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From: bryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Bryce Nesbitt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: glossary
Message-ID: <8707271817.AA17537@cogsci.berkeley.edu>
Date: Mon, 27-Jul-87 14:17:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: cogsci.8707271817.AA17537
Posted: Mon Jul 27 14:17:47 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jul-87 05:09:53 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: Institute of Cognitive Studies, UC Berkeley
Lines: 76
Summary: is it a device, a device, or possibly a device?


Recently I was flamed for sloppy use of the word "device".  Within the
Amiga system that word has no less than three (3) distinct meanings.  I
pledged to write a glossary to aid in future understanding.  And, while on
hold this morning, I did.
With this glossary I have two options; perpetuate the confusion, or do
something different.  For the final glossary I'll do what the net votes on.

For now, here are the glossary entries relating to DOS, as proposed.  Be
forewarned that I took liberties whenever DOS's use of terminology was
muddled.

----------------------- Amiga Glossary ----------------------------

AmigaDOS
    Amiga Disk Operating System.  Strictly speaking, the part of the Amiga
    operating system that controls the file system.  Unlike MS-DOS, there
    is more to the Amiga operating system than just DOS.

	 Workbench  CLI   Programs
	      \      |	    /
	       \     |	   /
		\    |	  /
		 \   |	 /
		  \  |	/
		 AmigaDOS		    ;DOS level
		/    |	 \
	      RAM:  DF0:  HD0:		    ;FILE SYSTEM level
	       |     |	   |		     ;(managed by handler processes)
	  memory   disk    hard disk	    ;DEVICE level
		   drive   drive	     ;(managed by device drivers)

    Programs may often bypass the DOS level by sending a packet directly to
    the proper handler process.

DEVICE, EXEC
    Usually a task that that talks directly to some piece of hardware.	The
    "keyboard.device", for example, reads the keyboard then tells the rest
    of the world about it.  The "trackdisk.device" is an example of a
    device that can have multiple units.
    Programs communicate to devices with IO requests, a form of inter-task
    communication.
    The standard devices are: timer, trackdisk, keyboard, gameport, input,
    console, audio, narrator, serial, parallel, and printer.
    With each hard drive, SCSI interface, or extra serial port, you will
    probably get another exec device.

DEVICE DRIVER
    The actual code that a device executes.

FILE SYSTEM
    A place to store files.

HANDLER
    On the Amiga, the code that manages a file system.	Handlers often live
    in the L: directory when not in use.

LOCK
    An AmigaDOS structure that prevents multitasking programs from stomping
    on shared files.

PACKET
    An AmigaDOS specific message.  All DOS activity is actually carried out
    with a packet sent to the proper handler.

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

Opinions welcome.  Asbestos installed.
BTW: This file was munched twice by XMODEM, it did not notice the errors!
(My version of VT100 does not support XMODEM CRC, but I wish it would!)

-----
|\ /|  . Ack! (NAK, EOT, SOH)
{o O} . 
( " )	bryce@cogsci.berkeley.EDU -or- ucbvax!cogsci!bryce
  U	"When it's you against the world, back the world."