Executor 2.0/executorv2.0.iso/pc/dos/extra/docs/maillist/text/archive.95/text1967.txt

Internet Message Format | 1996-03-31 | 3.7 KB

From: Chad Page <[e-mail]>
To: "Clifford T. Matthews" <[e-mail]>
cc: Dan Guisinger <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Executor 1.99n
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On Sun, 4 Jun 1995, Clifford T. Matthews wrote:

> >>>>> "Dan" == Dan Guisinger <[e-mail]> writes:
>
>     Dan> Is Executor 1.99n supposed to be out this week?  I always end
>     Dan> up passing the beta versions out at school, but I can't do
>     Dan> that after Thursday.
>
> Sorry.  It won't be out until next weekend at earliest.  We still
> think we can make next weekend, though.  So far we've fixed tons of
> bugs, totally revamped the blitter, got Bolo running, got Arashi

    Fun... Bolo really needs Appletalk support though :)

> limping, allow access to D:, E:, etc. under DOS, allow access to DOS
> filesystems under Linux, have adjusted E/D to allow printing multiple
> times within one session,and have done a bunch of work on allowing
> fonts and DAs to be installed by Loser.  We've also written and
> integrated, but not yet debugged the code that allows Loser to format
> floppies.

    It sounds like 1.99n will move Executor to being more of a
Mac-like environment.  This is all pretty cool stuff.

> We still have a little new code to write (finish font/da installation,
> international keyboard mapping, code to allow apps to detect Executor
> attributes) and a bunch more bug fixing to do, then we need to hunt
> for new bugs that our mods have introduced.

    Something which strikes me with the new Executor releases is that
after a release with many new features, there are usually some bugs that
make it into the release (eg 1.99l).  I'd expect a few bugs in 1.99n at
first... BTW, PLEASE release a Linux and DOS version at the same time, so
if it turns out to have bugs which would preclude a release because of
stability reasons, those adventurous among us can try it anyway. :)

> Hard to say.  Here are some of the major things that still need to be
> added.  They may all be added to 1.99o, or we may have to split them
> into 1.99o and 1.99p.
>
>         NEXTSTEP port
>
>     SVGAlib port (will be released soon after NEXTSTEP port)

    I'm REALLY glad to see this go in before 2.0!  (just compare the
performance of linuxxdoom and linuxsdoom... :)  This will make Executor
fast enough for use on just about anything videowise.  Not only that - if
the port is written right, it can use a linear frame buffer on cards
which support it.  On those cards, it will be faster than Executor/DOS even.

>     16 and 32 bit per pixel support

    Cool... will it work in 24-bit mode under SVGALIB?

> All told it's looking like 2.0 will be in beta in mid August and will
> be in production in early October.  This will be approximately an 18
> month slip from our original projection of when 2.0 would ship, but
> that prediction was made before 1.0 was even in production, and back
> then we were envisioning a 2.0 that would have had a few more features
> but would have lacked 32-bit color QuickDraw (only the "old color
> model" was going to be supported), would have had less System 7
> support, would have run fewer applications and would have had a slower
> synthetic CPU and a slower blitter.

    Plus, of course, Linux support :)

    BTW, are there any plans to make a FreeBSD version of Executor?
That would be very trivial to do, and help the FreeBSD people out quite a
bit (I'm just starting to look at it myself.)  (Guess : after 2.0 ships :)

    - Chad