[A83] Re: 83p os
[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
[A83] Re: 83p os
> I've written several very usefull multi-tasked programs under Windows, and
> I've never once written anything like an interupt handler or even directly
> accessed the hardware. That's the whole idea of an OS, to shield the user
> from the hardware. You should never need to write an interupt handler, you
> should be able to take care of everything you need (timing, input, output,
> memory management) through the OS.
Don't forget that we aren't talking about the x86 architecture. Anyway,
even on the PC you have to access the hardware directly in many cases if
you are programming in _ASM_ (but that means that DOS running in real
mode would be a more realistic base for comparison than Windows).
Programming a soundcard or just tweaking the video registers are trivial
examples. On a Z80 based TI calc it might be a bit easier to group up
everything in system calls, since the number of available devices is
quite small. It just sounds strange to talk about "shielding the
hardware" on an 8-bit gadget. Well, TI-BASIC does that, but I could
imagine some better implementation...
PG
--
http://www.fastmail.fm - Choose from over 50 domains or use your own
References: