Free-DOS FAQ, Project Status Update, and Task List

compiled by: Morgan "Hannibal" Toal <freedos@sunsite.unc.edu>

This file was updated on or about: 18 May 1995

The information in this file supersedes all other Free-DOS files
and information where applicable.

If you see an error here, please email me.

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CONTACT PEOPLE and GENERAL INFORMATION:

General:	M. "Hannibal" Toal <freedos@sunsite.unc.edu>
Kernel:		Pat Villani <pat_villani@vos.stratus.com>
Shell:		Tim Norman <normat@rpi.edu>
Documentation:	Bill Weinman <billw@syspac.com>
Testing:	Rob Schanke <rschanke@falcon.lhup.edu> 
		(Rob's summer address: <robert.schanke@paonline.com>)
Micro-C:        Dave Dunfield <ddunfield@bix.com>

BBS Archive:	'puternet BBS, 515.232.7631
		Rob Schanke's BBS, 717.691.0807		

FTP Archive:	ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/micro/pc-stuff/msdos/freedos
		ftp://ftp.paranoia.com/pub/users/bearheart/freedos

WWW pages:	http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/freedos.html
		http://www.paranoia.com/~billw/freedos/freedos.html

Mailing list:   Mail to: free-dos-request@vpro.nl
                Subject: subscribe your-email-address
                Subject: unsubscribe your-email-address

Please note that James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org> can no longer maintain 
the utilities he has written due to the commitments of his new career, but
is occasionally available for comment. :)

Special acknowledgements to...

   Peter Busser for setting up the mailing list
   The staff of sunsite.unc.edu for providing the original FTP site
   BearHeart and the staff of paranoia.com for providing the alternate FTP site

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Frequently Asked Questions:

Q. What is Free-DOS?
A. Free-DOS will be a complete MS-DOS compatible operating system,
   suitable for any DOS capable platform. Free-DOS will be distributed
   under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Q. How do I get the Free-DOS files?
A. You want the Free-DOS ALPHA 3 RELEASE. Look for the file FREEDOS3.ZIP, 
   located on sunsite.unc.edu and paranoia.com. More complete information
   is listed elsewhere in this document.

Q. The files in the Alpha 3 release are old. When is it being updated?
A. The ALPHA 4 RELEASE is due out REAL SOON NOW, look for it by the
   end of MAY 1995.

Q. What is DOS/NT?
A. DOS/NT is now OBSOLETE and has been SUPERSEDED by DOS-C, by the
   same author.

Q. Where is the DOS-C kernel source?
A. Due to legal reasons, the source for the DOS-C kernel CAN NOT BE
   RELEASED until it's publication in book form. Pat Villani has stated
   that at this time, the source WILL be made available.

Q. Why doesn't _____ work under DOS-C or the Free-DOS COMMAND.COM?
A. Because of BUGS or INCOMPLETENESS. While users are encouraged to
   try and use both Pat Villani's DOS-C and Tim Norman's COMMAND.COM,
   you are GOING to run into errors. Test the Free-DOS utilities under
   the regular MS-DOS kernel and command.com for now.

Q. What is MICRO-C? Why are you using it, and not compiler 'X'?
A. MICRO-C is a complete PUBLIC DOMAIN 8086 C compler which is being used 
   to write many of the programs associated with Free-DOS. MICRO-C is
   available on the Free-DOS FTP sites listed above. 

Q. How can I contribute to the Free-DOS project?
A. Take a moment to peruse this file, and note the tasks you might
   be interested in doing. Then email hannibal@iastate.edu!

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IMMEDIATE NEEDS:

1.0: I have lost contact with the following persons. If you know one of
these people, please ask them to get in touch with me if they are still
interested in contributing to Free-DOS:

	Greg Mahlknecht <gregm@igloo.iacess.za>
	Charles Marslett <ChasMSTB@aol.com>
	Robert Watts <ba149794@student.uq.edu.au>
	Tom Watson <sfp@yarrow.wt.uwa.edu.au>
	Andrew Whittle <dking@apana.suburbia.org.au>

2.0: Could someone DONATE or VOLUNTEER TO WRITE any of the following important 
applications:

	CHKDSK		UNDELETE	FDISK		PRINT
	XCOPY		XMS		EMS

3.0: People are ENCOURAGED to test out the NEW DOS-C KERNEL, which is
the subject of an upcoming book by the kernel's author, Pat Villani.

4.0: I have a PD xms/ems/disk swap function (SWAP300.ZIP by Marty Del
Vecchio) that I would like to see ported to ARROWASM, to be usable
from MICRO-C. Is there some ASM guru out there who would like to tackle
this?

5.0: DOES ANYONE AT ALL have any information about ARROWSOFT SYSTEMS INC,
we are using Arrowsoft Assembler v2.00c, PD version, their last known
address was: 

	554 West Sixth Avenue, Larkview MO, 66069 

Southwestern Bell in both Kansas and Missouri have no record of a Larkview 
MO, and the post office tells me that the zip code corresponds to a Kansas
address, not Missouri, and they can't find the town either. The manual 
mentions the individuals:

	Stan Goldwyn-Benton
	Kaplan "Kap" Morovitz

Stan, Kap, or anyone who knows them, or anyone who is familiar with
ARROWSOFT SYSTEMS INC is encouraged to contact hannibal@iastate.edu.

