Visual Basic OS 2000

[G.Kumaraguru]

HI folks!

I am a very dreaming person..Even with my eyes wide open. The other day I was thinking about linux and the kind. It made me dream a virtual visual basic OS. Wait... Im not even thinking about the possibility with the current implementation of VB. You just boot to a kernel which runs bytecodes compiled from Visual basic. Atleast that is what my dream pictures to me. Anyone dare doing it ???


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MsgBox "With VB no one must a baby!",vbExclamation,"HI"

I would like to hear more of what you have to say....


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John T. Mieske
Star Trek LCARS programmer

Knight Vision Enterprises
[email protected]

[SamFunk]

Hi! Hows it going!!

I like your idea of a virtual VB OS... however the current VB is too operating system dependant. It NEEDS windows behind it to do anything... (all of the function calls are just wrappers for the WINAPI)

Its a good thought though, and perhaps an advanced version of VB could be used to WRITE and OS!!!

~Sam

[Crazy D]

Write Java programs.

[J Staniforth]

Perhaps you ought to try making everything windows.

[joelryan]

Then again, WINDOWS started as a regular application that ran from DOS. Create a popular interface/OS type program and you might just be able to move in the same direction.

Microsoft, of course, had an advantage. They wrote the OS (both DOS and MSDOS).

Actually, MS bought DOS from an individual that created it. They then redid it from there.

Knight Vision

[Mark Sreeves]

Yeah, Knight_Vision's right.

DOS was originally called QDOS - Quick and Dirty Operating System
(Hmm.. no change there then!)
and was basicly UNIX will all the usefull stuff taken out.



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Mark Sreeves
Analyst Programmer

[email protected]
A BMW Group Company

[msdnexpert]

Nice Idea man. The byte code option is wonderful. Keep your thoughts flowing, who knows something may materialize.

[G.Kumaraguru]

It's Nice to hear from so many people about this conceptual VB OS.

But We are still unable to compile an application without any other dependancies like Runtime dll's in VB.

I think microsoft must give an option to compile pure executables in it's future release of vB.

Also something like multiple platform support would bring joy to programmers that would then have a wider reach.

If Microsoft is not going to do that,I think
folks at Borland would promote delphi to greater heights.

-------------------------------------------

There is an alternative... It's called Visual Basic DOS Compiler. Same drag and drop just like the Windows VB.

Look it up.. I think you may find it interesting.. hehehe...

NOTE : I just found out about it last night, I'm trying to get a copy of it as I type this... I'll post more info on my board about it as soon as I know something.
http://www.stengineer.com/lcars/


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John T. Mieske
Star Trek LCARS programmer

Knight Vision Enterprises
[email protected]

[optical]

Originally posted by Crazy D:
Write Java programs.

Write it in C. With VB you have access to addresses, but its not the same as C/C++
how could you tell your computer how to configure the UART serial controller or DMA... We do not have access and cannot execute x86 assembly langauage do we ?

If we can its possible, otherwise writing an OS is not possible in VB.

[G.Kumaraguru]

First things first.
Aiming a complete OS with the current implementaion of VB is sure a pipe dream.
We can do little about this.

But what i would say possible(ahem..ahem.. comparitively) is Building the kernel in Assembly that can handle all the essential
things , Hardware handling, I/O process etc..
and then let the user develop the GUI, file handling, Management etc. (ie...wherever u handle data not signals.)in Pure VB!

Now that should be very Interesting!!!!

=====-=-----=-----=-----=-----==----==----=--

[G.Kumaraguru]

I would like to suggest how i would expect the vbOS to be implemented.Note that i said in my very very first post, that it is going to be a virtual OS not a complete OS in VB. The core of the OS has to be built in low level programming.

The core of the OS :
1.BootLoader [handles: loading the kernel]
2.Kernel [ handles: Hardware I/O including Memmory,Protection,multitasking,Timesharing etc...]
--->> 3.Object-Expose [OE] Handler [ The heart of OOP, Handles VisualBasic,exposes Hardware,GDI,USER,User Apps etc.. ]
4.Resource Pool [RP] [Contains ready made objects like drivers,images,standard controls]
5.And other things that i don't think of, that are actually necessary!

While you can guess what 1 and 2 does... I will explain the third one.

Object-Expose [OE] handler is the portion of the OS that's going to make the difference!

