I know it would be a huge task, but at this point I believe it's worth considering a port (rewrite) to ARM, due to the high number of platforms it could run on.
Being able to play movies and TV through DVB-T cards made me think about one application: SmartTV minus spyware/adware. Which of course would imply other applications like kiosks, industrial automation control panels, etc. Just add a higher level language environment to ease writing applications and users will come.
It’s a nice project, light on resources, fits on a floppy… Which does not seem very important given that even a 15 year old computer would be an overkill for it. I wish there was a tiny board based on x86 I could use it on (Intel had a few, but they all seem defunct now.)
I’ll be adding a few of these to my build farm for a personal project later this year. I just wish it wasn’t so hard to find gems like this. Most of their docs are tied to the OEM and not if the best quality, but the hardware itself is documented well enough it’s not useless, because fortunately as x86 hardware it has quite a lot of legacy baggage that’s well documented elsewhere.
> Menuet's application structure isn't specifically reserved for asm programming since the header can be produced with practically any other language. However, the overall application programming design is intended for 64/32 bit asm programming.
Yes, but you can wrap MenuetOS system calls with anything (that allows inline assembly).
I was thinking that it is possible to use PureBasic - which produces FASM .asm files as intermediate - to have some comfortable high-level environment to build applications for MenuetOS... But many wanted benefits are not kept (e.g. dimensioning an array calls an external subroutine - it is not translated into assembly). From string manipulation to hashmaps, a library should be built to comfortably code for MenuetOS.
I remember from my college days - one of the features was "fit on one floppy". Back then it was pretty cool, you wouldn't have to install anything and there was no booting from USB feature in the BIOS back then. How is it relevant now ? Is the size of OS of any concern to anyone ?
Some past threads:
Menuet – A pre-emptive, real-time and multiprocessor OS written in assembly - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15427848 - Oct 2017 (71 comments)
MenuetOS 0.85C released: an OS written entirely in 32/64 bit assembly - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6309696 - Sept 2013 (15 comments)
MenuetOS: an OS that fits on a floppy, written entirely in assembly, has GUI - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1477868 - July 2010 (8 comments)
MenuetOS: Written in Assembly, fits on a floppy, has GUI - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=776381 - Aug 2009 (45 comments)
Thank you! I proposed this new one on occasion of the new version - it is good that the project is alive.
It remains relevant to also mention KolibriOS, the fork:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27249075 - May 2021 (134 comments)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22873298 - Apr 2020 (219 comments)
I know it would be a huge task, but at this point I believe it's worth considering a port (rewrite) to ARM, due to the high number of platforms it could run on. Being able to play movies and TV through DVB-T cards made me think about one application: SmartTV minus spyware/adware. Which of course would imply other applications like kiosks, industrial automation control panels, etc. Just add a higher level language environment to ease writing applications and users will come.
> minus spyware
The problem of trust towards the hardware remains...
Rewrite is a completely new project
Well, not exactly, as long as the design is kept the same; also, translation from the x86 assembly to the arm assembly is not unheard of.
I can speak from experience when I say it's not trivial.
Although doable, but very time consuming and prone to error.
ARM is nice and all (typeing this on an M1), but for something written in Assembler, that would almost be a rewrite.
It’s a nice project, light on resources, fits on a floppy… Which does not seem very important given that even a 15 year old computer would be an overkill for it. I wish there was a tiny board based on x86 I could use it on (Intel had a few, but they all seem defunct now.)
Your wish is granted https://www.86duino.com/?page_id=11
Tiny: Check
X86: Check
I’ll be adding a few of these to my build farm for a personal project later this year. I just wish it wasn’t so hard to find gems like this. Most of their docs are tied to the OEM and not if the best quality, but the hardware itself is documented well enough it’s not useless, because fortunately as x86 hardware it has quite a lot of legacy baggage that’s well documented elsewhere.
I do not mind using FASM, but I'd like to also have a higher level environment...
Also wondering how this would behave on bare metal.
From the page:
> Menuet's application structure isn't specifically reserved for asm programming since the header can be produced with practically any other language. However, the overall application programming design is intended for 64/32 bit asm programming.
Yes, but you can wrap MenuetOS system calls with anything (that allows inline assembly).
I was thinking that it is possible to use PureBasic - which produces FASM .asm files as intermediate - to have some comfortable high-level environment to build applications for MenuetOS... But many wanted benefits are not kept (e.g. dimensioning an array calls an external subroutine - it is not translated into assembly). From string manipulation to hashmaps, a library should be built to comfortably code for MenuetOS.
Edit: KolibriOS seems to document more options ( http://diamond.kolibrios.org/hll/hll_eng.htm )
I remember from my college days - one of the features was "fit on one floppy". Back then it was pretty cool, you wouldn't have to install anything and there was no booting from USB feature in the BIOS back then. How is it relevant now ? Is the size of OS of any concern to anyone ?
> Is the size of OS of any concern
In some terms of "manageability" (simplicity), yes.