VSTa native boot

Well, after a bit of work, I have VSTa converted to using the Multiboot
specification:

    http://www.uruk.org/~erich/grub/boot-proposal.html

and have it booting without having to use DOS/Windows 95, instead using the
Multiboot compliant boot loader "GRUB" (GRand Unified Bootloader):

    http://www.uruk.org/grub/

This is a very nice little bootloader which can boot FreeBSD, DOS, Windows
95, NT, Hurd, Linux, and now, VSTa. In converting to use it, I moved VSTa
so the kernel and boot tasks are above the 1 meg mark. Thus, the old
limitations of making the kernel and boot tasks all fit in 640k is now
history, too. Finally (!), GRUB can handle compressed images, so there are
definite possibilities for packing a whole bunch of VSTa tasks onto a
bootable floppy.

Along the way, I stumbled across a whole collection of ports which Dave
Hudson did ages ago, and shamefacedly rolled them into the core VSTa
distribution. This includes a bunch of text, file, and language utilities
which will be nice to have on tap.

Assuming everybody is up for grappling with a new bootloader scheme, I think
VSTa 1.6 will be ready to roll shortly.

                                                Andy Valencia
Received on Thu Sep 25 18:28:47 1997