Page 1 of 1

Aprom 101014: Almost useful

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 1:59 pm
by Artlav
Hi, me again. Continuing from http://forum.osdev.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=22197

Aprom is a weird, modular 32bit OS. Tightly bound design, roughly microkernel. Been in development every now and then over the past decade. A spontaneous fusion of a large algorithms library.

You can get the images here:
http://orbides.1gb.ru/ape/aprom-101014.zip (15 Mb)
Containing a floppy and bootable CD images and a windows vm.

A CD contains most of the colorful stuff, like OpenGL and games.
The floppy only fit in the basics and an IDE, compiler, various code examples, etc.
At some point you just throw a "screw it" at "fit it all onto a floppy", and start making wider programs in larger quantities (CD-ROM driver would help a lot. Imperfect yet).

After a failure with USB, the real hardware got a bit out of focus. Instead, the system itself got the attention.
Many things become nicer and straighter, there are scripts, config files and compilers.
Filesystem drivers were thoroughly debugged, RTL libs cleared of stubs and crutches, hacks replaced by concepts, shell accepts arrow keys, etc.

All in all, how does it look as something to play or work with?
How would you crash/lock it up?
Random ideas are always welcome as usual.

HowTos:
-At start you can opt out drivers and select which set of programs to autorun, GUI auto will detect and select 800x600 LFB mode and run all there is.
If that fails, manual would allow you to pick a graphics mode yourself (- before mode number disables LFB). If some of the programs are causing problems (lack of memory+no fixed sequence=everything loads before GUI server gets a chance, for example), there is a manual, no-autorun mode, which will only start a file browser and a shell. Lastly, there is a currently-useless console mode (you can run the GUI from it with "gui & zterm" command), and a shortcuts for IDE and big game.

-The tasks are switched by the rectangles in the upper-left corner.
If the mouse doesn't work, Caps Lock toggles them one by one.

-There is no current directory, all paths are absolute
-Compiler outputs to /ramd/temp


Some noticeable apps:

A kind of an IDE, for pascal. The compiler is mine, the OS is written in the same language, you see where it goes.
Image


M.A.X. Gold. An open-source remake of an old classic. (Aka the big thing you can play with that work in there)
Image


Traditional OpenGL demo. Unaccelerated.
Image


A FAR-like file browser, better but still imperfect.
Image

Re: Aprom 101014: Almost useful

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 7:50 am
by jal
Looks impressive. What's under the hood?


JAL

Re: Aprom 101014: Almost useful

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 9:17 am
by Artlav
Not much point in testing this one any more, since i've recently fixed half a hundred small bugs and one fundamental design flaw, so hopefully it would be much more stable in the future.
jal wrote:Looks impressive. What's under the hood?
A compromised microkernel or something roughly close, highly modular structure, portable userspace. Written in modern pascal. Used as a learning and testing platform.
Kinda hard to describe an OS in a small forum post, and i don't have a project page or something - no conceived practical applications.

Re: Aprom 101014: Almost useful

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 10:15 am
by jal
Artlav wrote:A compromised microkernel or something roughly close, highly modular structure, portable userspace. Written in modern pascal. Used as a learning and testing platform.
Well, sounds cool. Too bad I haven't got time to try it.


JAL