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Path: utzoo!utcs!lsuc!jimomura
From: jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga,net.micro.6809,net.micro.68k
Subject: Re: Info on OS9 Operating System
Message-ID: <815@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 28-Sep-85 21:53:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: lsuc.815
Posted: Sat Sep 28 21:53:02 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 01:41:44 EDT
References: <347@wlbr.UUCP> <272@ccivax.UUCP>
Reply-To: jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura)
Organization: Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
Lines: 92
Xref: utcs net.micro.amiga:247 net.micro.6809:501 net.micro.68k:1155
Summary: Corrections

In article <272@ccivax.UUCP> rb@ccivax.UUCP (rex ballard) writes:
>> In response to the request for general info on OS9 ... a MC68xxx O/S ...
>> A brief discussion of OS-9:
>> 
>> Tandy sells it for their ($300) Color Computer ... it's a real
>			    ^^^^ the computer, not OS-9
>> paradox in that (diminishing) market. Look for its manuals at your

     Nobody has accurate figures on Color Computer sales.  I suspect
the conclusion that the market is shrinking is right, but Tandy only
knows.  There are rumours of a new computer coming out in the next
year, but then again, there were rumours a year ago too.  In fact
the parts of one computer that was *almost* marketted are now being
sold for the CoCo in some US stores.

>> nearby Tandy computer center.
> 
>> The trouble (with OS9 for the 68000)  is that it's not available on
>> a popular computer so there's never been any good non-system softare
>> so there's never been any users --- etc, etc, catch-22.

     What?!!!  There's Stylograph (word processor w/mail merge & spelling
checker, DynaCalc (spread sheet) and Sculptor (applications generator
which you can consider as taking the place of a dBASEIII).  This is all
that a *lot* of people *ever* use.  These are just the ones that I know
about too, there are probably more that I don't know about.  There is a
rich and growing public domain, as you mention later, specifically for
OS-9, and the 'C' compiler will translate many Unix calls, making the
general public domain 'C' programs and especially the Unix programs fairly
readily available.  The Pascal should be able to handle a lot of Public
Domain programs as well.  T.G. Lewis' "Microbook" database manager should
work fine, because it comes with an ASCII source file (I can read
single sided IBM PC formatted discs on my Color Computer under OS-9
using a utility called 'PCread' and write single sided PC disks with
'PCwrite').

>
>Neither was CP/M 68K (re: TOS) until about two weeks ago.
>Intuition is a real commonly used OS around here?
>(I guess MS-DOS was a household word before the PC!!!)
>
>> I considered going to OS9/68K until I spent a weekend with an AT&T
>> UNIX-PC. For < $5,000, that machine, with its bit-mapped graphics & Sys 5.2
>		  ^^^^^
>> just beats the heck out of any other high-end machine for the serious
>> hobbiest.
>
>	$5000 for a hobby machine?!!!  (Wouldn't you rather have a buick?)
>
>> So in SUMMARY I'll editorialize:
>> 
>> 	OS9-6809 is the best small-computer O/S I've seen but
>> 	it has never gained popularity to attract software houses.
>
>There is an awfull lot of "basic-09" and OS-9 code on radio-shack bulletin
>boards, much of it source.  Since CoCo owners tend to get no software
>support from RS, OS-9 is the only way to get much of anything for it.
>(See earlier article about buying ROM to Throw it away (AMIGA DOS NOT IN ROM??))
>I even remember seeing one called GKS.OS9 or something like that.
>This is one of the few systems where you can sell a LIBRARY!
>
>There is also some "C" stuff.  Porting would involve expanding screen
>widths (CoCo uses 256x190 graphics or 32x16 text), or you could put them
>in windows.  OS-9 uses a library of graphics commands similar to
>extended BASIC (GWBASIC to IBM'ers), which can be used from C or BASIC-09.

     Most OS-9'ers, including Color Computer OS-9'er (such as myself)
have hardware 80 column displays.  In fact, my scroll rate is faster than
an IBM-PC (due to dedicated RAM and a 6845 with it's own clock), I also
have smooth scroll, redefinable charactersets, horizontal redefinition
(I haven't tried 132 columns but apparently I can do this too), and
possibly high-res graphics (black & white) beyond 256 * 192.

     We also have hard disk systems available.  In fact, as a practical
matter, OS-9 is better for systems of say 20 meg. than real Unix due to
code efficiency and less online surplussage.  Putting it into scale,
I run 1 meg. online (3 double sided, double density, 40 track floppies)
and don't find it enough.  I could go 80 track, but really I should
get a hard disk of about 10 - 20 meg.  I doubt if anyone here is surprised.
>
>Since I haven't got a GEM guide handy, maybe someone will tell me if
>there is something BASIC can do that GEM can't?  I would guess that
>GEM could be called instead of a run-time library.  If GEM can do more,
>great!!

     Huh?  GEM isn't a language.



-- 
James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura