@fast_code_r_us You have any recommendation for a tiny, HDMI-driven screen that does at least 800*480p60 or an #eInk screen like that?

Cuz I want to try some #FrugalComputing with a #Pi0 / #Pi0W and @OS1337 and that only suppirts #MDA…

@alina personally I can also recommend good #CLI tools that just work.

• #mc (#MidnightCommander)
• #neomutt
• #aewan (for designing #TUI interfaces)
• #enc
• #btop
• #ytdlp
• #lynx / #LynxBrowser
• #curl
• #toybox (which is a minimalist #userland for #Linux)
• #ne (nice editor)
• #nvChad (when you want to turn #neovim into an #IDE but don't know where to start)

And many more.

• Cuz I work on the idea of a #MDA / #80x25-centric Linux-distro (@OS1337) that is focussed on #FrugalComputing!

@sudorandom the only disadvantages I can say about #fish #shell are:

• it's not that standard shell on #Linux (#bash is!)
• it's quite THICC at ~ 2,5 MB
• It obviously (and necessarily) breaks compatibility to any other shell...

Still, I do intent to package it someday for @OS1337 simply because for a "fully-fledged, everyday" #toybox + #musl / #linux distro that wants to maximize #MDA @ 80x25 I'll propably need more functionality than I can reasonably expect @landley to include into toybox's own shell, which AFAIK doesn't support .bash_aliases or other alias / function declarations per config file *as of the time of writing this...

• But then again that's me being nitpicky and different scopes of interest...

#FishShell #shells

@rasteri #MDA still being supported is something I do know, as I literally build @OS1337 with only MDA @ 80×25 terminal size.

• I just assume that modern graphics automatically occupy both MDA & #VGA addresses and automaically switch between the modes when one gets turned on. Supporting MDA only as a compatibility option.

The question I have is whether #MSDOS-Style mixed mode is possible, i.e. some application writing their outputs to a #VGA framebuffer with a native MDA terminal being the primary output.

• Sadly I don't have hardware to test this (I wish I had some - if I had the money I'd do a tiny486 build) but I guess this would necessitate like an MDA card (recreation) and a VGA card (with disabled MDA output or something), and nowadays anyone wanting an MDA-Style console uses serial tty interface anyway…

@adamsdesk well, according to @rasteri zhis works because #MDA has it's own #DMA address space vs. #CGA / #HGA / #EGA / #VGA, so in theory #Linux should be able to implement this, tho I'm nit shure if current versions of Linux still support it.

• I really should read the #dcumentation, but I hoped someone on the #Fediverse would actually knows it...

That being said this does require a setup with a seperate #MDA card exclusively occupying it's address space and a #VGA adaptor that ignores it.

• Most #SOM|s and #embedded as well as #consumer #GPU|s don't do that but take on both address spaces and simply disconnect the MDA part in terms of #BIOS compatibility once they get switched into #VGA mode and only switch back when the VGA mode is turned off.

Also this combo is rather uncommon and basically died with multi-display cards in lieu of #TTY-Terminal access.