386P PROJECT HISTORY

386Power by Lorenzo Micheletto
        Based on the algorithms expressed into
        PMODE dos-extender header by Thomas "Tran" Pytel, plus
        lots of good ideas learned reading on rec.games.programmer newsgroup
        and my own (weird) ideas.

Release 0.999beta (Also known as "Well, it looks like it works" :) )
        First release, mode-x support,raw keyboard handling
        playback of not compressed voc files on pc speaker
        
Release 1.01 (Back to mode 13h)
        No more mode-x support, mode 13h instead 
        (mode-x hardware panning was very useful, but
         the multiplanar pixel addressing
         nearly eliminated the speed gains obtainable from it).
        Dos-ext updated.
        Added mouse handling, tiled background handling and a simple
        "tiled background editor".
        Added STRING INPUT on chario.
        Eliminated the file attribute bug that plagued 386file.
        
Release 1.02  (never distribuited, i started working on 386P 2.00
        immediatly after the patch)
        Partially fixed a problem with Tasm 3.2 .
        Lots of thanks goes to Alex Yu for the error report
        (i don't have tasm 3.2) that pointed my attention to this
        and other weak spots into the dos-extender.
        
Release 2.00  ( "Knee deep into prot. mode" ;) )
        This has been released when still in "alpha testing"
        and with portions of it still not complete
        (read: i was just starting to type in the sound system stuff)
        i've been FORCED to "early release" this version
        because for a year starting from January 17th 1995
        i will be in the Italian Army [ full metal coder :) ]
        so if now i don't have very much time, guess in the next months.
        Anyway they called me while i was studying for a big exam
        and in the free time i was involved in a
        MASSIVE source code update ....
        - Virtual DMA support, now you can program the DMA hardware
          without touching the DMA ports.
        - Included "skeleton code" to build XVD,XSD drivers
          for DEVICE INDIPENDENT VIDEO, SOUND.
        - Automatic menu handler!! Write down the layout of a popup menu
          with a sequence of defines and small "entry check" routines
          and let the 386menu module take care of what to show
          and what to do.
        - Improved keyboard/timer handling (not so much, but better
          than last release).
        - Expanded the dos-extender capabilities
        GASP! I'm really DEPRESSED because i have to release this code
        in a hurry and i cannot complete and fully test it! :( :( :(
        I will make a better thing with the future release 3.0.
        In the mean time you can use the current release 2.00 as a source
        of useful routines and informations
        (not to mention it does its best to work).


FUTURE EVOLUTION 
        For all 1995 i will be in the Italian Army, so it will be very
        hard for me to work on updates.
        After that i will have to get my Laurea in electronic engineering
        (a Laurea is roughtly equivalent to a Master degree)
        and with a little of luck i will have enough free time to
        further enhance 386P into a fully functional portable environment
        for videogames.
        
        My final target is to get a stripped down "loader" module
        that detects the host environment
        (ms-dos, generic DPMI host, Windows (all flavours), OS/2,Unix
         Linux, ....), kicks into memory the appropriate extender
         and drivers and then loads/translates (!!!!)
         the main program and its modules for the host environment.
                 
        386P 2.00 has no real "loader" nor translator, just four integrated
        extenders for VCPI (i.e. ms-dos + emm386) DPMI
        (for any flavor of Windows and OS/2) and XMS and "pure real mode"
        ms-dos environments.
        For now they  work good enough (on my system)
        but in the future i 'd like to add more flexibility and make
        the existing modules more robust and powerful.
        When i'll get back from mil. service i will buy a new motherboard+CPU
        new hard disk and new video board so i will be able step up to a
        "real" Workstation environment based on Linux + X-Windows.
        So guess, besides the "improvements" and a complete
        sound system, what will be the next dos-ext module
        i'm planning to add? :)

Ciao!
        Lorenzo Micheletto

        e-mail: knight@maya.dei.unipd.it

        plain mail: Lorenzo Micheletto
                    Via Piazza Miega 10/A
                    37040 Veronella (VR)
                    ITALY