Seems like there are some FAQs that need answering, so here goes!
...it seems like the major challenge is first to recover a damaged FAT12/16 filesystem, whose BPB sector has been completely overwritten, and thus, can't tell about its properties ? (cluster size, number of fat, etc...)The filesystem's BPB will not be corrupted. You can safely assume that the cluster size and number of FATs as listed in the BPB are valid. But of course, there are some values that you'll need to calculate for yourself. All bootsector entries will be tested on fat12 and fat16 filesystems of varying size, however the BPB itself will not be changed at all aside from the geometry information as written by mtools. When I create the base images, I will use mtools to do so. Before testing a bootsector entry, I'll copy the base ("clean") image to a testing image, and will use the mformat command to update the bootsector on the testing image.
Who decides the winner? Quok?For round 1 of the competition, if you want to call it that, yes. I'll be the primary judge for first prize. That being said, if anyone else would like to judge this part of the contest as well, then please PM me. But note that if you elect to act as a judge, you cannot also enter a bootsector. To do so would create a conflict of interest, and certainly wouldn't put this contest in a good light. Unfortunately, I cannot provide payment to anyone that assists with the judging. In my opinion, to do so would also compromise the integrity of the contest.
The second prize winner will be voted on by the osdev.org community. More specifically, by those community members that are interested and willing to vote. It'll be a simple forum based poll, open to everyone, and set to expire 1 week from when I open it.
About the prize moneyI'm including prize money because it was suggested in
this thread about the 4th 512 byte OS contest. Some people liked it, some people didn't. If you, as the winner of the prize money, would rather not accept any prize money, then as stated in the contest rules, the winner may elect to have a donation made in their name to the PDPC. I selected the PDPC specifically because they promote free and open source software in general, and are not specific to any one project or agenda. Disclaimer: I am a freenode staff member.
The prize money is coming out of my own pocket. There is no organization sponsoring this contest. It's just one individual with a couple of dollars to spare. I'm certainly no millionaire CEO of a company that is farming out development of an OS to a rather large, vague, and fluid community.
I'm located in the US, so the prize money at stated is in USD. If you as the winner elect to have your prize money donated to the PDPC, $50 USD is approximately £30, and $25 USD is approximately £15. That's enough for the professional and active donor level cloaks, respectively, as
stated here. I know many people here are from outside the US, so I'm checking with Amazon to see if a gift certificate purchased through amazon.com may also be used at amazon.co.uk (for example). If this is not the case, then something else will need to be worked out.
The contest rules state that prize money will be awarded within 30 days of a winner being announced in order to provide adequate time to inform the winner, and allow the winner to elect to receive the gift certificate or have the donation made.
Why was FAT chosen? It's old and obsolete.FAT12 and FAT16 may be old and quite nearly obsolete, perhaps even boring, but the FAT family of filesystems are still the de-facto standard filesystems used on removable media. When's the last time you bought a USB flash drive that came pre-formatted as ext4?
Why are you only allowing NASM or GNU AS?As I stated in another post, mostly because I don't want to install all kinds of assemblers to support this contest. Please keep in mind that as of now, I'm the only judge for first prize. I completely understand that FASM may compile your entry to 511 bytes, but with NASM you can only get it down to 513 bytes. If this happens to you, I'm sorry. I'm sure you'll be able to find some place to save a byte.
I'm not entering because...I'm sorry that you're not interested in entering the contest. I did my best to appeal to a large audience of potential participants. Unfortunately, you can't please everybody. I respect your decision to not enter the contest, so please respect my request to not clog up this thread with posts about why you won't be entering.
I'm offended by...I'm sorry you're offended by whatever it is that offends you. Keep in mind all contests have rules and restrictions. Most contests have far more rules and restrictions than this one does. Feel free to start a contest that is more to your liking. Otherwise, kindly sod off.
What happened to my posts that were in this thread?I apologize, but those posts were split off to another topic and are hidden away in a secret vault for all of eternity. The posts that were split were all related to a flamewar over the terms of this contest. For fair warning, any new posts of that nature will also be split off and locked away. Let's please keep things friendly here, and follow
the forum rules. Thanks!
Waaaah! My whine isn't covered here!Would you like some cheese to go with that whine[sic]? Perhaps some brie? Or would you rather Camembert? If you'd like the brie, I can suggest a nice Merlot to go with that. For the Camembert, I have about 30 bottles of a very very nice (homemade) Cabernet in my basement.
Seriously though, if there is anything about the contest that needs more clarification, don't be afraid to ask. I'll do my best to clarify whatever it is as much as possible.