Short: Sanity Operation System (demo coding) Author: SANITY/Chaos aka Dierk Ohlerich Uploader: aminet aminet net Type: dev/asm Version: 2.6 Architecture: m68k-amigaos SOS - Sanity Operating System Version 2.6 (1994) ------------------------------------------------ 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!) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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! | | ! | +-------------------------+------------------------------------------+