rgt%beta@LANL.GOV (Richard Thomsen) (09/06/88)
After having talked to a lawyer, I have been told that I can make my new BIOS for the Rainbow available to others. I have written letters to DEC about this, and have been ignored (as expected). So I am planning on making the BIOS available in the near future, as soon as I get a few bugs fixed. What this will entail is the following: You send me proof that you have purchased the original DEC code (such as the original DEC disks), and I will modify it for you to work with double-sided disks. I will send back another disk containing the new BIOS and bootstrap programs, as well as a double-sided floppy disk formatting program. I also plan on providing, if requested, two double-sided disk drives along with cabling and power connectors. Unfortunately, the company from which I purchased my disk drives appears to be out of business, so I am looking for a new source for the disk drives. I am writing an article to be sent to Rainbow News, the newspaper of the International Rainbow Users Group, that describes what I did and what I will be offering. Look for it there soon (I hope). I have asked this before, but received no responses. However, I will try again. I would like to add code to read IBM PC/AT disks, as well as 3.5 inch disks, but I do not know the formatting of them. Does anyone have the formatting information for PC/AT disks? Does anyone have the electrical and formatting information for 3.5 inch disks? Can the 3.5 inch drives be connected to the Rainbow disk controller? Richard Thomsen
GTHEALL@PENNDRLN.BITNET (George A. Theall) (09/07/88)
THREE CHEERS FOR RICHARD THOMSON!!! I think it's fabulous that he will be distributing his changes to the Rainbow BIOS. My only question is what code are we expected to show ownership of? The source code for the Rainbow BIOS? Or is it sufficient to have the original disks which the already compiled MS-DOS v2.11 was shipped on? Now if only Caroline would get out her Rainbow News - I'm still waiting for the April-May-June issue! George P.S. Sorry, Richard, I don't have any info on using AT or 3.5" drives. I'm not much of a hardware guru. /*--------------------------------------------*/ /* BITNET: GTHEALL@PENNDRLN */ /* INTERNET: GTHEALL@PENNDRLN.UPENN.EDU */ /* SnailMail: Department of Economics */ /* University of Pennsylvania */ /* 3718 Locust Walk /6297 */ /* Philadelphia, PA. 19104 */ /* AT+TNet: (215) 898-6741 */ /* ICBMNet: 39 57 N, 75 11 W, 200 Alt */ /*--------------------------------------------*/