SLBLOAD beta version as of 1998-07-16
-------------------------------------

Copyright notice: I intend to publish all this as freeware. However please
do not redistribute it without my permission. In particular, I don't want
to answer questions about preliminary versions of MetaDOS.

Please direct feedback to reschke@muenster.de or jr@ms.maus.de.



1) What it is
-------------

SLBLOAD implements MagiC-6-style shared libraries for plain TOS. It does this
by extending MetaDOS with a very small hook which enables it to load a 
shared library loader. I have selected this scheme because MetaDOS already
does a nice job in a) hooking into GEMDOS, b) reading a config file, c)
controlling process termination etc.

The loader itself is a separate overlay file, so no MetaDOS user is forced
to sacrifice memory for something he doesn't need.

The intent of all this is to promote the MagiC shared library as an open
scheme to be used on TOS compatible systems. I sure hope that it will be
eventually implemented in MiNT as well (maybe in addition to a more 
sophisticated scheme).


2) How to install
-----------------

Put METADOS.PRG and SLBLOAD.OVL into the auto folder. Create or change 
c:\auto\config.sys so that it contains the following line:

*SLB, C:\auto\slbload.ovl c:\gemsys\magic\xtension

This will tell MetaDOS to load the SLB driver from C:\auto\slbload.ovl and 
sets the default SLB path to c:\gemsys\magic\xtension. A real path list may 
be specified in the environment variable SLBPATH (see Slbopen(2)).

3) Files
--------

METADOS.PRG:    MetaDOS 2.75 - do NOT distribute this - I mean it
SLBLOAD.OVL:    Beta version of the SLB loader
README:         This file
SLBOPEN.2:      Manual page for Slbopen() and Slbclose() in nroff man format 
SLBOPEN.TXT:    Manual page for Slbopen() and Slbclose() in text format
SLB.5:          Manual page for SLB file format in nroff man format
SLB.TXT:        Manual page for SLB file format in text format


4) Source
---------

SLBLOAD.PRJ:    Pure-C project file
INTERFAC.S:     Interface file for overlaying from MetaDOS
SLBLOAD.C:      The loader

The loader is written in ANSI-C. The source is included not only for 
reference, but also hoping that others want to help to finish it.


5) Change history
-----------------

1998-07-06      Initial release.

1998-07-13      Slbopen() now checks the environment variable SLBPATH.
                Added manual pages.
                
                Added sample code and fixed Slbopen prototype (manual page).

1998-07-16      Updated SLB.5 with Andreas Kromke's feedback.
                
                
