Celoni@SU-SCORE.ARPA (03/08/84)
From: Jim Celoni S.J. <Celoni@SU-SCORE.ARPA> I received my ($40) update to Digital Research, Inc.'s original Concurrent CP/M-86: Concurrent CP/M version 2.0 with Windows. The complete package is 3 DSDD disks (boot/help, system, graphics [GSX]), rewritten manual (2.5" thick), and a coupon to send to receive version 3.1 (with its PC-DOS emulator) free when it's released "spring 1984". Still 4 condurrent processes max, at most one running graphics. Windows may be arbitrarily sized and placed (you can even put two on your IBM monochrome display and two on your color monitor), either with commands or a manager that prompts in line 25. The [RA]MDISK may now be set up to use memory banks 4-9 (not A) or D-E (you give starting bank; it goes to end of installed RAM) (only one contiguous block, unlike what's possible with some others like STB). Unfortunately, DRI outdid IBM's 2.0-to-2.1 unbundling of the manual: Not only does the new CCP/M manual NOT include the CCP/M Programmer's guide (it was half of the old manual), but the disks don't include some of the old system, most notably assembler and linker! Instead, there's a "Programmer's PAK coupon" offering more programs (assembler, linker, librarian, xref, systat, window source code, queue communications example--I assume the latter two are machine-readable too) and documentation (GSX user and programmer guide and CCP/M programmer guide) for $70.00. When I called, DRI said that all copies of CCP/M 2.0 had the same coupon (i.e., it wasn't extra because my copy was an update). An ad pamphlet inside said CCP/M (list $350 w/o PAK) is available for an "introductory" price of $150, or free with two DRI applications. Actually, I don't think $220 with Programmer PAK is bad; my disappointment with DRI is that nowhere was I told what I was NOT getting until I unsealed the package. Caveat emptor. +j