68xxx_Machines_V1N3_Apr81 68xxx Machines V1N3 Apr81

68xxx_Machines_V1N3_Apr81 68xxx_Machines_V1N3_Apr81

User Manual: 68xxx_Machines_V1N3_Apr81

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Page Count: 16

~acftines

Vol.

I,

Issue

3,

April

1991

Price:

$2.75

76.

68n.

/llCbiD"

js

published

and

copyright

(C)

1991

by

Catham

Rouse

Company,

RDI!

BOI

371,

Wyolling

DR

19934.

Ph.

\302)

492-8~11.

The

edito~

is

Jall~s

H.

DeStafeno.

One

year

USA

subscription

is

$12.\0.

Canada

aDd

Mexico

$14.2~.

All

otbers

\surface

$17.25. All

"ajor

credit

cards

",cepted.

Our

low

prices

reflect

a

10%

casb

discount.

Please

add

1 % to

credit

card

orders.

AnT

site

display

ad,ertislng

is

accepted.

The

half

page

rate

is

$IO/issue.

Write

for

other

size/duratlon

rates.

Readers are encouraged

to

contribute

letters,

articles,

programlling

inforllation

and

other

material

related

to

cOllp"ters witb the

68n

x)

processors;

excepting

Macs

and

Amigas. Please send

lIaterial

to

the

above

address.

Thank

you

for

your

support.

The

Editor's

Tho~ghts

By

Jim

DeStafeno

Well.

..

Due

to

Ron

Anderson's

treat,

its

even

a

tighter

squeeze

this

month,

but

its

well

worth

it.

We

have

had

lots

of

questions

about

REXSDOS

and

8K*D08;

what

are

they,

what

are

they

I

ike,

where

can

they

be

gotten,

etc.

Ron

has

done

a

yoemans

job

discussing

them.

He

even

tossed

in

08-9/68000

for

good

measure.

Guess

Ron

is

one

of

four

or

five

people

that

have

written

this

article,

He

has

long

term

in

depth

first

hand

experi-

ence

with

the

three

operatingsys-

tems.

This

makes

him

uniquely

qua'"

lified

to

undertake

the

task.

I

count

us

luck

to

have

such

a man

on

staff.

And

speaking

of

"good

guys",

van

der

Poel

finishes

his

three

part

series

this

month.

I'm

not

a

"e"

programmer,

yet

I've

been

able

to

enjoy

his

ef

forts.

I

hope

l'

ve

convinced

him

to

share

wi

th

us

more

of

the

ways

he

has

used

to

solve

vexing

programming

problems.

still

havn't

heard

from

IM8

on

the

MM/l

or

Frank

Hogg

Lab.

s

on

their

machine(s).

This

Issue:

Editor's

thoughts

Ref1ections

In

'c'

Bob van

der

Poel

finishes

his

3

part

C

programming

series.

REX.R,

S1t*DOS

and

OS-~/68000

. . .

Ron

Anderson

discusses

and

compares

the

three

operating

systems.

Advertiser's

Index

C1assified

Ads

Advertiser's

Index

Granite

Computer

Systems

The 68xxx

Machines

Bob

van

der

Poe1

Software

delmar

company

Palm

Beach

Software

Peripheral

Technology

April

1991

68xxx

Machines

1

3

5

1

2

3

4

4

8,

9

11

13

Page

1

Microware

has

just

announced

a

translater

program

that

converts

source

code

of

their

09/68K

BASIC

to

their

'c'

compiler

source

code.

That

not

only

means

a

Basic

pro-

gram

can

be

compiled

to

M/L,

but

when

written

on

one

computer

it

will

run

on

all

the

computers

the

Microware

'c'

language

runs

on.

I

feel

this

is

a

major

pargramming

advancement.

Lastly,

if

you've

written

a

short

program,

have

a new

piece

of

software

you'd

like

to

evaluate

or

have

other

information

our

readers

might

be

interested

in,

let

us

know.

We

are

always

interested

in

printing

articles

from

new

writ-

ers.

And,

as

always,

your

comments

and

criticisms

are

welcome.

So,

kick

back

and

let

Ron

and

Bob

take

you

for

a

ride;

which

would

be

hard

if

not

impossibl

e,

to

get

anywhere

else.

Classified

Ads

-

WANTED

55-50 equipnent.

swr

CPU

card,

also

Gimix

PIO

#28

(30

pin)

FOG.

Alen

E.

Gordon,

11)

/

160

NW

176

st

/

Miami,

FL

33169/

(305) 653-8000.

-

SALE

Complete, ready

to

plug

in;

all

hardware,

software,

manua

1 s and

ca-

b 1 es ; super

fast

20MB

hard

disk

and

35/40

track,

double

sided

floppy

disk

drive;

both in one

case,

for

CoCo

I,

II

or

II

I.

Works

with both

BASIC

and

05-9.

HD

is

partitioned.

Used

sparing-

ly; $525. Jim DeStafeno /

Rd

1,

Box

315

/

Wyoming,

DE

19934

/ (302)

492-8511.

-

SALE

Tandy/TRS-80

Model

100

laptop

C011luter.

Bui

It

in

300

baud

modem.

BASIC,

text

editor,

communications

software

bui

It

in

Ra1.

Has

32K

RAM.

Includes

modem

and

printer

cables

and

all

manuals. Good

condition.

$115

including shipping. Phone

Randy

Krippner: (414) 853-1044.

000

Turn

that

old

computer

equipment

into

cash

with

a

68xxx

classified

ad.

For

Sale

ads

are

$5.00

per

50

character

line.

Wanted

ads

are

just

$2.50

per

50

character

line.

Se:1_ect:::i_<>ns

In

C

Part

3

of

3

By

Bob

van

nor Poel

Last

issue,

in

Part

2

of

this

series,

we

created

an

array

of

pointers

to

functions

which

let

us

create

a

cursor

with

different

video

attributes.

This

month

we

will

take

this

concept

one

step

further

and

set

up

an

array

which

contains

not

only

function

point-

ers,

but

also

a

set

of

unique

val-

ues

paired

to

each

function.

This

type

of

table

is

very

useful

in

the

main

input

parser

of

a

prog-

ram.

My

text

editor

VEO

has

a

main

loop

which

simply

waits

for

a

key-

press

and

then

branches

to

an

ap-

propriate

routine:

if

the

keypress

is

a

character

then

we

go

to

the

edit()

routine,

if

it

is

a

control

we

execute

the

appropriate

func-

tion.

This

could

be

done

with

a

massive

SWITCH

..

CASE,

but

the

met-

hod

presented

in

the

following

fragments

is

much

easier.

First

off,

a

structure

is

needed

which

will

hold

both

the

keyvalues

and

the

corresponding

functions:

struct

jumpent{

char

key;

int

("fn)O;

} ;

Next,

let's

have

a

look

at

the

idle

loop:

mainloop()

{

1*

let

the

compiler

know

which

routi

nes

we']

1

be

usi

ng

* I

extern

i

nt

addmacro().

append(),

£indO,

block(),

delete();

register

int

k;

static

struct

jumpent

cmdsl]={

'a'-Ox60,

addmacro,

'g'-Ox60,

append,

'f'-Ox60,

find,

'b'-Ox60,

block

'd'-Ox60,

delete,

0,0;

for{;

;)(

Page

2

68:u:x

Machines

April

1991

k=curkey(x,y,*curpos,O);

if(k>='

,

edit(k);

e

he

if

(do

jump(

k

,cmds

»

doerror{

"Unknown

function");

}

Of

course,

VEDs

list

of

func-

tions

is

much

longer.

The

main

jump

table

has

over

60

entries.

Both

the

structure

and

the

loop

are

more

complex,

but

this

example

will

suffice

for

our

needs

here.

What

we

have

done

is

to

set

up

an

array

with

entries

matching

each

possible

keypress

and

the

corresponding

function.

In

this

example,

if

CTRL-A

is

pressed

we

want

to

call

the

function

addmacro(),

for

CTRL-D we

want

delete(),

etc.

All

we

need

now

is

a

function,

dojump(),

which

will

examine

each

entry

in

the

array

looking

for

a

match

and,

if

one

is

found,

call

the

corresponding

fun-

ction.

dojump(c,tbl)

char

c;

struct

jumpent

tbl[];

{

for(

;

tbl->key;

tbl++){

if(

tbl->key==c){

(*tbl->fn)();

return

0;

return

-1:

This

function

receives

the

key

to

look

f

or

the

base

address

of

the

tabl

e.

I t

loops

through

the

table

until

a

match

or

the

end

of

the

table

is

found.

If

the

charac-

ter

'c'

is

found

in

the

table

the

corresponding

function

is

called

and

a 0

is

returned.

If

a

match

is

not

found

a

-1

is

returned

so

that

the

caller

can

alert

the

user

that

an

unknown

or

illegal

option

was

selected.

The

idea

of

jump

table

selec-

tion

can

be

expanded

for

your

own

needs.

For

example,

there

is

no

reason

for

the

match

characters

to

remain

type

char.

With

a

simple

modification

they

could

easily

be

changed

to

integers,

floats,

or

even

strings.

It

is

also

possible

to

change

things

so

that

parame-

ters

are

passed

to

the

functions,

and

with

some

trickery

the

func-

tions

could

even

return

values.

By

using

pointers

to

functions,

we

can

create

compact,

fast

C

pro-

grams.

Due

to

space

limitations,

there

is

onl

y

space

to

show

code

fragments

and

simple

examples,

but

with

this

base

you

should

be

able

to

expand

this

technique

and

adapt

April

1991

68xxx

Machines

Page

3

Grea~

05-9

50f~ware

VBD:

OS-9

Text

Editor

.

$24.96

The

best

editor

for

OS-9

just

got

better.

Version

2.0

of

this

best

se-

ller

now

includes

36

definable

mac-

ros,

case-switcher,

and

even

more

speed.

See

the

review

in

Mar/Apr

Cli-

pboard.

Works

with

128

or

512K. Up-

grades

to

version

2.0

with

new

28

pg.

manual

are

$12.00

with

proof

of

pur-

chase.

VPRINT:

OS-9

Text

Formatter.

$29.95

An

unbelievably

powerful

formatter.

Features

include

complete

proportion-

al

font

support,

multiple

columns,

footnotes,

indexing,

table

of

conte-

nts

and

more.

Comes

with

120

pg.

man-

ual,

demo

files

and

extensive

macro

file.

512K

RAM

recommended.

Ultra

Label

Maker 9 .

$19.95

Turns

your

printer

into

a

printing

press

for

labels.

WYSIWYG

previewing.

Supports

ALL

printers.

Useful

and

lots

of

fun.

One

of

Rush

Caley's

Top

10.

Requires

512K

Coco

3.

Coco

2/3

version

$14.95

Magazine

Index

System

9

...

$19.95

Now

you

can

find

those

references

fast.

Comes

with

extensive

Coco maga-

zine

data

files.

File

compatible

with

our

RS-DOS

vers

ion.

Another

one

of

Rush

Caley's

Top

10.

Requires

5l2K

Coco

3.

Coco

2/3

version

$14.95

Sorry,

no

credit

cards.

Enclose

check

or

money

order

plus

$2

S/H.

Complete

catalog

available.

Send

$1.00.

(Pree

with

order.)

Most

orders

shipped

next

day!

Bob van

der

Poel

Software

P.O.

Box

57

Wynndel, B.C.

OR

Canada

VOB

2NO

P.O

Box

355

Porthill,

ID

USA

83853-0355

the

concept

to

your

own

programs.

If

you

have

any

comments

on

this

series

or

suggestions

for

future

articles

please

drop

me a

note

here

at

the

"The

68xxx

Machines"

or

directly

to

me

at

PO

Box

355,

Porthill,

10,

83853.

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fI.l

Page

4

68xxx

Machines

April

1991

REX.

5K*D05

an.d

05-9/68000

By

Ron

Anderson

This

is

a

"special

report"

in

response

to,

"What

is

REX,

MONK,

SK*DOS

and

OS-9/68XXX?"

(But

lets

call

05-9/68000

OS-K)

The

focus

is

on

REXDOS

and

MONK

because

they

are

the

newest

operating

systems

available

for

Peripheral

Technolo-

gy

computers.

We've

been

talking

about

SK*DOS

for

several

months,

and

OS-K

has

been

mentioned

as

well.

REXDOS

was

developed

several

years

ago

by

Dan

Farnsworth

for

his

own

use.

