"Michael C. Adler" <MADLER@mit-mc.ARPA> (12/25/84)
I have heard that my spelling checker, SPELL, does not work on the Osborne Executive running CP/M+. Has anybody used SPELL successfully on CP/M+? SPELL makes heavy use of random file I/O. Is there any incompatibility there? Thanks, -Michael
W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA (12/26/84)
The Osborne Executive destroys some of the Z80 alternate registers in the CBIOS. This could be the problem if your spelling checker program uses them and does not save the registers when calling BDOS or CBIOS. There is a fix for the Osborne Exec. users: Filename Type Bytes CRC Directory MICRO:<CPM.OSBORN> TPATCH.LBR.1 COM 1664 9126H This is a program that patches the Osborne Exec. CBIOS so it preserves the Z80 alternate registers. It is run once when cold booting and remains thereafter until the next cold boot. --Keith
jason@jett.UUCP (01/12/85)
CPM+ incompatibilities...
I am a happy owner of Osborne Executive owner... but...
Osborne did a bad thing... they goofed with the index registers in the bios
before saving them on the stack... something that is not sopposed to happen,
as some software packages (TURBO pascal for one i think) use the IX and IY
index registers without saving them before a BDOS call. ZAP! The new 1.21
rom availiable from osborne is supposed to fix this problem. When I get
this Rom, if anyone is interested I will research it. I do know that the
RSX i wrote works well for this purpose. Osbornes have given cpm+ a bad
name for no reason... IT IS 100% COMPATIBLE with 2.2, but some programs
such as public domain BYE does not work since the BDOS and BIOS are actually
stored in other pages of ram, so it makes it difficult to patch them.
An RSX is a Resident System Extension... cpm thinks of it as a routine
to run before entering bios. This is a legal patch that cpm accounts for.
The one I wrote just saves IX and IY on the stack, goes through to BDOS,
then when returning, pops them back off the stack...
Correct me if I am wrong please....
Jason Hamby ihnp4!akgua!jett!jason