What i mean by that is that you are going to simply compose VB code for
hardware access like this

'=======================================================

On FatalError Goto Kernel.Doctor 'call kernel's automatic servicing

Dim MyDrive As New HARDWARE.IDE.CDROM 'Declaring an instance of CDROM drive

Private Sub OS_DriversLoad() 'runs when OS_DriversLoad Event Occurs

On Error Goto MyDrive.Reset 'If something goes wrong reset the drive

MyDrive.Reference = Default 'Sets the reference to the default
'cdrom drive

If MyDrive.Driver.GetVersion >= Ver(4.06.01) Then 'do version checking
With MyDrive.Driver
.Max_Xspeed = 50 'Sets 50X speed
.AutoPlay = True 'Sets Autoplay feature
.DMA = True 'Allows direct memory Access
.SyncDataTransfer = True 'Synchronous Transfer enabled
End With
Else
MyDrive.Driver.Optimise 'Optimise for the current Driver
End If

End Sub

'===================================================================

About the resource pool [RP] :

Whatever object you create can be added to the RP and is
assigned an unique ID. The source is then not necessary after this
as the RP stores the complete information in it's database.

for example to add a your photo in JPG to RP as a image ...

'======================================================

Dim myPhotoID As RP.ID

myPhotoID = RP.AddRes("C:\User\Johny.jpg", RP.Image)
MsgBox myPhotoID

'===================================================
Note down this ID (It may be like a window handle ,like 578)
This ID will not change forever unless you call the GetNewRPID function.
to use it on another day in another app...

Picture1.Picture = LoadPicture(RP:Image:578)

'====================================================
This resource can be removed by something like

RP.RemRes(RP:Image:578)


-----------------------------------------------------
Well folks u may all see this kind of Blabber very hard to
digest. Yet this is what i dream of, for future VB OS!


Keep your thoughts flowing.

[G.Kumaraguru]

This one is a Joke...

In The next Version of VB(7), There is a New
event associated with all the controls.
Let me show u the even handler sub.. .

Private sub Form_QueryGPF(xxxx)
MsgBox "A General protection fault will now occur at :" & xxxx
End Sub

[Konan555]

OK,

I think a few people are getting O/S and shell confused.

An O/S is a collection of system programs designed to mangage the computer

A shell is the interface for the O/S

Since VB is O/S dependent (otherwise MS would be shooting themselfes in the foot) the idea of making an O/S from it is well.....

However it's very easy to change the shell. Just go into system.ini and you'll see the entry 'shell=Explorer.exe'. Just change this to, say, 'shell=progman.exe' and reboot. Now you're useing the old 3.1 interface but it still runs 95 stuff. My friend has even used command.com and had the dos prompt running windows apps (I couldn't get that one working). All the IE4 desktop update was was useing a modified IE as the shell.

As far as I can tell it'd be quite easy to build an lcars shell onto windows - infact I might be able to do it.

Contact me if you're interested Knight_vision at [email protected]

???

[G.Kumaraguru]

The thing is ...will your shell replacement,
give me the control to access hardware like
an instance of a hardware object.
Make it simple for a confused programmer to
set his screen resolution right, change device drivers, give access to memmory management routines ?????
and what about file handling ??

without all the painful API declaration , without getting punched out by GPF's ???

[Konan555]

In a few weeks I could knock up a working shell that lets you do basic things. Adding the advanced features you're asking about takes time (wrestleing with 95 )

Unfortunatly a shell is only the thing which covers the horrible face of the O/S

[G.Kumaraguru]

See this news clip at

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...436920,00.html

[Konan555]

Wow,

Now I have this theory. I don't think MS are below ADDING bugs to final releases to force upgrades.

I never thought this before but here's what happened.

Both me and a m8 get 2k at the same time. I install mine and fall in love with it. I swear it hasn't crashed ONCE. M8 m8 hates it, he says it's buggy, crashes and is not compatible with ANYTHING.

The difference?

Mines beta 3, his is final

[*Super Sniper*]

I just had to get my name in!

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Website

[Zej]

Do you guys think it's possible to code an Operating System in C++?

P.S: Is assembly more powerful an C++?
P.P.S: what was windows 98 programmed in?

[G.Kumaraguru]

If im Right,
The first UNIX version was completely developed in C (Kernighan & Ritchie C )
======
Only the files Kernel, user, gdi for Win98 were developed in Assembly ,, the rest of the thing are bloated C+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ !

[G.Kumaraguru]

Any one have Knowledge about the new features in VB 7 ???

Check this out!
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/nextgen/

[J Staniforth]

When will this be available?
I noticed that they refer to "next generation" and "next version". I wonder if this means that some features are not going to be ready for next version.