Topic: ??? When is it coming ??? EZBoot 5 ;)
started by: Oxtie
Posted by Oxtie on May 09 2004,10:32
FEB went far behind... while I can expect some cool stuff atleast now... 
Anyhow, I would always preffer more BIT depth resolutions 
Ofcourse the built-in mech of EZB allows it to change to lower if its not supported right?
Posted by xoben on May 09 2004,10:39
Yes, Version 5 will use 16 bit color as default, and down to 256/16 color mode automatically.
Posted by Oxtie on May 17 2004,09:59
| Quote (xoben @ May 09 2004,15:39) |
| Yes, Version 5 will use 16 bit color as default, and down to 256/16 color mode automatically. |
I simply can't tell you how pleased I am, I simply can't find the words!! Thunbz up yo all dudes!
Posted by xoben on May 18 2004,07:22
Verion 5 will come out on middle July.
Posted by Oxtie on May 18 2004,14:36
| Quote (xoben @ May 18 2004,12:22) |
| Verion 5 will come out on middle July. |
Thanks Xoben! You gave me a very good reason to HATE you!
Now I can peacefully watch your website 
In a way its more exciting as I can atleast expect perfection in that monsterious release
Posted by Evil Titix on Jun. 10 2004,20:12
Xoben,regarding the upcoming EB5:
-- Graphics:
1. in which way are you going to support those multiple color depths?
I mean: there are two ways I see: the first would be using a different bitmap for every color depth (not very hard to code, btw); and the second would be requiring only one high-color bitmap, plus (on the developer's side) writing some dithering code (in case of unavailable video mode).
2. are you going to support multiple desktop resolutions?
This may look a bit hard to do - but that's only as long as you stick to fixed screen coordinates for the menu items; one could easily use percent coordinats (say, menu entry "[1] Windows XP SP1 setup" located at (25, 73) meaning the text's upper left corner at 25% from screen's left edge and at 73% from screen's top edge)
2'. alternative to 2
If 2. seems to be much too complicated, how about allowing the user to choose a desired resolution (accepted by VESA2, of course)? I've yet to see a computer that WinXP can't natively put in 800x600x16 - and most computers run XP nowadays (or XP and Linux).
3. It would be nice if EB would also support a text mode menu (say, using a simple 80x33x16 video mode) - plus, it wouldn't require major changes in the frontend - just add to every menu item, besides (x, y), a (text_mode_x, text_mode_y). A logo.bin and back.bin could also be supported (simple copies of a video page - COLSxLINESx(attr; char)...). Of course, this menu would be shown only if any VESA mode fails.
Though, I don't consider this an important issue - given you intend to offer support for AxBx16colors.
-- Behaviour:
1. Are you willling to stick to the useflp/useemu method of accessing floppy drives?
Forgive my hard words, but this sucks! I mean, I take great attention to the user interface of my boot menu(s) (otherwise, there's SYSLINUX, CDShell, BootScriptor and perhaps others...); but useemu/useflp... I mean, dammit, this forces me into loading to a RAM drive (presently I use XMSDSK, btw) everything I might need from the emulated floppy, and into ending autoexec.bat with "useflp"...
IMHO, it would be much more attractive to the average user to have the floppy readily mapped to drive B:.
Moreover, I don't think that would be too hard to code; instead of a
| Code Sample |
| mov ax, emulation_mode or ax, ax je use_floppy use_emulated: ... use_floppy: ... |
you could easily code something like
| Code Sample |
| mov saved_dl, dl or dl,dl je use_emulated dec dl je use_floppy_or_hdd inc dl use_floppy_or_hdd: pushf call far ptr [old_int13]; mov dl, saved_dl retf 2 use_emulated: ... |
2. How about adding support for a memory-mapped drive?
You've most certainly seen SYSLINUX' MEMDISK. Would (something like) that be hard to code? I mean, it would likely involve some messing with the protected mode (or is the INT15h interface enough?) - but look at it this way: 286s don't boot CDs; and having the entire floppy image emulated from RAM would simplify greatly the work of boot CD authors... mainly, because you needn't worry about loading RAM drives, finding their drive letters and patching all enviroment in memory to substitute the A:\ in PATH to %XMSDSK% or whatever...
-- Notes
1. A first (likely) answer to my questions would be: "yeah, you might be right, but all this stuff you suggest is way over what our average customer needs" - which is partly correct; but do note however that EasyBoot's main target market is not the common home user, but rather the IT engineer (or engineer wannabe). And, as far as I know, engineers might have a bad habit: they like (a lot) to do things their way. Therefore, giving them options would pe appreciated more than limiting them.
2. A second question that I take as pertinent is: "ok, wouldn't this increase the complexity of EB, and therefore reduce its easyness? wordplay: turn it into HardBoot"... Well, of course! But that's easy to come by: either you put somewhere a checkbox, "Enable expert settings", which should be unchecked by default, or you simply market an additional product: EasyBoot Pro
3. Final note: being most interested by the future of EasyBoot, is there any way I can get my hands on the alpha (or is it beta?) versions of EB5?
Thanks in advance.
Posted by bs107 on Jul. 08 2004,18:39
| Quote (xoben @ May 18 2004,12:22) |
| Verion 5 will come out on middle July. |
Is version EasyBoot version 5 still on schedule to be released in mid-July?
If not, do you have new estimate?
Posted by xoben on Jul. 09 2004,03:16
At this time we are developing various new features that will be available to you at version 5. Please note that we reserve the right to make changes to the announced release date. Please also understand that we cannot currently provide any information about the exact technical implementation of these features.
Posted by bs107 on Jul. 09 2004,13:06
| Quote |
| Please note that we reserve the right to make changes to the announced release date. |
Of course, but I was curious for my planning if EasyBoot version 5 was going to be released July 15th, or if it looks like it won't be released before September.
Thanks.