baby steps #9

Question about which tools to use, bugs, the best way to implement a function, etc should go here. Don't forget to see if your question is answered in the wiki first! When in doubt post here.
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crazybuddha

baby steps #9

Post by crazybuddha »

deleted -- see below.
smaffy

come on! start writing some PMode =P [ant]

Post by smaffy »

(ant = almost no text)

..it is possible to do that with the bios =P
Tim

Re:baby steps #9 - dma floppy

Post by Tim »

Um, int 13h?
smaffy

Re:baby steps #9 - dma floppy

Post by smaffy »

well..
it is possible to access the floppydisk from bios (int 0x13).. that was what i meant.
Tim

Re:baby steps #9 - dma floppy

Post by Tim »

Your goal of doing cool stuff is admirable. But what can we learn from accessing the floppy drive directly from within the boot sector?
a) that it's easier and shorter to use int 13h
b) how to do ISA DMA and port I/O in less than 512 bytes

(a) isn't much use once you start writing a protected mode OS proper, although it is if you're doing your own boot loader. (b) isn't much use even outside of a boot sector, since ISA DMA is only really used in three specific areas: floppy drive controller, ISA sound cards, and the enhanced parallel port.

One may learn something from this which could be applied to a real OS floppy driver. But then, if you were doing this for 'real' (i.e. not in a 512-byte boot sector), you'd put a lot more effort into designing it and less into making it as small as possible.
Tim

Re:baby steps #9 - dma floppy

Post by Tim »

Btw: you're certainly not doing anyone any harm, but I think you could be spending your time writing tutorials (articles?) on something more useful (especially considering the 'baby steps' subject line).
crazybuddha

Re:baby steps #9 oops

Post by crazybuddha »

Thanks for setting me straight. I'll go spend my time doing something more useful.
DynatOS

Re:baby steps #9 - dma floppy

Post by DynatOS »

Tim Robinson wrote: Your goal of doing cool stuff is admirable. But what can we learn from accessing the floppy drive directly from within the boot sector?
a) that it's easier and shorter to use int 13h
b) how to do ISA DMA and port I/O in less than 512 bytes
Easier and shorter is usually for C, but in this case, he is trying to get down and dirty as possible into various fields of x86 programming, all are valid, all are useful, and all are interesting to study to see where PC's have evolved from. Tim, I've seen your posts on this board, and I have to say, your opinions on a subject are needed but only once... try not to ruin other people's projects because they don't suit you "logically".

PS: It is your identical mentality that allows M$ developers to design libraries twice as large as the previous version just to keep my window rectangular ;)
Tim

Re:baby steps #9

Post by Tim »

Hey, I'm not trying to tell people what to do, and I wouldn't expect anyone to listen to me if I did. All I've done on this thread is questioned what crazybuddha is aiming for; if I'm repeating myself then it's because I still don't understand his overall strategy. If, for any piece of information posted, someone learns from it, then it's useful.
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