AROS using Amiga code?

[falemagn]

Oh, well, we're getting the first trolls: this must mean we're becoming famous

Fabio Alemagna

[falemagn]

Oh the trolls have been here for a long time =).

Quoting myself:

We are getting the first trolls

"We" as in "We, AROS Team"

this must mean we are becoming famous

Again, "we" as in "We, AROS Team".

I should perhaps start using a signature :-D

Anyway, AFAIK AROS is all based on reverse-engineered code

AROS is based on the documentation available, mostly, and for a minimum part on reverse-enginnering, where "reverse-enginnering" means just that you basically build test programs which you run on AmigaOS, and from their behaviours you deduce  the functioning of the matter being tested.

That is, of course, not illegal.

Fabio Alemagna
AROS Developer  

[falemagn]

Wrong, they've written it from scratch. If it was reverse engineered code, dont you think they would be a little bit further down the track. They only just got a Workbench clone done.

I'm sorry, but you are wrong. Whilst AROS has been written from scratch, that doesn't mean that some reverse engineering hasn't taken place. But don't get scared, read below...

Wrong again. How could this ever be allowed? Reverse engineering requires decompiling. This is very illegal, because it gives a print out of what code went into producing the binary to get an exact copy. This is Very Illegal.

... no, that's incorrect. Reverse engineering is VERY different than decompiling: decompiling implies reverse engineering, but reverse engineering doesn't imply decompiling. Read my above post for an explanation of what "reverse engineering" is, in its more general meaning, which incidentally is the one that applies here.

Even so, though, decompiling is not illegal everywhere. It's not in Europe, for example, if its scope is to reach compatibility with the decompiled product.

However, let me state again that in AROS there's no one single instrunction which is the result of the AmigaOS' decompilation.

Fabio Alemagna

[falemagn]

Okay, what the heck is going on here? I asked a simple question and I get responses like this:

Well, if yours was a genuine question, then I apologize, but you must understand that such questions really come as a surprise: certain facts should be clear by now.

For example, this is from the readme of V39.3 reqtools.library from aminet:

==========
This is a back port of the AROS reqtools.library -
which itself is based on the original Amiga ReqTools
sources - to AmigaOS.
==========

Well, ReqTools has never been part of AmigaOS, it's always been a free library for everyone to use. I'm not sure whether it was open source originally, though.

Also, I saw an article on OSNews.com about Morphos, and the guy mentioned that it had some Amiga OS code.

I hope you misunderstood, because otherwise that guy must be spanked. What is true is that both MOS and AmigaOS use code FROM AROS.