Clarification....

[Niklas Ekström]

On Wed, 10 Feb 1999, Dave wrote:
> At 11:52 PM 2/9/99 +0100, you wrote:
>>I see two clear fractions here. 
> 
> I do not see the two as being mutually exclusive. If we take a modularized
> approach, keeping in mind that the long term goal may be to create a
> complete BIOS, then building a boot-prom is still a reasonable first goal. 

I don't see why that should be a good idea. If building a BIOS is what we
want, then that is what we are going to do. Building a boot loader in
between will just make it possible for us to get caught in the old
got-to-keep-compability trap. I want to make this right the first time.
Then there will be no need to make stupid technical compromises, just
because we didn't think about something that comes later with the BIOS
part.

After all we are "only" talking about a total of 128kB of code and data.
Lets aim to make a complete BIOS and see that we get there within
resonable time. This should be no more than 6 months from now, I think.
What we need to do is:
* Specify exactly what functionality we want
* Make up a good way of modularizing the whole BIOS
* Write func. spec. (function specification) for all functions in all
modules
* See that all the modules fit and that there are no bugs in the design
* Implemtent it all

I know we can do this. We just have to focus on a single target so that
everyone pulls in the same direction. Sure, we can discuss what this
target should be, but lets make it quick. Personally (not that I think
anyone cares what I think, but anyway) I don't feel that I have the time
to discuss _what_ we should do for much longer. Lets move on to discussing
_how_ we should do it.

(Btw. If you (Dave) want a bootloader just to test/experiment with a BIOS
without having to flash the ROM, I suggest you use the LOADBIOS app 
instead. You can get it from the OpenBIOS homepage.)

/ Niklas Ekström