is ELKS a toy or... what?

is ELKS a toy or... what?

[Alfonso]

Hi!!

ELKS is a funny thing. Someone may think that is a sort of DOS 
substitute for old machines.

These are just my humble opinions. Since I don't see anything of them 
treated in the ELKS documentation, I write them here waiting for some 
comments. I do *not* want to change the ELKS project developing 
phylosophy: I just try to know what is going on and -perhaps- suggest 
some ideas to get ELKS installed everywhere...! =:-)


Why ELKS instead of DOS? I would answer:

- multitasking (DOS would require rewriting of applications). This is 
already done. DOS style was "an application using, for code and data, 
all remaining memory"; ELKS allows at least "small (upto 64k+64k) 
applications running concurrently". This is great for embedded 
machines, for learning how to program, and a lot of other things...

- sockets, tcp/ip, etc (DOS has no standard tcpip libs, no sockets, 
indecent pipe support, etc). This is still in development. A "slow" 
modem (14400) can be easily fitted also on a slow machine with a slow 
RS232 port. A simple server (http, telnet, etc) on a serial port 
doesn't always need a P4/2666 machine...! Think of an embedded system 
in your pocket. Or a ham-radio task like a KISS packet-radio router. 
Or a lightweight wearable computer. Or a home devices controller 
working 24h for your washing machine, alarm system, and lights and 
other (shut down the TV system if you got asleep while watching a 
catch match). Or a data-collector in the garage that you query from 
home or office using an old 2400 baud modem...

- shared libs (DOS has no standard shared-libs support). This has been 
at least announced somewhere. I think it will require some hard work, 
and it'll be hardly feasible for floppydrive-only systems. This will 
be needed only on systems with lots of executable files. A filesystem 
with only few dozens binaries does not need great shared lib support.

- ROMable kernel (very hard to do with MS/PCDOS), still in development. 
Great for embedded machines, but maybe useful also for experimenting 
something for more fun (diskless XT motherboards, single-applications 
boards, etc). A friend of mine planned to use an old XT motherboard in 
his car to control lights, speed, etc (to get statistics on a little 
screen), and (perhaps) a serial-driven GPS. The hard part wasn't the 
power supply, but the floppy drives to get at least 500k read-only 
storage for DOS and applications! Yes, he needs an ELKS eprom!

- native long filenames, and different filesystems (DOS would require 
extra drivers and hard work; actual DOS existing applications can't - 
or shouldn't - use long filenames). And, even more important, you can 
develop and test on a Linux platform...!

- '286 machines finally will become true multitasking - the expanded 
memory of a classic 1Mb RAM 286 machine was always used only as disk 
cache... and 2Mb RAM 286 machines were of too little use with a 
"windowed" system (remember that those "operating" systems, after 
years and years, still have their bluescreens and bugs!! remember that 
the most common multitasker, DESQview, worked only in "8086 real 
mode"!).

- finally, a tool where experiment and learn. If you need a system with 
decent security, go get a 4Mb 386 machine with Linux. But if you want 
to play with assembler routines and old DOS sources, you're welcome 
:-) You get tcp/ip and multitasking and much more on a machine with 
limited memory and almost no security check...! A nice toy, yes, but 
very nice. Let's see if you can implement an SQL engine on a 256k 
machine. Let's see if you are able to get to IRC with it. Let's see 
how many relais and sensors you can control and packetize data towards 
your home/office tcp/ip network...

Oh, well, these are only some initial ideas. If you think ELKS is 
"only" a "Linux for 8086", you are probably censoring the fun part 
(great part!) of its applications range... :-)

alf