gmv@cbuxc.UUCP (Mike Vrbanac) (07/15/85)
Subject: Revised MS-DOS 2.11+ for the PC6300 Newsgroups: net.micro.att AT&T PC6300 users, What follows is the README text that comes with the revised version of MS-DOS 2.11 for the PC6300. This revised MS-DOS is free to all registered PC6300 owners from the AT&T Support Center, 1-800-922-0354. Have the serial number of the CPU handy (it's on the back of the unit). Also, they sometimes ask for the phone number of the site at which you work (they use it to index an online database). For AT&T/BL-CB its 614/860-3300. ---------------------------- cut here --------------------------------- The AT&T MS-DOS 2.11 operating system has been revised to incorporate new software features and to correct deficiencies in the previous 1.0 release. The following is a list of the enhancements included in the new 1.1 release of the operating system. 1. The BIOS is now capable of handling 2 hard disk units of varying sizes. 2. The FORMAT command can format a hard disk larger than 16 Mb. 3. The FORMAT command can format a hard disk with bad sectors. 4. The GRAPHICS utility will now permit printing of a 640 by 400 resolution display. 5. FDISK is capable of recognizing a configuration consisting of 2 hard disks. 6. The COMP command does not fail if the second file specified is not found. 7. The COMP command can now execute correctly with other applications which remain resident in memory. 8. The PRINT utility has been modified so that background printing will continue after application programs have begun. 9. The BIOS clock driver will no longer hang the system when used on IBM hardware. MICROSOFT GW-BASIC 2.02 ENHANCEMENTS AND BUG FIXES The following is a list of the enhancements and bug fixes made to GW-BASIC between Microsoft versions 2.01 and 2.02. 1. Invoking GW-GASIC with a non-existant user program on the command line would leave the user in GW-BASIC. This has been changed so that GW-BASIC terminates to DOS after giving the "File Not Found" error message. 2. The VARPTR(#n) function would not return the address of a closed file in GW-BASIC. GW-BASIC was modified so that if the /I was used on the command line, then it would return the address of the FDB even if the file was closed. If no /I was used on the command line, then VARPTR(#n) gives an error if the file is not open. 3. The VARPTR(#n) function would do nothing but return the same number as passed. This problem has been rectified. 4. The cursor was not being displayed during execution of the INPUT statement. This problem has been rectified. 5. The KEY LIST statement now displays all characters in the function keys in exactly the same way as KEY ON. 6. The FILES, NAME, KILL, MKDIR, RMDIR and CHDIR statements would fail if executed repeatedly. These problems have been rectified. 7. Any output to the file "LPT1:" would generate a "Bad file mode" error. This problem has been rectified. 8. The statement CHAIN MERGE "NUL" would fail. This problem has been rectified. 9. The CR/LF characters are now handled properly in COM. 10. File size was not be properly updated when PUTting random records. Specifically, in a random file of size M, PUTting a record at position n where n<M would cause the file size to be reported as n. This problem has been rectified. 11. LOF(#) where # has not been opened gave the "Bad file mode" error instead of the "Bad file number" error. GW-BASIC has would alter the GW-BASIC work space. This problem has been rectified. 14. Angle and Turn Angle subcommands of the DRAW statement had cumulative round-off errors which caused them to "drift" if executed repeatedly within a loop. 15. The ENVIRON statement has been altered to accept parameter strings with trailing spaces. 16. If an ENVIRON statement causes an "Out of Memory" error, the old value of the parameter in the environment table was not deleted. This problem has been rectified. 17. The functions ERDEV and ERDEV$ variables are now reset when a RESUME statement is executed. This is more consistent with the way ERR is handled. 18. The user can now break out of statements such as INPUT. 19. GW-BASIC now displays line 0 if line 0 contains a syntax error discovered during execution. 20. When the line printer was toggled via control-P or equivalent, and the printer went off line for some reason, GW-BASIC would loop indefinitely trying to print the error message on the printer. GW-BASIC now resets the printer echo mode if the printer comes back with an error. AT&T GW-BASIC RELEASE 1.0 ENHANCEMENTS AND BUG FIXES 1. The SCREEN statement has been changed to allow 0 as a parameter for the active and visual pages in graphics modes 1 and 2. 2. Depressing the F3 (LOAD) key while GW-BASIC is being read from disk no longer causes the system to hang. 3. Loaders have been provided which will allow the user to invoke GW-BASIC using the names "BASIC" and "BASICA". 4. A duration of .01 in the SOUND statement is now audible. 5. Tiling no longer attempts to paint outside the object boundaries. 6. Trapping on the F10 key now always works correctly. 7. The entire screen is now addressable with the Koala pad. 8. Absolute location 0:510 needs to always be loaded with the address of GW-BASIC data segment while GW-BASIC is running. On program exit or when a Shell command is issued, it is now correctly reset to 0. 9. Control-Break has been changed to clear the keyboard queue. 10. Using an OPEN statement with concatenated file names now works correctly. The following example previously produced a "Path not found" error message. 10 DRIV$="B:" 20 OPEN DRIV$+"FILENAME.EXT" FOR INPUT AS #2 -- +--------------+------------------------+-----------------+ | Mike Vrbanac | AT&T Bell Laboratories | Columbus, Ahiya | +--------------+------------------+-----------------------+ | Unix: {cbosgd|ihnp4}!cbuxc!gmv | CompuServ: 76054,113 | +---------------------------------+-----------------------+