Re: UMB and 386/486 --> status of FreeDOS emm386 etc.

Hi, I did not want to humiliate Tom, but the fact that it took him
so long to do the changes HE wanted suggest that it will take long
for ANYBODY to add the changes WE want (VCPI, > 64 MB). Protected
mode is just a tricky bussiness.

That the emm386 on which Tom's is based ran mostly as TSR is interesting
to know, maybe FreeDOS emm386 can also become TSRable then.

Of course, Windows and Linux and ... are more MEANT to be 32bit, but
while Windows stays non-free and compatible stuff is not that good
(okay, WINE for Linux IS good, but then you need Linux first, you cannot
BOOT Wine), I have no problems with being happy about 16/32bit DPMI
software running with plain DOS.

If you do not want to reboot dozens of times during driver development,
I recomment www.DOSEMU.org - if you need full protected mode and stuff
to be simulated (e.g. for developing new emm386 features), use BOCHS
(hm, .org? .com? ftp? You will find out!). Bochs runs quite slow, but
you can edit your code in another Linux (or Windows) window while Bochs
number-crunches your new emm386 version, no matter if the outcome will
be a simulated crash of the PC simulated by Bochs or not. All mentioned
tools are GNU software or at least freeware.

I currently do not have the time for the translation of the emm386 comments,
but if somebody starts to do it, I can give him/her advice on the harder-to-
understand "lowlevel protected mode related" parts.

Eric