I like blue font and black background. It looks *nice* in 16x8 real-mode display.
If you have really good sight.

That small text shows that blue background and white text is a bit easier to read than black on white. Not really good definition on this screen (or font?) Personally, green and blue on black are good. White on black not as good.

Besides, green on black does make you look more 1337.

Argh! I would die for a color changer feature.

Ok. I just put out the next version of Dreckig OS, v0.006.5.
Most of what I did for this version involves the file system and language interpreter.
i set it up so you can have files of unlimited sizes (through tagging), and can treat files like arrays in my programming language. One of the BIG things for this release is a minimal SDK. It is now possible to inject files into the end of the kernel and access them in Dreckig OS.
You can write a piece of software in Dreckig Lang in a raw text file, then, using the script toDisk.pl, can make a disk image (in asm), then just compile the kernel (nasm -f bin -o startup.bin drek.asm) copy to disk and boot up with your new files!
And for you who complain, a color change feature!
Just type color 07, for example, for white text on black.

When will the next version be released?

Since you insist, right now!
So finally after a lot of work here is the much delayed next release of Dreckig OS.
New in v0.006.6 are some improvements to the text editor, DTE, you can now actually go back and edit text!
Also I have started the work of FAT12 drivers. So far I have it pulling data from the root directory and populating the bFS RAM disk with the info (essentially using my custom file system as a VFS). In coming releases I will work on being able to use this information to access and use files!
Anyway, for those interested have a look:
http://code.google.com/p/dreckig-os/

Really wish for WIND to be back on DreckigOS. Can't survive without on a GUI.

Btw. have you gotten anywhere on WIND?
If people take initiative and make something of it then I would be more likely to reintroduce it to Dreckig OS.

For those interested I just released the next version of Dreckig OS.
It now has support for reading files off FAT12 (albeit only one sector files).
I also redid the multitasking and multithreading code.

Try this:
at the command line type run HI
It will use my VFS to get the data needed to load the file HI off the disk into memory, import it into my RAM disk, and the run it.
Cool, huh!

But it have to be like a modern terminal (e.g. FreeBSD) and as it is a megalithic kernel, how are you going to code an updating mechanism if you are going to make DreckigOS into a full fledged operating system?

Does it have to recompile the whole source code which could take anywhere from 1.52 seconds (with this version) to a few hours?

If you also want to code an installer, how are you going to do that (assuming that the installer is in asm code)?

Will it support any other programming languages?

Will it also run on other platforms?

really?
First one..... It doesn't need a updating mechanism? Why should it? It has no Internet connection and it is a basic low OS, why should it need that? That is just stupid. First he would have to code Drivers for Ethernet and then he would have to set up a server and he would have to do massive coding.... that is senseless
Second one.... Of course the source has to be recompiled, otherwise it won't work It is not different from Windows/Microsoft. They do nothing else than coding and then they compile it and hell yeah that takes a lot of time.
Third one.... Write Bootloader and OS on disk what else?
Fourth one... It is written on C, so C++ would be compatible too. Other Languages have to imported
Last one... I assume it is written for x86 so he would have to code a new version for ARM etc.

My turn to answer!
1) I don't really need to bother with upgrading stuff yet.
2) To add functionality to the kernel you *would* need to recompile it, but once Dreckig Lang is complex enough then you could just write applications in that (Next release will allow you to actually save files you make in Dreckig to a floppy making distributing 'userland' stuff for Dreckig possible!)
3) Since my kernel is in the same executable format as a .com file you can actually run it in DOS, so to install it on a new system you can just install DOS, then replace command.com with startup.bin, this is only a hack until I write a custom installer, but this works fine for any media that FreeDOS can run on.
4) Eventually you could write an interpreter for other languages in Dreckig Lang, until then it would be relatively easy to port say a BASIC interpreter to Dreckig, but the idea is that by only running the kernel or Dreckig Lang that it is impossible to get it to run malicious code, so no, it wont *officially* support other languages. You could in theory link a C or C++ program to the kernel, this is something I have yet to try.
5) Not at all! Since Dreckig is currently 98% x86 assembly language it really can't run on anything else but an x86 system.

Still was a nice try from me though

For 3), is this hack compatible with any version of Windows?

If you rename startup.bin on the floppy image dreckig.com then it appears to work on XP, and pria earlier windows,(with a few bugs as far as disk access) but it won't run on win7. Pretty much anything that can run a DOS program can run the kernel

Is there a way to use more variables or you can use only var and bak?

EDIT: Sorry I need to read better, you can use tags...

Yeah, you can use tag, and for arrays you can use files. example:



Would store 'works' in the file test. Then print it.

or lets say you have a file called test that says:


you could access parts of the file like this:


or write to the file like this:


The purpose of tags is really to link files in my filesystem, but they ended up working just fine for storing bits of data. You can make two file, lets say file0 and file1, then type


and it will print the contents of both files.

So

Produces a file that looks like this?


And I think I don't get the tag stuff... Does it create a "virtual file" named file0 that has as contents the content of file0 appended with the contents of file1?
If I then use "file file0 *" instructions, does it work on the real file or the tag?

EDIT:
Oh I forgot something The file name load instruction, does that load the file into ram and can it thus be used when using files as variables/arrays in order avoid diskI/O?

Tks for the hack, BTW is this hack tested? I do not want any hack that render my computer usless or crash frequently.

I tested the hack on WinXP and FreeDOS and DOSBox, it makes a few bug with the new disk i/o, but it won't hurt the system.



So a tag is just a data structure. It looks like this for "tag file0 file1"

And my file system drivers just look for tags when using files so they can treat multiple files like on big file. When you use file file0 > it listens to the tag, but all the other file operations don't.

Now on to virtual files.
So normal files have all there data stored in my RAM disk in a custom filesystem I designed called bFS, a virtual file is a file is used to reference a real file held on the physical disk. They just have the files name (sans the extention) and then their root directory entry so I can grab data from the virtual file and then use it load the file off disk.
The "file name load" command makes a virtual file a real file by loading it into RAM and then formatting it to fit into bFS and removing the virtual file. You can actually make a file on the boot disk (only on the floppy one) with a Dreckig Lang program in it and then run it from Dreckig OS by just typing "run FILE" and it will pull it off the disk and run it.

New version of Dreckig OS out now, v0.006.8!
now has ps to list tasks, and the starts of terminal support.
You can hook up a terminal emulator to Dreckig OS on a VM or something through the serial port, then type term on the Dreckig box, and the output is redirected to the terminal, still working on passing input back from the terminal, ah well, I'll save that for the next release I guess.

When are you going to make WIND part of DreckigOS?

I am actually working on a new GUI. This time I'm making it right, I'm not using BIOS to draw or doing all the other little kludges that made WIND work so it might take a little while for me to get it released. It will be faster than WIND, and hopefully look nice.

Have any sneak peeks?