iav1917@ritcv.UUCP (alan i. vymetalik) (12/02/87)
Ok, Rainbow, Robin, and PRO fans:
Wake up! Time to stir the coals again. We have access to this news-
group across a wide spectrum of universities and companies. Surely,
there are enough 'techies' out there who are doing 'interesting'
things with their machines and 'others' who could use the help.
So, for this round of postings and mail messages, let's start putting
together a reasonable wish list of items people need, have problems
with, or are working on for DEC's lost microsystems.
Publicity will probably be tolerated here. Anyone doing ANYTHING for
the machines? Anyone?
Some items and food for thought for Rainbow users:
- MS-DOS 3.10 *does* exist for the Rainbow. WRITE TO KEN OLSEN AT
DEC AND HAMMER HOME THE IDEA THAT DEC SHOULD RELEASE THE O/S TO
THE WORLD AS A FINAL SALUTE TO THE RAINBOW. It's the * least *
that they could do. Don't try for Windows. Let's try to get 3.10 out
officially. Even if they'll release it as an 'unsupported' product
it'll be a huge success.
Better yet...
- Want to run a good multi-tasking O/S on your Rainbow? Check out
Enhanced Rainbow/VENIX from The Boston Software Works at 120
Fulton Street, Boston, MA, 02109, 617-367-6846. It's an amazing
sight to be to 'login:' to your machine and run several programs
simultaneously! It makes MS-DOS look absolutely ill!
- Anyone notice that the disk drivers in Rainbow MS-DOS can handle
a double-sided floppy disk? Anyone experimenting with adding a
TEAC drive (can't remember the model) to replace the RX-50s?
Workable patches to the driver to support it?
- Check out the HitchHiker's Guide BBS at 315-589-7361 if you want
to see one of the largest DEC Rainbow BBSs in the country.
This BBS is now running Fido V12d (apparently the only Rainbow BBS
running Fido V12) with a 67 MB disk structure holding over 1500+
Rainbow CP/M, MS-DOS, and IBM PC programs. Oh, that's right, the
disk is an RD53! Same controller as the one for your 5MB drive.
Those good-natured folks at DEC never told us it would work!
Of course, they told us we couldn't have more control over the
keyboard to reassign function keys. Check out CodeBlue V2.0 by
Dan Pleasant. He proved everyone at DEC didn't know what they
were talking about. (For example, <CTRL><COMPOSE><KEYPAD .>
will reboot the Rainbow when running CB...it's almost the same key
positions as the famous <CTRL><ALT><DEL> sequence. Also, the
first 10 grey function keys are the same as the PC's PF1-PF10!).
Ok, the question here to ANYONE who has an idea on this subject:
DEC says we can reprogram the microprocessor on the keyboard to
accept commands from the host processor. In fact, they go about
telling us the codes and values (with some pathetic examples) to
do this (see the Rainbow 100 Technical Manual EK-PC100-TM-001
pages 8-23 and on). For example, I would like to program the
keyboard to oscillate the bell and key-click sounds. But, no
matter what I have done, I cannot get anything to work. Any clues?
I've tried interrupts, calling it from CP/M, and offering small
animals as sacrifices. Next, I'll have to point a .44 at it!
Any rumors or secret goings-on out there??? Send me an e-mail and I'll
pass the knowledge on to Charlie Matco at Digital Review. Maybe if we
get enough tidbits we can get a couple of cases of Matco Coffee Mugs!
Enjoy!
Alan
Alan I. Vymetalik @ {allegra,seismo}!rochester!ritcv!iav1917
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DISCLAIMER: The above statements and opinions belong to the author.
Any resemblence to statements found in actual reality is purely coin-
cidental. And, as always, the above opinions have absolutely nothing
to do with the little, fat man putting $100 bills in my pocket.
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