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SmartDos Review [message #64832] Sat, 18 May 2013 20:58
benw is currently offline  benw
Messages: 29
Registered: May 2013
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Message-ID: <695@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 24-May-84 09:24:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.695
Posted: Thu May 24 09:24:01 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 26-May-84 14:08:46 EDT
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 55


I gave in to my curiosity and bought Rana's Smartdos operating system.
Review in brief:  A good, flexible DOS with some nice utilities thrown
in; BUT...if you have OSA+/DOSXL, Mydos, or Dosmaster, you probably don't
need Smartdos...especially for the price.

The DOS supports single or double density (not 1.5 density, even though
the RANA drive supports it).  Smartdos is menu driven (with a pretty
large menu); commands are chosen by typing the first letter of the
menu item.  The usual commands are there (copy, format, etc) as well
as some unusual ones, described below.  Each command has subprompts,
and good use is made of color to help the user know where he/she's at.
The DOS has some useful shortcuts.  For instance, the drive number (1-4)
alone specifies the disk; no "DX:" needed.  Another example is the
single drive copy...the user can specify "=" to mean "copy all files
on a single drive".

One of the nicest features of the DOS is the ability to change drive
configurations on the fly.  It supports up to 4 drives in any mix
of single or double density, and the "R" (reconfigure) command
toggles any of the drives between single and double without having
to reboot DOS or have a special double density version of DOS.
There is other flexability.  A command called (get this!) "OBVERT
RESIDUP" allows the DUP part of the DOS to reside in memory; thus,
when flipping from BASIC to DOS and back, there is no need for
a MEM.SAV and no delay (OSA+ works this way).  Smartdos may also
be reconfigured for fewer than 4 drives, and adjusted for the
max number of simultaneous open files allowable, thus freeing up
some memory if you don't need the maximum configuration.

There are some utility functions included in the DOS.  There is
a disk speed checker, a sector copier (great...now I have 6
sector copiers!), and a disk checker (reads sectors and reports
errors).  The disk checker is good...it even reports double
sectoring, but the manual does not talk at all about the kinds
of errors it can find.

The manual is OK, but not great.  One frustrating error occurs
in the startup section, but most of the manual seems correct.
There is not much technical info (give me a memory map and entry
points, PLEEEEEESE), and sometimes the manual seems to wander
and jump to seemingly unrelated information in the middle of a
topic.  It's better (and less cutesy) than their disk drive
manual, at least.

The DOS is big (9.5K), but the user has the option of writing
the DOS out without the DOS.SYS file.  It's also expensive...
about $50.  In conclusion, if you don't have a double density
DOS already, Smartdos is worth looking into.  If you already
have a DD Dos, it's probably not worth your while.


					Ben Weber pyuxn!benw
					AT&T Technologies OSTC
					Piscataway, NJ
  
  
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