https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/ 2026-10-03T14:27:42+00:00 https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/ https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/favicon.ico text/html 2026-09-27T15:42:07+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2024/0923_on_the_eve_of_6000_changesets_ldebug_growth?rev=1790516527&do=diff On the eve of 6000 changesets: lDebug growth Counting all the changesets in the public hg lDebug repo since the first revision on 2010-10-24 we're at changeset 5997 now. Have some statistics about the size of the sources: These counts were generated using the cntlines program. The lDebug revisions are as linked above. The FreeDOS Debug/X revision is text/html 2026-09-27T15:35:22+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0927_mid_late_september_work_on_the_debugger_and_various?rev=1790516122&do=diff Mid late September work on the debugger and various 2026-09-27 This week changeset 7000 was added to the ldebug.exp repo. testpxms This program tests whether calling the Protected Mode XMS entrypoint succeeds with a number of different choices. The choices are: text/html 2026-09-27T15:27:24+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0921_mid_september_work_on_the_debugger_symbolic_option_ident86?rev=1790515644&do=diff Mid September work on the debugger, symbolic option, ident86 2026-09-20 Of note, I finally added three subrepos to the lDebug repo, namely lmacros, scanptab, and symsnip. This allows the makefiles to properly reference the source text files in these subrepos as dependencies. text/html 2026-09-13T18:35:39+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0913_mid_early_september_work_on_the_debugger?rev=1789317339&do=diff Mid early September work on the debugger 2026-09-13 This week I mostly worked on enabling different build options for the debugger, including _SYMBOLIC. One fix to the immediate assembler (immasm) also got done. The symbolic option changes to the debugger depend on an earlier change: text/html 2026-09-06T15:29:41+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0906_early_september_work_on_alias_extensions_for_ldebug?rev=1788701381&do=diff Early September work on alias Extensions for lDebug 2026-09-06 Not written in the café because that's closed for a vacation until 2026-09-19. lDebug (experimental repo) * Treat alias instances that point at the ACT_END Alias Command type similarly to stopped alias instances. * Optimise ACT_END checks in Control-C handling, add to bx instead of loading si to address the acType field using text/html 2026-08-31T19:51:45+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0831_work_on_lzexe_and_alias_extensions_for_ldebug?rev=1788198705&do=diff Work on LZEXE and alias Extensions for lDebug 2026-08-30 LZEXE The changes to LZEXE were initiated because I considered that the last several instructions of the depack stub can overwrite themselves if the stack happens to be at an unfortunate location. I was able to generate test cases that do invoke this behaviour. text/html 2026-08-25T16:51:53+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0825_extensions_for_ldebug_comparison_eldcomp_debugging?rev=1787669513&do=diff Extensions for lDebug comparison (eldcomp) debugging I tried out the eldcomp Extension for lDebug recently to verify that the updated alias Extension for lDebug doesn't contain any observable bugs. Bugs found in and with eldcomp I found six discrepancies around the use of eldcomp this week: text/html 2026-08-23T18:10:37+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0823_mid_late_august_work_multi-aliases?rev=1787501437&do=diff Mid late August work: Multi-aliases 2026-08-23 Most of this week's work was about adding multi-alias support to the alias Extension for lDebug. Multi-aliases are injected into the debugger command loop using the inject handler rather than only replacing the command in the preprocess handler. This allows multi-aliases to consist of any number of commands, from zero to one to multiple. The old style aliases are called single-aliases. text/html 2026-08-16T16:00:18+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0816_early_mid_august_work_on_lbacache_and_a_dosemu2_bug?rev=1786888818&do=diff Early mid August work on LBACACHE, and a dosemu2 bug 2026-08-16 dosemu2 A test case and patch so that XMS move destination handles are validated. Without this, an invalid handle (eg FFFFh) could lead to a crash of the dosemu process. Discovered while checking the LBACACHE behaviour on XMS errors, which were induced by overwriting the XMS handle with FFFFh. text/html 2026-08-11T22:10:55+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0811_early_august_work_on_lbacache_bugs?rev=1786479055&do=diff Early August work on LBAcache & bugs 2026-08-09 Most of the work this week was on converting Eric Auer's LBAcache to provide and use an Alternate Multiplex Interrupt Specification (AMIS) multiplexer. (The use is in uncache, the transient part that works with previously installed instances rather than installing a new one.) The advantages are as follows: text/html 2026-08-04T20:30:48+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0804_more_compression_work_lzsa_for_vgapride_benchmarking_zx0_scanner_salvador_and_safe_distance?rev=1785868248&do=diff More compression work: LZSA for VGAPride, benchmarking, ZX0 scanner, Salvador and safe distance 2026-08-02 kernwrap * Add uncomp inicomp method, uncompressed payload copy. lDebug * Add uncomp inicomp method. inicomp * lzo.asm: * Optimise check for End Of Data marker, check the ZR after add ax,si * Optimise, directly branch to depack.error on buffer overflows. text/html 2026-07-26T21:27:49+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0726_mid_late_july_work_on_compression_exomizer_depackers_benchmark?rev=1785094069&do=diff Mid late July work on compression, Exomizer depackers benchmark 2026-07-26 testrand * Add the defines REPEAT, REPEATAMOUNT, REPEATSIZE. These were used to test match lengths and match offsets of nearly 64 KiB in Exomizer 3 compressed files. lDebug All changes concern the mak.sh build script. text/html 2026-07-19T21:33:56+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0719_more_compression_work_in_mid_july_and_an_overview_of_inicomp_methods_and_depackers?rev=1784489636&do=diff More compression work in mid July, and an overview of inicomp methods and depackers 2026-07-19 lDebug * doc: Fix a typo in eld-s manual section. * mak.sh: Support LZSA1 inicomp method. * doc: Update the LZSA depacker usage conditions to indicate LZSA2 or LZSA1, and update attribution year. * doc: List LZSA1 inicomp choice. text/html 2026-07-14T21:30:17+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0714_overview_of_ldos_related_projects?rev=1784057417&do=diff Overview of lDOS related projects This is a list of the core lDOS projects in development yet. lDebug: Originally forked from FreeDOS Debug/X around 2008. Named NDebug earlier (like the "N" in "Netwide Assembler"), then in 2012 renamed to lDebug. text/html 2026-07-11T20:33:58+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0711_early_july_compression_woes?rev=1783794838&do=diff Early July: Compression woes 2026-07-11 This week I found some bugs in several compression details, and I also found something I thought was a bug but isn't. lDOS kernel * Empty changeset to rebuild with new LZSA2N depacker. mvcomp * Import several commits from last year. lDOS boot * text/html 2026-07-04T23:14:51+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0704_early_july_work_on_compression_and_freedos_label_device_findfirst_bug?rev=1783199691&do=diff Early July work on compression, and FreeDOS label device FindFirst bug 2026-07-04 lDOS kernel * Fix ticket #1009, all-caps the MODULE define and replace the spurious blank by an LF. (I noticed these while copying the iniloadc.mac file to set up lfreedos.) lFreeDOS * New repo to pack an existing FreeDOS kernel file into an lDOS inicomp, iniload, or drload stage. Files based on the lDOS kernel repo's scripts. text/html 2026-06-28T17:43:12+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0628_mid_to_late_june_work?rev=1782661392&do=diff Mid to late June work 2026-06-28 webecm * Add section on the bugtracker, a link in links, and list it in the news * Update news item and hgweb link, on use of the Anubis Web AI Firewall Utility for the hgweb service lDOS patchini * Add halt flag 16 to mean do not halt on an expected device mismatch (DEVCRASHDOS, added on 2026-05-25) Buggy (bug ticket format tool) text/html 2026-06-23T23:46:21+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0623_a_computer_can_never_be_held_accountable_idiom?rev=1782251181&do=diff A computer can never be held accountable (idiom) a page by Simon Willison idioms text/html 2026-06-22T03:06:24+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/blog/pushbx/2026/0622_i_develop_software_an_idiom?rev=1782090384&do=diff I develop software (an idiom) their github sponsors page idioms anubis text/html 2025-11-04T16:41:44+00:00 ecm (ecm@undisclosed.example.com) https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/?image=blog%3Apushbx%3A2025%3Acore04_blogo.png&ns=blog%3Apushbx%3A2025&rev=1762270904&tab_details=history&mediado=diff&do=media <img src="https://pushbx.org/ecm/dokuwiki/_media/blog/pushbx/2025/core04_blogo.png?w=320&h=200&t=1762270904&amp;tok=8dd961" alt="blog:pushbx:2025:core04_blogo.png" />