> The DOS API always used far pointers for addressing and had no notion of which memory model a calling process used
Ha, yeah it's all coming back to me.
> Any DOS process which went into protected mode essentially became the running operating system and was on its own and had no support from the DOS kernel. Technologies were eventually developed to allow protected mode software to call the DOS kernel and BIOS--typically used for filesystem access and video mode setup--but the protected mode code was ultimately in control of the computer.
I don't know what it is, but it really felt like a superpower after setup and then flipping CR0. You knew that every single bit of code running on that box after that was hand crafted by you. Unless you go embedded, gone are those days. Computers are too complex these days to know what every single think is doing... we've all now been delegated to mere mortals :(
Ha, yeah it's all coming back to me.
> Any DOS process which went into protected mode essentially became the running operating system and was on its own and had no support from the DOS kernel. Technologies were eventually developed to allow protected mode software to call the DOS kernel and BIOS--typically used for filesystem access and video mode setup--but the protected mode code was ultimately in control of the computer.
I don't know what it is, but it really felt like a superpower after setup and then flipping CR0. You knew that every single bit of code running on that box after that was hand crafted by you. Unless you go embedded, gone are those days. Computers are too complex these days to know what every single think is doing... we've all now been delegated to mere mortals :(