MINIBIE: minimal Freesbie on memory card /N888/A/14/

Hello Freesbie List, [email protected]

Can we create a single-user Freesbie on
a memory card?  More like FreeBSD on a
Card instead of a Frisbie-like CDROM
disc, so maybe call it MINIBIE?

It is small.  Really small.  You can
also put a book (text) on one eight
megabyte (8MB) card.

It is very useful for schools and new
businesses delivering books on memory
cards in the mail/post or walking in
their neighborhood.  Authors can
respect the trees and environment.
Bookshelves can be small and hold many
more books!

I am sure you have valuable ideas to
add for something basic to start:

-bootloader with assembly language
tools and step-by-step documentation to
change it
-msdosfs file system access (FAT16 is
common on reused memory cards)
-example assembly language text editor
-"basic HTML" browser, also in assembly
language see evolvethis.com for example
output (in HTML by hand)
-maybe 16-bit/44kHz audio
record/playback in assembly?  Will a C
tool-chain fit in 8MB?

I would like to remove assumptions
regarding the English alphabet with an
assembly language drawing tool:
  the user draws their alphabet
  and determines language direction
(left-to-right, top-to-bottom,
bottom-to-top, right-to-left, etc. even
diagonal/diamond or circle/spiral)
  map characters and words to on-screen
keymap (example: use "arrow keys" and
"space bar key" for simplicity for new
hardware and backwards-scalability for
old hardware)
  the user can use their own language
to edit the bootloader code and adapt
to other hardware environments
  authors can draw pictures to stop
confusion about what their words mean
and teach others their language.

We must look very hard to find and
evaluate new versions and fairly reward
contributors at every stage of the
inspire, make, do and move chain of
creation, or it will stop and will be
very hard to get going again.

http://betterdifferent.com/MSBCS/

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