30 Aug
2006
30 Aug
'06
4:50 a.m.
On Tue, 2006-08-29 at 20:10 -0600, ShadowFlare wrote:
Heh, I still think that an actual NTVDM implementation
might not
necessarily be the best solution, though. Well, if it could run on
x64 editions of Windows then it would be fine, but if it couldn't,
then that's why I was suggesting an alternative. Of course, the
alternative still wouldn't have to be just for DOS programs either, it
could also be for 16-bit Windows applications as well.
Hmm, if there could be an implementation with no kernel-mode code or
at least something that could somehow work when running AMD64 CPUs in
a 64-bit OS, then that would be a good thing to work toward. Then if
ReactOS was later made to support the API for Windows x64, then it
could have 16-bit app support, while Microsoft's 64-bit OS
doesn't. :)
Well, as I understand it, in long mode the v86 Mode functionality of
32-bit protected mode systems is no longer available, though that does
not, I do not think, preclude creating a new NTVDM type system that is
compatible with the 32-bit current NTVDM. The only real difference is
that you would more likely than not have to have the v86 processes
running in an actual virtual machine with a monitor, though it should
(in theory) be possible to do that and retain compatibility, possibly at
a slight loss of speed.
Of course, there are a whole slew of choices that are available then;
should it be a virtual machine, or should it perhaps have some sort of
dynamic recompliation mechanism that would "turn" it into a native
executable, perhaps even ahead of time? IANAP (at least, not a good
one, yet) and so I am not sure what would really be the more feasible
option, and other decisions would need to be made after that. But, yes,
it would be nice to have a "one-up" of sorts on Microsoft.
— Mike
--
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