Andy and Dan,

    Dan, Andy requested some Assembly stuff and I also wrote a couple text files. By the time I was done, I realized you could use these also, so that's why some things are addressed to Andy. Don't bother to download the stuff you already have, but make sure to download
directions.txt and readme.txt - especially readme.txt.

    There is a bunch of info. in readme.txt for both of you that explains a lot so make sure to read the WHOLE thing - it will save you hours and hours of guessing and testing and frustration later when you start to make your own programs.

    Keep in mind that I wrote the code for my OS and therefore you might find it hard to change the code without messing up the OS. For this reason, I recommend keeping a backup copy of the origninal files I've sent you so that you can start over if you want. If you're confused about something, feel free to email me or ask me in school.

    I also sent two Assembly compilers. Although TASM is a major assembler, I prefer A86, it gives you a lot of freedom when making programs, while TASM attempts to watch over your program so that it will work on you computer... This makes it very hard to use when I'm
working on my OS, so thus far I've used A86. The only problem with this is that it has a limited instruction set and doesn't have PENTIUM/PROTECTED MODE instructions. For these reasons, I hope to make my own ASSEMBLER soon. I've gotten some files off of INTEL that
gives me the hex codes for all commands. Now it's just a matter of reading through them all, understanding the setup, and writing the huge program necessary...

Finally, I've included another of my programs, read.com, and its source. This program reads any head:cluster:sector off of your computer and to a file. It is very low quality with very little error checking, but it's still neat and will allow you to view any sector on a hard drive or floppy disk. This helped me when I first started my OS, because I didn't understand the boot sector. To view this file, however, you'll need a hex editor or assembly disassembler and I suggest you get one because it may become important if you want to learn that little bit extra about how computers work. 

Anyway, see you later and good luck.

Brian

