From: marcov@stack.nl   
      
   On 2006-04-19, Markus Humm  wrote:   
      
   > 2. a chipset dependand part with a well defined API for:   
      
   This is not generic.   
      
   > 3. a generic driver who can map generic profiles   
   >    (like serial port or printer) to already known APIs for DOS, like int   
   >    14h/16h and perhaps trapping I/O for Ports 3F8h etc. (thuis emulating   
   >    these ports in software). Mass storage devices can be accessed via   
   >    Int 13h, there already exist some drivers.   
      
   _only_ if the bios supports these, and I think dos support is already being   
   phased if it is not 100% necessary for some boot or PXE support. If you   
   really want to support it, you still need per device drivers.   
      
   E.g. the massstorage support is required for booting from USB, and won't   
   disappear until the next version of Windows when Bios goes away and is   
   replaced by EFI, or what it is called.   
      
   > That would be a generic solution and all DOS users could profit from it.   
      
   It is the generic part. For each chipset you still need drivers. For all   
   devices that can't be emulated via BIOS INTs also. (and not all machines   
   might have these INTS. Probably most won't)   
      
   > I don't have the time or money to develop such a thing, but to have it   
   > would be nice, indeed. But I can life mostly without them now... :-(   
      
   Problem is that nobody invests majorly in Dos anymore. That's why it is as   
   good as dead :-)  People pretty much only maintain stuff, and new code is   
   usually based on, or equivalent to older stuff (how many units do we have   
   that access any int, all pretending to be half a cycle faster or 2 bytes   
   more memory effective) , or trivially small.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)