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Fixed the ECHO command. I've kept the case insensivity as I like e.g. to have "setup", "setUP", "SETUP" or "Setup" the same command.

If there are any more bugs out there I will try to fix them and upload them to the same floppy image link.

BTW i would really like if you would test my OS and point out what you like, or don't , what isn't working right, what you would like to change etc...

Just given it a go and it works very well. I like the spiral application particularly.

I was running in VPC2004 and the only issue I had was that the PMode floppy driver did not work (Unable to read sector 0, bad BPB). If I switch to the real mode driver, no problems, though.

Cheers,
Adam

If I was going to complain about anything, it would be that you removed support for US keyboards. It's a little annoying to have to "hunt" for certain keys that are different on US/UK keyboards. Other than that, all I can say is that I really like the setup utility that you have written. One suggestion for the high-res text mode though; try changing the dot-clock to 8 instead of 9. It causes the letters to be a little less squished (and therefore more readable).

I don't like the name Derrick
It's an old telefilm of an old investigator... I've always hated him!

Thanks for testing everyone. I am welcome again for any test results/bug reports.

AJ wrote:I like the spiral application particularly.

Thanks, but if you ran it under MS Virtual PC, it has a completely different palette than on a Bochs/rHW.
Also under VMware or VirtualBox, the spiral demo may appear too fast. That's the emulator's fault

AJ wrote:If I switch to the real mode driver, no problems, though.

Glad you got it working. MS VPC is one hell of a emulator...

Stevo14 wrote:If I was going to complain about anything, it would be that you removed support for US keyboards.

Sorry, I don't use much the English keyboards due to switched Z with Y and impossibility to write some language-specific characters.. Added the US back again.

Stevo14 wrote:try changing the dot-clock to 8

I don't know exactly whats the "9/8 dot mode" set after booting Derrick, but it seems to be on 9 in 80x25, and switching to 8 makes it squished. You may experiment with this in Debug functions - vga clocking mode options from now on.

@Jeko: You HATE Aus der Reihe Derrick? They're pretty old series, but simple and interesting... and usually with a simple end which is funny sometimes Why you don't like the series?

Regards
inflater

inflater wrote:

Stevo14 wrote:try changing the dot-clock to 8

I don't know exactly whats the "9/8 dot mode" set after booting Derrick, but it seems to be on 9 in 80x25, and switching to 8 makes it squished. You may experiment with this in Debug functions - vga clocking mode options from now on.

Well, the dot clock tells the vga card how wide, in pixels, a character is. By default, in most text modes, the dot-clock is 9(nine pixel wide characters). For 80x25 this is fine but in 80x50 the letters become too "flat" (in my opinion) so I suggested doing as I have done in my OS and set the dot clock to 8 for 80x50 text mode, making the characters less wide, and making them closer to the "normal" dimensions.

I tried the debug functions for this and they seemed not to work, in fact they made the characters wider instead of thiner.
Here is what it is supposed to do (note, the font is custom and only half done...):
9 dot mode (wider characters)
8 dot mode (thiner characters)

Stevo14 wrote:By default, in most text modes, the dot-clock is 9(nine pixel wide characters).

Thanks for clarification. When I selected "8 dots per character, normal clocks" in 80x25 the characters did squish a little (as in DosBox or in as your second screenshot), reverting them to 9 they became again normal (as in your first screenshot).

I tried the debug functions for this and they seemed not to work, in fact they made the characters wider instead of thiner.

Hmm... There were bugs in mode switching routines at the latest release, when you selected 8 dot and 80x50 you've got no signal on screen. Plus, when you ran SPIRAL with different dot-clock or font, it was reset to 9dot, 80x25 and normal font upon exit, regardless of your config.
Also fixed the BSOD error when you were in 80x50 and typed "EXIT" (actually you couldn't see it due to the bug I mentioned ) ... and fixed the bug when you have set a custom font, then set mode 80x50 (which will set its implicit 8x8 font, and its normal) and then after entering SETUP utility you would get the default font. I've fixed it to load your previous 80x25 font (instead of the default), since the SETUP utility can't operate in 80x50

Small functions, simple in manner, many combinations of them and you see that much bugs can arise from them, lol.
Everything should be alright now.

