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    SubjectRe: [PATCH] Further update of the i386 boot documentation
    H. Peter Anvin wrote:
    > Given that we have already established littleendian byte order, it's the
    > same thing.
    >

    Well, not quite; mentioning the string form first creates an ambiguity.
    I'd express as something like: ``The magic number is 0x53726448
    (implicitly, stored little-endian), which breaks down to the characters
    "HdrS".''

    >>> +
    >>> +Field name: version
    >>> +Type: read
    >>> +Offset/size: 0x206/2
    >>> +Protocol: 2.00+
    >>> +
    >>> + Contains the boot protocol version, e.g. 0x0204 for version 2.04.
    >>>
    >>>
    >> So the version is in BCD?
    >>
    >
    > Valid objection. It probably should be considered as (major, minor)
    > bytes, but we haven't had any releases where it hasn't also been valid
    > BCD. I would prefer separate bytes myself, so 2.10 = 0x20a instead of
    > 2.10 = 0x210.
    >

    OK. So is the major or minor at the lower address?

    >>> +Field name: readmode_swtch
    >>> +Type: modify (optional)
    >>> +Offset/size: 0x208/4
    >>> +Protocol: 2.00+
    >>> +
    >>> + Boot loader hook (see separate chapter.)
    >>>
    >>>
    >> Chapter? Is there a more specific reference you could make?
    >>
    >
    > Fair enough...
    >
    >
    >>> +Field name: kernel_version
    >>> +Type: read
    >>> +Offset/size: 0x20e/2
    >>> +Protocol: 2.00+
    >>> +
    >>> + If set to a nonzero value, contains a pointer to a null-terminated
    >>>
    >>>
    >> "nil-terminated"? "\0-terminated"?
    >>
    >
    > Uh? That seems more than a little silly. Yes, I guess formally
    > speaking we're talking about "NUL-terminated", but the term
    > "null-terminated" has over 800,000 hits on Google -- 10 times as many as
    > "NUL-terminated" -- and is hardly an ambiguous term ("NUL-terminated" is
    > ugly, and "zero-terminated" is ambiguous.)
    >

    0x00 or \0-terminated is idiomatic and unambigous. Not a big deal
    either way.

    J
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