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CURRENT STATE OF FREE-DOS PROJECT:

Notes:

	*	Ported to Micro-C
	*1	Promised, expected.
	*2	Have, but in need of revision.
	*3	PD version known to exist.	

1.0: Application Programs.

MS-DOS		Free-DOS	Contributor(s)

BASIC		BWBASIC		Ted Campbell <tcamp@acpub.duke.edu>
DEBUG		*1		Paul Vojta <vojta@math.berkeley.edu>
DOSSHELL	
EDIT		FREEMACS	Russell Nelson <nelson@crynwr.com>
SETUP		*1		Youness El Andaloussi <elandm@rpi.edu>
MSD		FD		Darren Bane <dbane@unix1.rtc-waterford.ie>
HELP		HELP		Bill Weinman <billw@syspac.com>

2.0: Operating System Commands.

MS-DOS		Free-DOS	Contributor(s)

ANSI		*1		Jason Lee <jlee@obunix.okbu.edu>
APPEND	
ASSIGN
ATTRIB		ATTRIB*		Dave Dunfield <ddunfield@bix.com>
BACKUP
BREAK		BREAK*		James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org>
CHKDSK		*2		Jack Zucker c/o Mike Todd <unknown>
-		CHOICE*		James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org>
CLOCK$				<kris.heidenstrom@actrix.gen.nz>
CLS		CLS*		Peter Mikalajunas <kd9fb@xnet.com>
COMP		COMP		Paul Vojta <vojta@math.berkeley.edu>
COMPRESS
COPY
DATE		DATE*		James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org>	
DEL		DEL*		James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org>
DELTREE		DELTREE		Lou Duchez <lduchez@en.com>
DIR	   	*1		M. Hannibal Toal <hannibal@iastate.edu>
DISKCOMP
DISKCOPY	*3
DISKCOPY
DISPLAY
EDLIN
EMM386
EXE2BIN
EXPAND
FASTOPEN
FC	   	*1		Karoly Neygesi <chx@turan.elte.hu>
FDISK
-		FFF*		John Hall <jchall@tasc.com>
-		FIN		<kris.heidenstrom@actrix.gen.nz>
FIND		FIND*		James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org>
FORMAT	   	FORMAT		Karoly Neygesi <chx@turan.elte.hu>
GRAFTABL	
GRAPHICS
HELP		MAN*		James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org>
HIMEM		XMS		Mark Huss <meh@bis.adp.com>
JOIN 		JOIN		<steffen.kaiser@informatik.TU-chemnitz.DE>
KEYB
LABEL		LABEL		Max Brante <max@krille.update.UU.SE>
LOADFIX
LOADHIGH
MEM		*3		
MIRROR
MKDIR/MD	*1		James Lynch <jwl@atlanta.cray.com>
MODE		MODE		<kris.heidenstrom@actrix.gen.nz>
MORE		MORE*		James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org>
MOVE		MOVE		Lou Duchez <lduchez@en.com>
NLSFUNC
-		NROFF*		John Dudeck <jdudeck@polyslo.calpoly.edu> 
-		PG*		Bill Weinman <>
PRINT				
RAMDRIVE	*3
-		REBOOT*		James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org>
RECOVER
RENAME
REPLACE
RMDIR/RD	*1		James Lynch <jwl@atlanta.cray.com>
SETVER				J. M. Rubillon <rubillon@coventry.ac.uk>
SHARE		
SMARTDRV	
SORT		*1		James Lynch <jwl@atlanta.cray.com>
SUBST		SUBST		<steffen.kaiser@informatik.TU-chemnitz.DE>
SYS		
-		TEE*		James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org>
TIME		TIME*		James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org>
-		TOUCH		<kris.heidenstrom@actrix.gen.nz>
TREE		TREE*		Rob Schanke <rschanke@falcon.lhup.edu>
TYPE		TYPE*		James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org>
UNDELETE
UNFORMAT
-		UNIX2DOS*	James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org>
-		UNZIP		Info-ZIP <info-zip@wkuvx1.wku.edu>
VER		VERSION*	James Hall <jhall@datamap.mn.org>
VERIFY		VERIFY		Peter Mikalajunas <kd9fb@xnet.com>
XCOPY
-		ZIP		Info-ZIP <info-zip@wkuvx1.wku.edu>

3.0: Shell.

Author/coordinator: Tim Norman <normat@rpi.edu>

The shell will implement the following commands as builtins:

CALL	CHDIR	CHCP	CTTY	DOSKEY	ECHO	EXIT	FOR
GOTO	IF	PATH	PROMPT	REM	SET	SHIFT

4.0: Kernel.

Author: Pat Villani <pat_villani@vos.stratus.com>

A list of supported int 21 services is included in the DOS-C documentation.

Free-DOS and Linux's DOSEMU team are now working alongside each other.
They will be using our utilities, and we will be using their kernel.

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Thanks for taking the time to look this over.

On behalf of everyone involved with the Free-DOS project, your interest
is greatly appreciated!!!

							hannibal
