--- MiNT/readme 2018/04/24 17:55:35 1.1 +++ MiNT/readme 2018/04/24 17:55:36 1.1.1.2 @@ -1,172 +1,76 @@ -MiNT is Not TOS: A Multitasking Operating System Extension for the Atari ST +This is a BETA TEST version of MiNT 0.96. +IT IS NOT THE FINAL RELEASE OF MiNT 0.96. It still +contains MANY bugs. It's very messy, and probably -Copyright 1990,1991,1992 Eric R. Smith. All rights reserved. See the file +incompatible with tons of stuff. -"copying" for conditions of redistribution. +Use this only if you make regular backups of your -MiNT COMES WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, NOR WILL I BE LIABLE FOR ANY +hard drive, have no fear of mysterious crashes, -DAMAGES INCURRED FROM THE USE OF IT. USE ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! +and have "nerves of steel". Also, it's distributed ---------------------------------------------------------------------- +only in source code form, so it will be useful -This is a beta-test version of MiNT, a multitasking TOS extender. It +to you only if you have a C compiler and know -seems to work quite well with my setup, but treat it with caution. +(very well) how to use it. This is deliberate; this -I strongly suggest that you make regular backups of your hard drive +version of MiNT will not be supported by me, so I want -if you're using MiNT; this is also a very good idea even if you're +only users who are capable of compiling the program -not using MiNT, of course! +themselves to use it. -MiNT is *not* a shell like Gulam; rather, it is a resident program like +I'm sending this out in its unfinished form because -GDOS that provides features that other programs can take advantage of. +it seems quite likely that the "final" release of -There are a variety of shells available that take advantage of MiNT, for +MiNT 0.96 will take much longer than I had hoped. -example ports of bash, ksh, and tcsh. And, of course, most ordinary TOS +I'm desperately trying to finish my thesis, because -shells work quite well under MiNT. +in a few weeks I'm moving halfway across North America. +So, basically, I have very little time to spend on MiNT +these days. I wanted to make the new features of version -See the file "readme.1st" for details on how to make MiNT work. Basically, +0.96 available (many people have requested copies), but -you just copy it into the AUTO folder of your boot disk and reboot. +since I don't have time to support MiNT right now (and -You can also run MiNT from the desktop, *if* you have set up mint.cnf +since this version still isn't debugged) I decided to -to specify an initial program to run (with a line like INIT=foo.prg). +make this a source-code only release. Please see the -Otherwise, MiNT will try to run GEM, which won't work too well if GEM is +file "copying" (which is different from the standard MiNT -already running! +copying conditions) and respect my wishes not to have +binary versions of this unfinished code distributed. -So, what does MiNT provide for you? Multitasking is the big feature, -of course. But there are some others, such as: +(Bug reports for this version will be gratefully accepted, +but due to time constraints I may be very slow in replying +to your reports; please do not be offended by this, I wish I -(1) The TOS 1.4+ fastload bit is recognized and supported; so are some +did have more time!) -system calls like Mxalloc that are only available under later versions -of TOS. +Thank you, - -(2) You can figure out just what's happening in your system; what system - -calls are being made, and what errors they're returning, by pressing - -a CTRL-ALT-key combination. This makes debugging your own programs a lot - -easier! - - - -(3) All the disk drives are located as subdirectories of one big pseudo - -disk drive, U:; for example, the file "A:\FOO" can also be accessed as - -"U:\A\FOO". This can make certain kinds of operations much easier. - - - -(4) Various BIOS devices are available via file names; for example, the - -MIDI port is called "U:\DEV\MIDI". New devices can be installed via - -appropriate system calls. - - - -(5) MiNT supports symbolic links, which are aliases for files and directories. - -For example, if you put the line: - - sln c:\foo\bar u:\baz - -in your "mint.cnf" file, then you can access the file C:\FOO\BAR\X by the - -name U:\BAZ\X (assuming, of course, that C:\FOO\BAR is a directory). - - - -(6) MiNT makes ^C work a little more quickly (you don't have to wait until - -the affected program makes an I/O call). And if that doesn't work, - -CTRL-ALT-C will almost always kill the program. - - - -(7) MiNT allows loadable file systems to read non-TOS disks just as though - -they were TOS disks. For example, there's a file system available that can - -read Minix format disks. - - - -My original intention with the MiNT project was to have a multitasking - -replacement for TOS. However, it turns out that Atari liked MiNT, - -and in fact have licensed it to use in the multitasking version of TOS. - -So perhaps the name is now a bit of an anachronism; but I like it. - -Atari is calling their version of MiNT "MiNT is Now TOS". Please note - -that their version of MiNT is *not* necessarily going to be the same - -as this one (or any other freely available one) and that in particular - -Atari is not obliged to be completely compatible with my MiNT. Also - -please note that MultiTOS will consist of quite a bit more than just MiNT! - - - -The conditions for distribution are spelled out in the file "copying"; - -this program is freeware, but it is *not* public domain. If you want - -to distribute MiNT with a commercial product, please contact me -- I'm - -sure we can work something out. If you come up with improvements and - -bug fixes for MiNT, please mail them to me and/or post them to Usenet. - -Please do *not* change the version number of MiNT, or distribute modified - -copies under the name MiNT (call it "newmint", or "better", or whatever). - -I want to make sure that when people talk about "MiNT version x.y", - -everyone's talking about the same thing. - - - -Source code for MiNT is being distributed in the file "mint095s.zoo" - -(this will be called "mnt95s.zoo" on Compuserve). - - - -My addresses are: +Eric Smith @@ -176,17 +80,3 @@ GEnie: E.SMITH10 Internet: eric.smith@uwo.ca - - -Ordinary Mail: - -Eric R. Smith - -Dept. of Mathematics - -University of Western Ontario - -London, Ont. Canada N6A 5B7 - -ph: (519) 661-3638 -