Re: Free-Standing and Non-OS Dependent

[Nathan Sidwell <nathan at codesourcery dot com>]

Sriharsha Vedurmudi wrote:

> contract in which it mentioned everything (all porting work) as 'NON-OS 
> DEPENDENT FUNCTIONALITY ONLY' (which they call as 'Free-Standing 
> Implementation').  (First, Im confused if Non-OS Dependent Functionality 
> and Free-Standing are one and the same?). Finally, they have delivered a 

'free standing' is a term defined in the C std.  You need to read that
to know what it means. The std defines the minimal functionality that
need be provided for such an evironment.

'non-os dependent functionality' is not such a term. Your contract with
the supplier will need to define what it means. I can't tell you.

> the functionlity is very limited, meaning we could not do anything like 
> malloc, printf, strcat, sin, cos, etc. They say that all this is NOT 

some of those functions require operating system features -- like getting
memory from somewhere, or for doing IO, so they _cannot_ exist on a free
standing environment (what would they do?).  Others do not need such
facilities, but might or might not be optional in a freestanding
environment. You need to check the std.  'non-os dependent functionality'
might indicate that something more than a bare freestanding environment
is provided -- it's a different term, so presumably it means something
different.  I don't know -- only you, your supplier and the contract can
tell you that.

nathan

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