AMONSON@IDCSVAX.BITNET (07/04/89)
Nick,
No luck with personal mail to you either, boy BITNET sure is FUN!! I
did however receive your mail and I do appreciate it. I will probably get it
because I hate having to boot from disk (especially with my unreliable 1050)
just to use the VAX at my school. Is it true that SDX has a "CONFIG.SYS"
simular to MS-DOS to define devices and such? Also how "transparent" is the
cartridge? I do a lot of machine language programming and I find it useful
to manipulate CART control ($D500-D5FF). How forgivable is SDX? Also I have
seen the SDX for around $55, have you seen lower prices, and where.
Thanks in advance!
Paul Amonson
BITNET: AMONSON@IDCSVAXOrdania-DM@cup.portal.com (Charles K Hughes) (07/05/89)
RE: unreliable 1050 Adding an xf551 is a good idea, especially since the xf551 can be upgraded to an 80 track mech (2880 sectors of 256 bytes each :) for about $100. SDX does have a config.sys file but I don't know the MSDOS config file so I can't say just how "close" they are. As for the cart line...forget it....the SDX does not like being played with. I am not sure how the on/off function is accomplished, but it is apparently compatible with other carts (so you could put BASIC XE on top of EXPRESS, on top of DIAMOND, on top of SDX, on top of the RTIME8 and they would all work). Ordania-DM @cup.portal.com
ajy2208%ritcv@cs.rit.edu (07/05/89)
I've had Sparta X for several months now and consider it a well-spent investment in my 8-bit system. Prior to using SDX I used Sparta 3.2d (which at the time I was using to run a Carina II BBS) so upgrading to SDX was a natural choice for me. SDX seems to work with more programs than before (especially if BANKED mode is used on a 128K> machine with the X command), but there are a few programs it simply doesn't work with (AtariWriter Plus, for instance, although I have heard of a patch to make it work). I __LOVE__ having ARC at my fingertips, although Bob Puff's ARC/DEARC programs are about twice as fast as SDX's. But one nice thing about SDX is the existence of a PATH variable that specifies where to look for programs you want to run. For example, you can have it look at the CAR: (SDX cartridge) first, then the current working directory, then in your D1:UTIL> directory, etc... This is VERY VERY VERY handy!! I like just about everything with SDX with a few exceptions. I WISH there was a switch on the cartridge that would let me disable it, rather than having to do a COLD /N everytime I don't want it on. Then again, I don't suppose it would be TOO difficult to build one.. :-) Another problem with SDX is the lack of technical documentation. Bob Puff lives in my area, and he had the darndest time getting enough information about SDX so he could make BobTerm work with it (not to mention the CLI!!!!). Is there anything else I don't like?? Not right offhand!! Oh yea, there is something.. I also wished ICD has aimed more for a UNIX style shell than (gasp!) MeSsy-DOS.. oh well! Can't have everything! Maybe we'll get Unix for the 8-bit now that the Turbo 8-16 board is out.. ;-) __________________________________________________________________________ Albert Yarusso, Rochester Institute of Technology Bitnet: ajy2208@ritvax.bitnet Usenet: ajy2208.ritcv.rit.edu