From owner-freebsd-current Tue Nov 3 00:30:04 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id AAA06694 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Tue, 3 Nov 1998 00:30:04 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from firewall.scitec.com.au (fgate.scitec.com.au [203.17.180.68]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id AAA06633 for ; Tue, 3 Nov 1998 00:29:59 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from john.saunders@scitec.com.au) Received: by firewall.scitec.com.au; id TAA01686; Tue, 3 Nov 1998 19:29:42 +1100 (EST) Received: from mailhub.scitec.com.au(203.17.180.131) by fgate.scitec.com.au via smap (3.2) id xma001682; Tue, 3 Nov 98 19:29:26 +1100 Received: from saruman (saruman.scitec.com.au [203.17.182.108]) by mailhub.scitec.com.au (8.6.12/8.6.9) with SMTP id TAA01865; Tue, 3 Nov 1998 19:29:19 +1100 From: "John Saunders" To: "Mike Smith" Cc: Subject: RE: New boot loader and alternate kernels Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1998 19:29:18 +1100 Message-ID: <000601be0704$0cda76a0$6cb611cb@saruman.scitec.com.au> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 8.5, Build 4.71.2173.0 In-Reply-To: <199811022258.OAA02025@dingo.cdrom.com> X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4 Importance: Normal Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Mike Smith wrote: > > FORTH does have a decent pedigree as a bootloader - Sun have been > > using it for at least 6 years. Most user interaction is covered > > by "boot FILE FLAGS", "reset" and "sync" - you don't have to be > > a FORTH guru to use it. > > That's my hope. We also have enough manifest Forth talent to get us > bootstrapped to that stage, so I don't view it as technically > impossible. The philosophical issues are still bugging me. While not being a FORTH fan (horrible syntax :-) I can see that it has very desirable attributes for a boot loader. If it can provide a "boot kernel flags" style interface then who cares if FORTH is behind it. I also see things in the future like probing hardware and booting custom kernels. Certainly a good tool for creating install distributions. It's good that the "philosophical issues" are bugging you. That means that should FORTH get the go-ahead it will be on technical merit rather than due to advocacy issues :-) Cheers. -- . +-------------------------------------------------------+ ,--_|\ | John Saunders mailto:John.Saunders@scitec.com.au | / Oz \ | SCITEC LIMITED Phone +61294289563 Fax +61294289933 | \_,--\_/ | "By the time you make ends meet, they move the ends." | v +-------------------------------------------------------+ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message