8/2/99 - Graphics works! Tested on an Tseng ET4000 and a Cirrus GD542x.
7/25/99 - Due to popular demand, I merged my new version (#9) back into the CVS repository so you all can play with it. It's a lot simpler. Enjoy.
7/17/99 - IDE read/write and Text<->Graphics (320x200x256) mode switching
5/19/99 - Web page overhaul. Also: I finished college. yes!
5/9/99 - International users: I wrote a Linux keymap converter and a new keyboard driver... please test it out and let me know what improvements it needs.
5/5/99 - Multitasking works!
5/4/99 - Compiles under DOS now.
4/9/99 - Lots of improvements. I practically rewrote it yesterday (see kernel/Notes.txt for more). Added a simple FORTH interpreter too.
4/5/99 - Initial source code release.
I just want a simple computer system that does what I tell it and does it fast. Retro is my first step in that direction. When I can use it for writing, communications, games, engineering and programming, I'll be happy with it.
Retro is also being used as a testbed for more ambitious ideas like TUNES.
Retro is "copylefted", meaning anyone may freely copy or modify it, according to the terms of the GNU LGPL (which is less restrictive than the regular GPL).
Sure, just pick something you like (doesn't have to be on the list). Don't worry about messing anything up, get your hands dirty! If you break something, I'll fix it. Don't worry about perfection, either... remember, this is a PROTOTYPE.
BUG REPORTS! Tell me all pertinent details you can think of... type of computer, amount of memory, what appeared on the screen, etc. If you're a programmer, see if you can figure out where the problem is (read doc/faq.txt for some tips).
Programmers: FORTH is working pretty good now. You can also use assembly (you'll have to assemble under another OS until we get an assembler running), and you can mix forth and assembly.
Don't forget documentation! (Note to self) If you write a program, at least comment it. If you're more of a writer, you could write some nice documentation in plain English (or whatever language you prefer).
CGI programmers! We could use a web page that lets you pick from a list of modules (for various hardware devices & features), then builds a custom disk image to install Retro (or Tunes) on your computer.
We need advice from normal non-hacker people, too! We tend to think everything about computers is easy, when it's confusing for you. Once we've made it more user-friendly, try it out and tell us what we need to work on. In the meantime, tell us what you like or hate about today's computers, and what you'd like different.
The boot sector loads the rest of the OS image from disk and runs it. First it does some tests and initializes protected mode, then it starts up Forth and runs some startup code. After that, you get control.
Want to try it out quick? Download the latest boot image from the kernel directory. See the README for installation instructions.
You can get the latest source via CVS from cvs.tunes.org; follow the instructions for getting Tunes, but type "cvs -z 9 checkout retro" instead of "cvs -z 9 checkout tunes". You can also browse the CVS repository with cvsweb.
If you don't have CVS, get the daily snapshot (in .tar.bz2 format).
You need NASM to compile Retro. I'm using version 0.98, but 0.97 should also work now (as of v9).
To compile Retro under DOS, download the files from the dos directory and follow the instructions in README.
Discussions of Retro and related topics may be found on the tunes-lll@tunes.org mailing list. You can also search or browse these archives.
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