World: r3wp

Well, Reichart will tell you that I can break anything!

:-)

We just released Syllable 0.6.3:

http://syllable.org/story.php?id=255

Here are the highlights:

* A cleaner, fresher looking Desktop
    * Initial support for printing with CUPS
    * Support for Broadcom Gigabit ethernet cards
    * Support for USB CD-ROM drives
    * Rendering and graphics speed improvements
    * The GRUB boot loader can now be installed automatically

    * New versions of many applications, including AEdit, AView and Whisper
    * Improved media support and playback
    * Many bug fixes and improved application compatibility
    * Many improved drivers

Just before the previous release four months ago, 0.6.2, we introduced 
automatic weekly builds of the entire system, and a bug tracker on 
the web. So this is the first release that we have developed under 
full bug tracking and weekly builds

As a result, many bugs were reported and fixed, so this release has 
much improved overall quality

congratulations for all that work.

Thanks

In terms of REBOL, I extended upon the pkgmanager system tool that 
I rewrote in ORCA. It has a new interface and is now called Packager, 
or the package command

can the "official" REBOL run on it?  emulated or otherwise?

Not natively. We're waiting for the REBOL 3 open-source layer to 
port it

that is good news :-)

one developper question:  how much of the old Amiga RKMs still apply 
within Syllable?

0% 10% 50%  ?

It should be possible to run some version in some emulator, but I 
haven't done it yet. We've only had Bochs running in the past. We're 
still having some problems porting QEmu, but we're looking into it

SDL is now fully functional in Syllable, so porting emulators should 
be much easier now

RKMs?

hehe... I guess that answers my question ;-)

so you just put an amiga skin over linux kernel then?

Our project leader would know what they are, but I only collect Amiga's 
:-)

Rom Kernel Manuals... the official Amiga Bible.

No. Look ma, no Linux kernel! The whole system is our own. We only 
use ported Linux and XFree drivers

ok, so does the OS API mimic those from the Amiga?  (and would thus 
allow easier port of old Amiga sources)

I have those manuals here somewhere, but... Only AtheOS version 1 
was meant as an Amiga clone, eons ago. It was rewritten three times 
to become its own operating system. Only the general Amiga spirit 
remains - with the BeOS spirit on top of it

k

Someone should port UAE one of these days

would that be like incest  ;-)

Since AROS can run hosted, it would be thinkable to port it to Syllable, 
maybe even with deeper integration

Those are interesting possibilities, but it's not a focus of ours

are you going to devcon?

We're only three or five people. Creating an operating system is 
a bit of a... tall order

I would like to go, but I'm afraid I will be too busy this year

I think that you could have a nice private talk with Carl... since 
you have all the reasons to port R3, I think it would be a good use 
case for Carl to make sure the whole design doesn't assume linux 
windows or Mac

ah well.

does syllable only run on x86?  or could it be retargetted on efika 
boards, for example?

Don't worry. I already did that a year and a half ago in Milan :-)

:-)

x86 only now, but it should be easy to port. It's just that porting 
is hard in itself, so all the people who have claimed that they were 
going to do it over the weekend have never been heard from again 
:-)

I can understand the H/W driver part being a nightmare.  timing and 
resource sharing is not trivial.

It's almost all C, with just a few fragments of assembler. The drivers 
are from Linux and X, so if you go back to the original versions, 
they're portable

ok, as long as they are also available for the other HW, I see... 
good practice  :-)

It's just that it's a deeply technical procedure with many steps, 
so few people are capable of it, and everyone would have to learn 
along the way

yes obviously.

The easiest and most useful port would be to AMD64, so when we get 
to it, we will focus on that first

Over the years I've already done work on cross-compiling toolchains

is syllable able to compile itself?

Since time immemorial. That's how we got AtheOS from Kurt, and it 
has been a huge advantage

We don't cross-develop such as almost all other alternative systems. 
We develop on Syllable itself, so we have always been at a relatively 
low bug level