From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Nov 3 11:40:11 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id LAA27224 for hackers-outgoing; Mon, 3 Nov 1997 11:40:11 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers) Received: from smtp03.primenet.com (smtp03.primenet.com [206.165.5.84]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id LAA27161 for ; Mon, 3 Nov 1997 11:40:01 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tlambert@usr09.primenet.com) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by smtp03.primenet.com (8.8.7/8.8.7) id MAA15122; Mon, 3 Nov 1997 12:39:56 -0700 (MST) Received: from usr09.primenet.com(206.165.6.209) via SMTP by smtp03.primenet.com, id smtpd015089; Mon Nov 3 12:39:48 1997 Received: (from tlambert@localhost) by usr09.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id MAA22218; Mon, 3 Nov 1997 12:39:38 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199711031939.MAA22218@usr09.primenet.com> Subject: Re: BIOS information preservation (was Re: >64MB) To: mike@smith.net.au (Mike Smith) Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 19:39:36 +0000 (GMT) Cc: tlambert@primenet.com, jamil@trojanhorse.ml.org, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <199711010406.OAA00828@word.smith.net.au> from "Mike Smith" at Nov 1, 97 02:36:34 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > Anyone likely to complain if I add a new datastructure to i386/bios.c and > start populating it with stuff that various parts of the system glean > about the BIOS environment? Or should I be using a procedural lookup > interface for this? My preference would be for a generic mechanism for use in thunking any BIOS call to a VM86() for processing in that environment. There is a good "MindShare" book on Protected Mode System Architecture, actually... In any case, a mechanism similar to the SCO "vm86()" system call would be good (plus it would help with IBCS2 emulation). > * Terry, I believe you mentioned that some Microsoft Developer package > contained sources for the Word Viewer, or something similar. Would > there be any chance of crossing this with a Win32-on-unix environment > like that from Willows or Bristol to get a FreeBSD Word Viewer? I'm > sick beyond belief of having to find a copy of Word and 2-300 sheets > of paper just to read these banal "standard" documents. The VC++ code contains full source code for the "WordPad" program. Unfortunately, you need a Win32 (as you suggest) because there is a DLL involved in reading the Word Format documents. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.