After serious thinking David W. Hodgins wrote :
> On Wed, 06 Aug 2014 17:04:33 -0400, Wolf K  wrote:

[...]

Granted what follows is not in context with the articles being 
discussed.

Devil's advocate mode on.

> In a dos style bios, all it does is the power on self test (POST),
> then (with some bios code), present the option of selecting the
> boot device. Once the boot device has been selected, all the bios
> does is load the code from the first sector and then transfer
> control to it. It's up to the code in the first sector whether or
> not additional sectors are loaded too.

[...]

> The bios will only load the code from sector 0, of track 0.

If the very essence of being a general purpose OS is that you 
facilitate the execution of user's choice programs - here is where one 
could draw the line. The user has a choice of what goes in this 
specific location. A boot loader or an OS loader program for a more 
capable feature rich OS - or even some other special purpose program if 
it is to be a special purpose computer.

>> I think what's at issue here is the notion that what an OS does is
>> somehow fundamentally different from what BIOS does. It ain't. The
>> process is always the same: fetch data, and deal with it. BIOS is a
>> minimal OS: it does very little, but that little is essential. Mess up
>> the code, and the computer will not boot.
>
> I do not agree. A file has a name, and is stored in a file system.
> The bios is just a chunk of code stored on a chip. It does not have
> a file name, and is not accessible using regular disk io.

Again, at a very low, very rudimentary level, a computer is a file 
system.

I figure that you already know this, but this link goes to a somewhat 
lengthy lecture that some readers here might find interesting. Feynman 
on Computer Heuristics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWGGDXe5MA

Oh, and what about the hippo?

One entry found for amphibian.
Main Entry: am·phib·i·an
Pronunciation: am-primarystressfib-emacron-schwan
Function: noun
1 : any organism that is able to live both on land and in water; 
especially : any of a class of cold-blooded vertebrate animals (as 
frogs and salamanders) that in many respects are between fishes and 
reptiles.

Yep, just find the right definition and run with it. :)


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