tony van der Hoff <tony at mk-net.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> On 25 Jul 2001, in message <e146879f4a.sbrodie at sbrodie.cam.pace.co.uk>,
> Stewart Brodie <stewart.brodie at pace.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> > In message <f092549f4a.Tony at mk-net.demon.co.uk>
> >           Tony van der Hoff <tony at mk-net.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> > 
> > > On 24 Jul 2001, in message
> > > <E15P7mh-0005IB-00 at bfg.reinhouse.freeserve.co.uk>, Timothy Baldwin
> > > <tim at reinhouse.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > In swi.Wimp there is:
> > > > 
> > > >    Message_Prequit       = .Bits: 8,
> > > >    Message_PreQuit       = .Bits: 8,  // V6.21 TV
> > > > 
> > > > As DefMod stands, on RISC OS 3+, it will ignore the first line, due
> > > > to a case insensitive [1] comparison in Lookup(). What is actually
> > > > intended?
> > > > 
> > > No, that was not what was intended. The correct form is
> > > Message_PreQuit, and prior to V6.21 it had been misspelled. When I
> > > corrected it, I left the previous definition, with the intention of
> > > providing backwards compatibility. It seems like my good intentions
> > > were in vain. Then again, I've not seen any complaints, so I guess
> > > there's not much point in restoring the old version...
> > 
> > Let me be the first to complain then ... 
> 
> Well, if you'd complained at the time, I could have fixed it there and then
> ;-)

I only found it a couple of weeks ago when I tried to do a desktop OS build
with OSLib 6, but obviously I've had to make the components build with either
because not all OS builds will be using OSLib 6.

[snip]

> > Tony, I think it would be as well to fold my portability changes into the
> > next release as I won't be doing any more work on it in the foreseeable
> > future and I don't want to have to redo it on later releases because it's
> > extremely painful to have to do so (been there done that).  Either that
> > or simply make the archive available for those who might find it useful
> > to be able to build OSLib on UNIX.

> Yes, that is underway. I intend the next release of DefMod to be the
> portable version, but built and tested under/for RISC OS. Anyone who wants
> to run it under another OS can build it themselves. However, I can see real
> problems for most users in sourcing a suitable assembler, and for that
> reason fear it may not be as portable as it looks at first sight.

Yes.  It should work if people have ARM's ADS, though.  I thought that there
was a freeware assembler that was compatible (enough) with objasm to be able
to assemble the generated output.  It might even be possible to write a tool
that converts the assembler into gas compatible assembler and pipes it
through a cross-assembler.

We (Pace) have the advantage of being able to simply recompile objasm for
UNIX systems, but we are not permitted by ARM to release non-RISC OS builds.

It might be worthwhile making the other tools portable - particularly the
ones that generate the StrongHelp documentation as they are complete
toolchains supplied with OSLib.  I know it really depends on how often you do
clean builds of everything - we tend to do it quite a lot (although some
other engineers feel this is pointless as it changes so rarely).  However,
when making changes to defmod itself, it is probably an idea to do complete
builds to make sure you haven't broken anything.  Further to the timings I
mentioned a couple of months ago, we did manage to do an OSLib build in just
under a minute (making the library, C and assembler headers) on a
dual-processor FreeBSD box.

> > PS.  As I mentioned in a newsgroup posting, I requested, and was granted,
> > a transfer to a different division in Pace onto a project that is not
> > RISC OS based.  Hence, I won't be doing much more work on it.

> Congratulations on getting your transfer; it's obviously what you wanted.
> However, I'm sorry we're losing your experience and expertise. I do hope
> you're not going to abandon us altogether; even if you're not working on
> RISC OS projects, we'd still welcome your input. Good luck for the future,
> in any case.

Thanks - I shall still be watching and probably helping out our RISC OS team
within Pace from time to time - it's just my primary work will be on a
different project now.  I might even look at the StrongHelp-generating stuff
myself if I have a spare moment.

-- 
Stewart Brodie, Senior Software Engineer    (Views expressed are my own and
Pace Micro Technology PLC                   not those of my employer)
645 Newmarket Road
Cambridge, CB5 8PB, United Kingdom         WWW: http://www.pacemicro.com/