BTW if you have mode 80x50 active and you select one of 80x25 fonts, 80x50 will be no longer active and OS will switch to your font.
If you select e.g. a 80x25 "Fun" font but you switch to 80x50, after quitting the SETUP utility there will be 80x50 mode with its default font (80x25 fonts cannot be applied to 80x50 of course), but when you'll switch again to mode 80x25 the "Fun" font willl re-load (instead of reloading the default font).
That same applies for the BIOS font.

9-dot 80x50
8-dot 80x50

Regards
inflater

Site is online, http://derrick.xf.cz

Regards
inflater

Good work with the text modes and fonts, everything works as expected.

As an interesting side project, you might try making a version of the "fun" font for 80x50, although I understand that it's quite a lot of work.

I've added Derrick to the english Wikipedia. I wonder when they'll delete it again (PortixOS 0.4 history page and stuff) due to "lack of notability".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_(operating_system)

Sorry lads to disappoint you, no new version. Too much school work and almost no time. I had in mind to finish my high voltage generater but yup, no time even to do coding

Regards
inflater
//EDIT: My girlfriend Katarína sends you regards

well
I have a little qustion about the OS
why do you use loop with hlt in ? , cause bochs (the edion i have ) realy hates it ( it takes aproxcemently a half minute to complete) .
and why so many times ?? ( it is just before shell, spiral; is it for random nr generation ? )

inflater
..no time even to do coding

that is Bad, hope you will get some time

KMT dk

kmtdk wrote:why do you use loop with hlt in ?

Its in my keyboard driver. The HLT instruction causes the CPU to stop until a interrupt has been received, then the CPU doesn't run on 100% everytime. Strange anyways, what version of Bochs do you have? I have 2.3.7 and it runs smooth, even Virtual PC doesn't complain on this one...

All IRQs are unmasked in the shell, try going into the control panel and clock the PIT a little. Then it will make its INTs faster and should make the CPU busy enough, and maybe it'll eventually fix your problem. Be careful though, this will adjust the whole timings in the system and the pmode floppy driver doesn't like it much...


Regards
inflater

well
it is also the same version, but my version has a gui ,,
i know it is it's fault, but the loop time is the problem.
anyway
the os is running good ( i have tested it, and maby if i get time, i will on a real machine)*


KMT dk

Hey inflater,

I like the OS and I wrote a little review of it on my project's wiki here: http://code.google.com/p/tbos2/wiki/OtherReviews I put a list of pros (well, actually nifty features) and cons in the review for you to check out.

Keep up the good work,
Troy

EDIT: 4 stars, woot!

Hey, thanks for testing and the review I'll fix these things in upcoming 0.0.2 someday. Or should I increase the version number?

TODO for 0.0.2:
to add -
+ FAT12 file reading
+ Simple programming interface (until 0.1.0, they will not be compatible between each other)
+ User programs, that includes utilizing the speaker driver, etc
+ Debug functions: Detect emulator presence
+ Configurable BSOD interface (foregrnd and background colors), ability to resume work after non-serious BSOD
+ Save settings to disk
+ and maybe a FASM port
to remove -
- HELLO, BEEP commands
- Debug functions: PIT clocking from 18 to 50Hz max, "VESA modes" and "Invoke BSOD"
- Bright white text color replaced by darkgray /0x07/
- Fix all bugs

(still amazed by the OS in Delphi thing... lol)

Actually you can crash the OS pretty easily. Just go to the setup utility and invoke the BSOD, or set the PIT to repeat 65535 times a second, which will mess up all timings and then, do a floppy read. shhhhh.

Regards
inflater