amiga-news.de - AFA OS: New beta version for the final 3.91 release

27.Nov.2005
Bernd Roesch (ANF)

AFA OS: New beta version for the final 3.91 release
AFA OS ("AROS for AmigaOS") extends AmigaOS 3.x with functions of the open source operating system AROS. With the current beta test, Version 3.91 should be finalized. On this, Bernd Roesch, the initiator of the project, writes:

"Since AFA OS was now tested by some, and all known bugs were fixed, it now comes to the final beta test. If there are no more problems, this will be the final version 3.91.

A problem was noted, where it would be the best solution that all Amiga systems can use TrueType fonts without .otag files. In Aminet, there are, for example, Vera-Fonts, which feature an incompatible .otag file. It would be best if the freetype2.library, which MorphOS and AROS as well as AFA use, goes without the .otag file. Then, you do not have to create it by Fontmanager. Also, under Windows, you can just copy the files to it and it runs. But I am not familiar with TrueType fonts. Fonts that work with AFA have an .otag file, in which "freetype2.library" appears. In the enclosed fonts, you can also check what this should look like. Also it seems as if you must copy the fonts into the SYS:Fonts directory.

Error corrections:

With the new datatype, pictures with 256 colors were displayed wrongly on 32 bit screens
Archive is now available in LhA format, since there were problems with the protection bits in the ZIP format
My E-Mail address was stated wrongly in the Readme file (without <>) - now you can copy and paste it into the E-Mail program

Improvements:

Installation script by David Eriksson (fx)
Adjustable anti-alias intensity in 100 gradations, to specify an individual optimum between pixelation and blurring - at lower anti-alias value, the processor load turns out accordingly lower, too
39 of the most commonly used AmigaOS functions of the exec.library of AROS are now used by AFA. The AmigaOS exec possesses more than 119 functions. For the rest, it will be more difficult to find out whether they can be used, since I do not even know what they do, to some extent. Therefore, it would be nice if someone could help here, to test the remaining functions as well, or to write a test program.

All commands should be made safe, so that they do not produce memtrash with wrong parameters, or cause the system to crash. At present, the following commands are safe:

GetMsg
ReplyMsg
SendIO
CheckIO
DoIO
WaitIO
RemHead

If these commands are called with nonsensical values, an Enforcer hit will be produced, if the Enforcer is running (tst.l $0) and the command does nothing. Only one Enforcer hit is known to me. The ReplyMsg command from Fontprefs 3.5 does this, because the message has already received an answer (you detect this in the node type). But it runs without problems anyhow.

If someone has problems with the software, whereat he suspects that it comes from the exec.library, then he may delete the library through a restart, try it once again, and please report which library causes the problem.

In this regard, the AROS source code has several compatibility problems/bugs that are already changed in AFA. Though I reported these, I do not know to what extent it is adopted. Also, it looks as if no interest exists on the part of the AROS developers to make the operating system more crash-safe through this.

Whoever wants to compile exec and meets with crashes, which do not exist with the binary file, may please send an E-Mail, I send the up-to-date files then." (snx) (Translation: cad)

[News message: 27. Nov. 2005, 16:43] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]

< Next message

Prior message >