SIO, SIO2K

[OS4User]

Message from Ray Gwinn:

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I am willing to open source SIO, SIO2K and all its parts, like VMODEM under a GPL license. But I cannot do it myself. If someone could come to my home in Beckley, WV I would let them work with it and provide what help I can.

It would not be a small effort, could be as much as two weeks for a very good programmer. All my stuff is in 386 assembler and I use the advanced features of MASM. Many assembler programmers would be confused by the code. I even use PERL scripts during the make process. It could also be as short as a few hours, if the computer is dead.
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anyone from US to help?

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

Sorry, but releasing as open-source, does that not mean the stuff could simply be 'published' to a public repo? Say Github or Netlabs maybe?

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi OS4User

It is good that Ray wants to open source his SIO, SIO2K, but I think it will be hard to find someone with OS/2 device driver development skills to physically go to his home and work there.

I assume that Ray needs help to remove some of the IBM source code on his driver so it can be open sourced. If possible I will like to provide a counter offer to Ray. Let's post his SIO, SIO2K source code into a netlabs close source svn repository until we can find a device driver developer to work on remove the IBM components of the driver so it can be fully open source.

I think that we can turn SIO and SIO2K driver into a "close source collaborative project" on netlabs for the moment, until some IBM dependencies can be removed.

Regards

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi OS4User

It is good that Ray wants to open source his SIO, SIO2K, but I think it will be hard to find someone with OS/2 device driver development skills to physically go to his home and work there.

I assume that Ray needs help to remove some of the IBM source code on his driver so it can be open sourced mainly because of the IBM DDK license. If possible I will like to provide a counter offer to Ray. Let's post his SIO, SIO2K source code into a netlabs close source svn repository until we can find a device driver developer to work on remove the IBM components of the driver so it can be fully open source.

I think that we can turn SIO and SIO2K driver into a "close source collaborative project" on netlabs for the moment, until some IBM dependencies can be removed.

Regards

[OS4User]

Sorry, but releasing as open-source, does that not mean the stuff could simply be 'published' to a public repo? Say Github or Netlabs maybe?

I also think so.

...I think it will be hard to find someone with OS/2 device driver development skills to physically go to his home and work there.

No need to work there  - just pickup the sources.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

No need to work there  - just pickup the sources.

If it is just to pickup the source that is good. We need someone near Beckley, WV.

Regards

[Neil Waldhauer]

I think Ray is probably correct that we need a little help getting it to assemble. Just the source code would be like getting the source code to SNAP graphics or for GenMac. Source code is not enough if you can't build.

The pickup guy probably needs to be conversant in OS/2 assembler. At least it sounds like a pretty place to visit.

[Eugene Tucker]

West Virginia is a beautiful state. Especially if yo like mountains who ever goes out, check out the New River Bridge. and Hawks Nest.

[Fahrvenugen]

As Neil said, I am guessing similar - if someone familiar with 386 assembler can meet with Ray for a period of time to learn what can be learned about the source, then this would be much more useful then just a bunch of code and having to guess at how to build it.

As a registered user of SIO, I still use it to this very day.  There continue to be things it can do which IBM's drivers can't.

[Dave Yeo]

Well considering he is predicting several weeks of work, it seems that it would be more then setting up the build process. Possibly he wants to make sure that someone else understands the code though I think it might be likely something needs to be ripped out to make it GPL compatible and if that something is hidden in macros, it could take some knowledge.
Another option if there is something like DDK code in there might be a different license, which he might be fine with if it keeps his source open.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

If SIO and SIO2K uses IBM DDK license code samples, I insist on the idea of creating a "close source but collaborative" project on Netlabs. Ray can donate his code/changes to Netlabs and the project will be there without public access, until we can find a developer that can work on it to a) build the driver and understand it  and b) possible remove IBM DDK sample code dependencies. 

I think it will be too hard to find someone with driver development on OS/2 skill and that can personally go there to work there for some time. Once Ray's code is on netlabs we can try to find people with that skill to check it out and have some e-mail communication with Ray in case of doubts.

Regards

[Valery Sedletski]

As I heard, Ray is now about 70 years old and he's ill. The machine with SIO sources is in the cellar. Ray doesn't know if it is alive. So, he needs someone to go there, check if machine is yet functional an grab sources from it. Also, it's needed some work on sources. Ray cannot do it himself because it's hard for him to get to that machine.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

So, he needs someone to go there, check if machine is yet functional an grab sources from it. Also, it's needed some work on sources. Ray cannot do it himself because it's hard for him to get to that machine.

Ok, that change things, so it can not be remote. So we need someone on the area with OS/2 skill to extract his development and build environment.

Regards

[RickCHodgin]

I would be willing to go there.  I can't stay two weeks, but long enough to get the machine out, go through everything with him, and go forward from there.

I live in Indianapolis, IN.

[RickCHodgin]

Somebody hook me up with Ray.  I'll fly out, rent a car, and stay there a few days to get it all sorted.