SOS - Sanity Operating System Version 2.6 (1994)
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SOS is an operating system for demo coders that want to hit the
hardware as directly as possible without loosing a microsecond for
system overhead, but still try to be as compatible as possible.
SOS is not public domain. See all details about my conditions in the
file docs/sos.copyright. You should register because I will only
release important updates if I get a good response.
SOS tries very hard to be as compatible as possible, but it still
gives you full access to the hardware.
It was used in well known demos from Sanity like Yesterday, World of
Commodore, Arte and Roots. It has proven a high compatibility rate,
and it is even more compatible now because of a few, small bugfixes.
You woun't have an easy job if you try to write something like this by
yourself.
SOS features some very powerfull debugging features, like testing
trackmos from harddisk and the complete monitor/debugger "MOD3" that
comes with some features you have never seen before.
After I told you how great this system is in my eyes you should check
for yourself. There are a few important things SOS can't do yet or
will never to do, but apart from these limitations it's quite complete
and well tested. More then 3 years of development and many high end
productions made using this system proove how well tested it is. Many
big changes lie between my first try and this Version 2.6, more then
once I completely rewrote important parts and gave up all compatiblity
to older versions (which woun't happen any more). The result is a
small and handy system without too much ballast.
SOS supports only one disk trackmos and simple Filedemos. But the
system is prepared for multi disk trackmos as well as for
HD-installable Demos. All in all this limitation is the reason why I
held back this System for such a long time, I thought it would not be
up to date. But some people convinced me that there is still lots of
use for systems like this, and therefore I release it anyway.
SOS can
- handle all CPU's from 68000 to 68040 correctly
- find all autoconfig memory expansions
- handle Genlocks correctly (with a little help from the application
code)
- debug trackmos from harddisk
- write trackmos to disk in a very comfortable way
- write filedemos with simplified Memory managment
- help you debugging A LOT
- memory managment that allows to allocate 64k blocks in 64k
alignement
- Very usefull memory managment for background effect loading
and initialisation
- avoid memory fragmentation totally
- kill and restore the operating system totally
- handle chip and fastmemory correctly
- load and relocate segments with respect to chip and fast memory
- support different crunchers
- can load and relocate crunched segments without memory overhead
- longtack support for games (contact me)
- supply an optional system that helps creating a complex trackmo
from normed components. (Environment System)
- very easy to join effect to a trackmo
- automatic disk caching and prefetching (as Jesterday Musicdisk)
- a fast and awfull replay (in the environment handler example)
- the final demo will run with any operating system version.
- In some cases possible incompatibilities that are my fault can
be fixed by an SOS-update that is easy to apply to the final demo.
SOS
- can't be bugfree
- can't handle pathnames
- can't work with absolute adresses (useless anyway)
- developers need Kickstart 2.0
- might be SLIGHTLY incompatible to old versions when updates come
- can't be frendly to the operating system and respect RTG
- can't make multi disk trackmos (planned)
- has limited memory managment for Filedemos. (better systen planned)
- doesn't yet support 68060 CPU's (give me a chance to test it and
you get it!)
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Message to all fans of the Amiga Operating System:
--------------------------------------------------
I guess most "OSlamic fundamentalists" will cry if they see this: A
system that totally knoks out Kickstart. No way to be compatible to
RTG, no way of harddisk instalation, no way to multitask.
SOS was created to pull the last out of an A500 with 512K ram. On
such a system killing Kickstart is the only way. Today we can assume
the 68020 with 2MB RAM as a minimal configuration for high end demos.
On such systems it is possible to write demos that keep the Kickstart
living, but Multitasking, Intuition or even RTG are far away. So the
only problem of SOS is that you can't install it on harddisk. Perhaps
the next release of this system can be harddisk installed.
Well, some of you prefer the Commodore WB 1.2 demos before Arte
because they run in a window. But I guess some of you lost any sence
for proportions.
SOS woun't run together with the enforcer. It does a lot of low
memory accesses. Please note that all low memory accesses are done
while SOS is running. SOS is a complete operating system that ALLOWS
low memory accesses. Therefore there is nothing wrong with them.
While switching from Kickstart to SOS, the VBR is changed and the
complete low memory area is saved. When switching back, the VBR and
the low memory area are restored. I call this compatible coding,
because it is. I wrote my own operating system, therefore I can set
my own rules.
I would really like to code a demo running in an intuition screen, but
it is impossible. I would need Kickstart 3.1 as minimum, and that is
not possible today because most A1200 computers have only Kickstart
3.0. Under Kickstart 3.1, commodore has introduces many changes (like
an optimised blitter queue) that make OS friendly demos possible. But
before Kickstart 3.1 it is very hard and before Kickstart 3.0 it is
allmost impossible. Please not that it is almost impossible to create
a good looking design even with Kickstart 3.1. I don't care a lot
about this, but I want my demos to be successfull, and that is
impossible without a good design. Please note that Amiga demos are
more then simple texture and vector demos. Demos like you see them on
PC (mostly vector and texture stuff without any design) are possible
on an intuition screen with Kickstart 1.2.
Thanks:
-------
must go to Mr. Pet/Sanity and McDeal because they used this system
quite a lot and helped me finding many program and design bugs.
Without Mr. Pet's constant critic, this system would not be half as
usefull as it is now.
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Installation Problems:
----------------------
Before you start crying: If SOS woun't run, check if
- s:sosdirs is present (If not -> crash!)
- sosbin: contains all libraries and kernal-files
- libs: contains the sos.library
If there are still problems, you may curse me. But usually it's only
a missing assign or file.
All these problems apply for the SOS development system, the final
demo will not need any assigns, libs or special files.
+-------------------------+------------------------------------------+
| __ _ _ __ ___ R |
| /_//_/// //\ /__/ T If you can't do it better why do it? |
| // /_ //O//O/_\\ F |
| _//////// \//__/ M Demo or die! |
| ! |
+-------------------------+------------------------------------------+
|
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