Re: Future of ELKS

Eduardo Pereira Habkost
2004-05-20T15:37:44Z

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On Thu, May 20, 2004 at 09:15:28AM -0600, Miguel Bolanos wrote:
<snip>
>
> >
> > 4) Self contained compiler. The compiler should be able to compile
> > itself, and thus run on elks (as you know, other open source compilers
> > compile themselves in the "./configure; make; make install" procedure).
> > Also, a "make" runnable on elks is needed.
>
> we will see what comes along with this gcc-8086 thing.

I guess that running gcc on 8086 will not be possible (or at least it will
not be a simple task), the cc1 binary on my i386 is 2MB, and it will not
be smaller if built for running on 8086. gcc is not a small compiler. The
point is making a 8086 target for gcc. Running gcc on 8086 is another story,
and I guess that is almost impossible. (and not worth, at least for me)

The issue about running a compiler in a 8086 is that it is too
small. Running a good compiler and development environment on such small
hardware is not easy, and if we choose go this way, we should choose
leaving away other things that we would like, including gcc-8086. If we
choose that all development environment neede to build elks should run
on 8086, too, we will have additional limitations, and we will need first:

1. Create a good development environment that runs on elks (we don't
have it). This environment will have all limitations that the 8086
hardware will impose to us
2. Make elks build using it

IMHO, this would be almost impossible.

>
> >
> > 5) More applications. Editors, web browsers, email/news clients,...
> > What about games? Can roge run on elks? Roge would be the killer app for
> > elks ;-) Such applications may be dificult to be run on 8086/640k,
> > but... you know: say "it is impossible", and someone will do it just to
> > laugh at you.
> >
>
> Well basicaly, we need to make a clear point. ELKS is an Embeddable
> linux kernel subset.. not a distro.. BUT... i guess that in the mean
> time we will find a way to put all this stuff together to make elks
> actually worth the try.

Hey, someone know if a 8086 is fast enough run emulators for those old
8-bit game consoles? 8)

>
<snip>
>

--
Eduardo

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