Hi Bernd!

I think we need not compress country sys - the FreeDOS version is
already pretty small. Now for some explanation:

COUNTRY=number,codepage,file
tells the kernel which country, hardware codepage, and country file you have.
NLSFUNC
loads central codepage management stuff, and you can give the country file
as command line argument if you want another one than in the COUNTRY line.
CHCP
tells NLSFUNC to update the country setting in all tools.
DISPLAY
loads support for custom graphics card fonts for your codepage
PRINTER
would offer the same for printers, but is not ready yet. Question is,
for which printer models should it work? You can upload raster fonts
to ESC/P printers, and you could do "replace char ... by char ..." style
translation for all printers to get at least a bit of something.
ANSI
should just be aware of codepage changes, but there is no real reason for it.
KEYB
is, as far as I remember, informed by DISPLAY if the codepage changes, and
modifies the keyboard mapping (e.g. if you change to a codepage where the
Euro currency sign has another character code in the font...).
MODE
allows you to tell DISPLAY (and thereby ANSI and KEYB) about codepage changes
manually. If PRINTER would exist, MODE would get support to inform that as
well...

The kernel country selection is for things like date/time format, and
you cannot modify it after the COUNTRY line is loaded unless NLSFUNC is
loaded. Or unless you use evil tricks. If NLSFUNC is loaded, however, you
can use CHCP to update everything with one simple command. Without NLSFUNC,
you have to edit the COUNTRY line and configure DISPLAY through MODE and
maybe (M)KEYB manually, depending on whether they get informed by DISPLAY.
You always have to load DISPLAY to get codepage-specific fonts in any case.

"Simple", huh? :-)

PS: I think only http://fdos.org/kernel/ kernels (e.g. try 386-optimized
Watcom compiled ones, with or without FAT32 support as you like) support
NLSFUNC, but hopefully already in "CVS stable" versions, not only in the
"CVS devel" ones.

Eric

PPS: I think ATAPICDD *really* needs error detection, and I think we should
not drop ELTORITO. It is a very good free closed source CD-ROM driver, but
only useable for the CD-ROM from which you booted. Exactly right for our ISO.



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