FRANK@sri-vax.ARPA (Victor Frank) (03/02/85)
[Arise Ye Clones!]
In Marc Mekton's INFOWORLD FLAME <451@hou2f.UUCP>, he states:
>NO MS-DOS COMPUTER HAS ON-LINE HELP. Why isn't this mentioned as a
>negative point for all MS-DOS computers?
Uh, I don't know about the other clones, but I have running on my
Sanyo MBC-555-2, Michtron's DSDOS+211 which has an MSDOS help file.
There's also a help file on my CP/M-86 O/S (patched to DRI's CP/M-86
for the IBM-PC by Key Software Products for the Sanyo).
I would like to see some discussion on the net by owners of other
MS-DOS machines, such as:
TI Professional Compaq Super XT
Zenith Z-100 Tandy 2000 Leading Edge
Televideo Victor Eagle
on what the capabilities (including disk formats, DMA, SIO, video
controller chip, etc.) are, and how (non) compatible they are with
each other, not just the IBM PC.
It should be possible for a software developer to write code that
would be executable of most of the generic MSDOS machines. To do this
he(she) would need to know "that subset" of the MSDOS commands and
interrupts which is used by the majority of the clones. Anyone out there
have such a list? The Sanyo's MSDOS 2.11 has a number of INT10 instructions
that are not implemented.
Even high languages present difficulties. It appears that Sanyo
BASIC and BASICA and everybody else's BASIC are incompatible. Many C
implementations are not transportable, ditto Pascal, and anything which
writes directly to video memory.
On the Sanyo, we've got two non-compatible formats for 10 sector/track
on our disks (I guess we've got IBM to thank for 8 and 9 sectors/track
being compatible.) Then there's 80 track drives, hard disks, the video
board, etc.
We've got a growing Tower of Babel just from "IBM compatibles". HELP!!!
SOMEONE!!! Since PC-DOS 3.X is not likely to be as "open" as 2.X, I wish that
all the clone manufacturers would get together and agree to standards to
create an equivalent to MSX (has to be in software since the clones do not
have identical hardware configurations). Call it DOS 4.X, or whatever! Put
in everything! Don't wait for IBM! IS ANYBODY LISTENING?
FLAME OFF!
Victor Frank, Editor
Sanyo PC Hackers Newsletter
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