emjej@uokvax.UUCP (04/18/84)
#N:uokvax:3500033:000:637 uokvax!emjej Apr 18 08:32:00 1984 I commend to your attention the May 1984 *Rainbow*, which contains in Dale Puckett's column a listing for an interrupt-driven /t1 driver for a *stock CoCo* (I take this to mean "without expansion interface +RS232 cartridge;" if I'm mistaken, *PLEASE* disillusion me--it will be easier to take from a friend) that Mr. Puckett ran with a terminal at 19.2 Kbaud. From the same column--yet another decent disk driver module, this one *smaller* than the stock RS OS-9 driver. (Let us all devoutly hope that Radio Shack is shamed into action by these things!) I'll save my flames re Frank Hogg's column for another medium. James Jones
riber@uicsl.UUCP (04/20/84)
#R:uokvax:3500033:uicsl:21600008:000:608 uicsl!riber Apr 20 10:16:00 1984 Sorry to say the refered to RS232 driver in RAINBOW is not, repeat is not for an expansion interface. However, it is a very good replacement for the existing driver. To utilize this new driver, you have to make or remake a new RS232 cable for the existing coco RS232 port. The recieve line (rx) is tied or shorted to the carrier detect (cd) line. this allows the driver software to set up the 6822 PIA for interrupts These interrupts will occur whenever the first bit of character is received. I beleive Mr. Pucket mentions this in his very fine article. RICK BERRY pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!riber h
sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) (04/22/84)
Frank Hogg's column in the May Rainbow may be taken as a bit self-serving,
but I don't think that he is incorrect. For those of you who haven't
seen the magazine, Hogg owns a company which sells 6809 software for both
FLEX and OS-9. One of his big sellers was a special version of FLEX for
the TRS-80 Color Computer. Naturally, this product is being squeezed out
a bit by the introduction of Radio Shack's version OS-9.
Hogg's point is that trying to squeeze OS-9 onto a stock CoCo is a bit like
trying to put 10 pounds of potatoes in a 1 pound bag (at least I think that
was his analogy.) For example, limited disk space (150 kb/drive) and
correspondingly poor support from Tandy on how to cope with additional
software packages given the limited space. Poor RS232 support (only 300
baud full-duplex, 2400 baud simplex for a printer). Poor design of the
disk controller such that the CPU is halted during data transfers, thus
mucking up any pretentions to multi-tasking ability. No support for any
drives other than the R/S 35tk SS abominations. And, a choice between a
small screen (16 x 32) OR using Hogg's own O-PAK software which must then
steal 8K of graphics memory, thus preventing many OS-9 packages from running.
Now, many of the driver-level problems can be addressed by 3rd party
vendors, but let's face it the hardware is still minimal, and a CP/M-like
system such as FLEX is less likely to expose such basic design limitations.
So, in that sense, he's right. 64K and slow, small non-DMA disk drives all
conspire to make OS-9 on the CoCo less likable and productive than it ought
to be. OS-9 is still pretty neat, and I think that anyone who is at all
interested in a cheap UNIX-like system should check it out. But for the
average non-techie who isn't interested is shelling out a lot for additional
hardware and software to make OS-9 truly usable on the CoCo, I would recommend
sticking to RSDOS.
--
/Steve Dyer
{decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer
sdyer@bbncca.ARPAmwm@ea.UUCP (04/25/84)
#R:uokvax:3500033:ea:7300002:000:971
ea!mwm Apr 24 16:34:00 1984
/***** ea:net.micro.6809 / bbncca!sdyer / 9:52 pm Apr 22, 1984 */
Now, many of the driver-level problems can be addressed by 3rd party
vendors, but let's face it the hardware is still minimal, and a CP/M-like
system such as FLEX is less likely to expose such basic design limitations.
--
/Steve Dyer
{decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer
sdyer@bbncca.ARPA
/* ---------- */
All very true. But is having an operating system that demonstrates that you
bought inadequate hardware a bad thing? After all, you could always run
OS-9 as a single user system, and add the third-party drivers and hardware.
The result is something that is much nicer than an (just choosing a
well-known name as an example) apple, and (in this case, anyway) noticeable
less expensive.
I'm always one for extra abilities. Using them may be painful, but it's
nice to have them when you need them.
<mike
P.S. - I don't consider using two OS's to be a suitable alternative. I
tried once, and gave up.emjej@uokvax.UUCP (04/25/84)
#R:uokvax:3500033:uokvax:3500034:000:752 uokvax!emjej Apr 25 11:49:00 1984 /***** uokvax:net.micro.6809 / ea!mwm / 4:34 pm Apr 24, 1984 */ After all, you could always run OS-9 as a single user system, and add the third-party drivers and hardware. The result is something that is much nicer than an (just choosing a well-known name as an example) apple, and (in this case, anyway) noticeable less expensive. /* ---------- */ 'Twould be nice if third-party hardware could overcome all the problems, but alas, no one yet sells a reasonable disk controller for the CoCo (i.e. one that either does DMA or perhaps keeps a sector buffer on card and lets the 6809 copy data in/out), and that's one of the major limitations of the CoCo as she stands. Does anyone know how the various hard disks for the CoCo work? James Jones
dyer@wivax.UUCP (Stephen Dyer) (04/28/84)
I can't speak directly from experience, but I've been researching the hard disk issue, in fact have even purchased a ST506 5mb drive--all I need now is the controller and CoCo-to-controller interface. Most all hard disk drive systems will use a SASI-bus miniwinnie controller. This is a "smart" controller which takes high-level commands (read/write block #n) and transfers the data to an on-board buffer. How the data gets from the controller to the host CPU depends on your host interface, but generally one can choose a simple programmed-IO interface or a more complicated DMA scheme. The easiest scheme for the CoCo would be programmed I/O. One particular SASI bus controller can handle both a winnie and two floppies. If you decided to use this with your CoCo, you'd immediately win by eliminating the crappy disk controller that Radio Shack provides. Likely, too, you'd be able to use the same driver for both the floppy and the winchester--that's how isolated one is from details of the hardware (sectors/track, no of tracks.) -- /Steve Dyer decvax!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca