Hi Rick
I wish you the best with your projects, even the one with the F-150 which looks interesting
I really hope you can eventually produce something that can work on the current OS/2 as an open source replacement of the old IBM close source code. For example if you manage to complete your kernel and some basic CPI API in a way you can "trick" OS/2's Presentation Manager to run over it (even if it is not completely stable on the first releases), that can be a good starting point to get more support or feedback from the community. Sure, a different kernel will break current OS/2 drivers compatibility, but in my opinion drivers come and go, CPI API and PM are the soul of OS/2 apps.
I think I told you before, my main concern is to have replacements that retains the compatibility with OS/2 (some exceptions may apply), so it can keep running OS/2 applications on it, instead of having a new OS/2 inspired OS that can not run OS/2 apps.
Regards.
My goal is to be almost fully API compatible (no Win16 support), but not binary compatible. Nearly every OS/2 app that has source code could be recompiled with my C/C++ compiler, and run without change. The rest would require tiny changes, and then recompile.
Binary compatibility would require reverse engineering some of the existing code base, and that's simply illegal. If someone can get me permission from IBM to reverse engineer the portions of their binary code I'll need to do this, I'd be happy to also make it fully binary compatible.
However, my true goals are to have OS/2 live on in ES/2, which will provide everything outwardly that OS/2 originally had, with some evolution for modern OS, hardware, network, and UI features. I think OS/2 is the best OS ever, and it deserves this devotion.
Best regards,
Rick C. Hodgin