Graphics on Amiga Unix???

[Bernd Felsche]

In <18787 at cbmvax.commodore.com> jesup at cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup) writes:

>	Getting any of the AmigaDos ROM code to run under Unix would
>require MAJOR rewrites of at least the lower-level code such as exec.

This could well be the case. I honestly have no idea of _how_ low
level the exec handling would need to be. However, as C= has full
control of AmigaDOS, it is certainly not an insurmountable problem.

>(The higher-level you go, the less that needs rewriting, but the more
>modules below it that need to be).

If they are higher level, then they need not know about such things as
hardware, memory locations, etc.

>	I don't think the current Unix kernel has any equivalent to
>(for example) WaitBlit.  Most Unix resource locking I've seen in the
>past was done as files, a rather high-overhead operation for low-level
>interleaved access - fine for high-level exclusive long-term access.

This sort of thing, which is really hardware synchronisation, is best
handled in a device driver. (IMHO)

>	I could be wrong, if so the Unix guys will correct me.

It's not a trivial project. However, there is no reason why it can't
be done, if you have the time and money :-)

A virtual AmigaDOS could exist under UNIX. There are certainly some
things that you will lose, such as real-time capabilities, because the
AmigaDOS would be running as a process under UNIX. This situation may
changes in future, when UNIX grows some real-time extension.

Files could be shared quite easily, with AmigaDOS devices mounted as
UNIX filesystems and UNIX filesystems visible to AmigaDOS as devices.
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