Date   : Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:24:25 +0100
From   : jgh@... (Jonathan Graham Harston)
Subject: RFC: BBC Ethernet API

> While I have the manual open, other SWI families are
 
I can't find any of those in my manual ;) RISC OS 3.6 PRM.
 
> Thinking a bit more about this, as well as a BSD sockets interface,
> presumably access to the DNS resolver would be useful?
 
Probably useful.  I've also been looking through manuals and code to work
out an API similar to Econet (NetTx, NetRx, etc.). Instead of Socket_Open,
Socket_Write, Socket_Close, a single NetTx-type call, and a single
NetRx-type call followed by NetPoll-type call.
 
It's sitting in a draft email at the moment.
 
> Would it be simpler to directly translate the Socket and DNSResolver SWIs
> into a single OSWord?
 
As there's 64 SWI calls per SWI block, a single OSWORD could easily support
four SWI blocks' worth of calls. I'd been thinking along those lines
already, eg:
 
  0-63  Socket_ calls
 64-127 DNSResolver_ calls
128-192 something_else_ calls
192-255 something_else_calls
 
> Isn't there an OSWord set aside for RISC OS SWI emulation already?
 
That's more for emulators to access host facilities. Otherwise, you'd be
coding
something like, rather than for systems to emulate other firmware.
 
> * Socket number can be an 8-bit number
> * Internet event
 
Yes.
 
-- 
J.G.Harston - jgh@...                - mdfs.net/User/JGH
BBC BASIC for Windows and Internationalisation
   See http://mdfs.net/Software/BBCBasic/Windows/ProgTips