It

and

MONK,

a

simple

startup

boot

/

debugging

68000

program,

(normally

called

a

moni-

tor

program),

along

with

OS-K

and

SK*DOS

are

now

available

for

the

Peripheral

Technology

68000

com-

puters.

»>

GETTING

REX

UP

«<

At

work

I

have

a

number

of

PT68K-2

(PT=

Peripheral

Technolo-

gy)

computers

and

an

older

-lAo

I

have

a

PT68K-2

at

home

too.

The

company

presently

doesn't

have

any

of

the

new

PT68K-4

systems,

though

our

next

addition

will

most

likely

be

one

of

them.

When

Dan

Farnsworth

asked

me

to

check

out

his

REX

and

MONK

combi-

nation,

I

reminded

him

I

didn't

have

a

-4

system.

"That's

OK,

REX

should

run

on

a

-2

just

as

well.

We'll

have

a

chance

to

see

if

there

are

any

glitches."

So

I

agreed

to

the

test.

After

two

weeks

of

sessi

ons,

some

lasting

until

2

AM,

I

had

it

all

working.

Don't

get

me

wrong,

it

wasn't

difficult,

but

I

had

a

lot

of

stuff

I

wanted

to

port

over

to

REX.

If

the

stuff

couldn't

be

ported,

I

wasn't

much

interested

in

using

REX

for

anything.

First

job

was

to

get

my

system

configured.

I

have

some

old

40

track

standard

DSDD

drives.

(Dan

tells

me

they

are

obsolete.

Howev-

er,

the

company

probabl

y

has

20

or

30

of

them

on

various

older

sys-

tems

used

for

development

work).

The

system

I

choose

to

use

for

the

test

has

a

Monochrome

video

board

and

monitor,

a

20

MEG

hard

disk,

an

80

track

floppy

and

two

40

track

floppies.

I

disconnected

the

hard

drive

for

the

preliminary

tests.

I

found

I

could

boot

from

the

supplied

system

disk.

I

immediate-

ly

duplicated

it

per

the

instruc-

tions

in

the

manual.

Next

I

enabled

the

40

track

drives.

Soon,

I

noticed

the

floppy

MAKDISK

utility

formated

with

no

sector

interleave

(i.

e.

I

saw

se-

quentially

numbered

sectors

on

each

track).

REX

not

only

reads

a

track

at

a

time,

but

no

interleave

means

it

reads

a

track

in

one

rev-

olution

of

the

disk

drive.

Wow!

I

formatted

an

80

track

disk

that

way.

It

turned

out

to

be

really

fast

reading

and

writing.

Next

I

tried

to

format

a

40

track

disk,

but

got

a

fatal

error.

A

call

to

Dan

with

the

problem

rewarded

me

a

few

days

later

with

a

new

MAKDISK

utility.

It

seems

MAKDISK

didn't

read

the

drive

ste-

prate

from

the

Drive

Information

Table

(DIT)

correctly.

It

tried

to

step

the

40

track

drives

too

fast.

with

all

working

cleanly

I

tried

Dan's

editor,

EDDI,

and

found

the

documentation

didn't

apply

to

the

video

monitor

and

IBM

keyboard

configuration

I

was

us-

ing.

Another

ca

11

to

Dan

got

me

the

correct

information

for

com-

mands.

As

soon

as

EDDI

was

running,

I

decided

to

work

on

the

Whimsical

compiler.

After

a

short

conference

with

its

author,

John

Spray

(who

works

with

me),

I

modified

the

necessary

system

interface

code.

With

a

little

debugging

we

(John

with

my

help),

had

a

cross

compil-

er

running;

(running

under

SK*DOS

on

one

machine

while

compiling

code

for

PAT

to

run

under

REX).

I

soon

had

PAT,

my

own

editor

run-

ning

under

REX.

When

long

time

computer

users

switch

systems,

they

(speaking

for

myself

too)

try

to

make

the

new

system

look

just

like

the

one

they

are

used

to.

For

example,

FLEX

had

a

LIST

utility

that

displays

a

text

file

to

the

screen

stopping

every

24

lines

until

the

user

hits

ESC

or

space.

When I

got

into

MS-DOS I

found

TYPE

lists

a

file

with

no

stops.

Rather

then

TYPE, I

typed

LIST

and

got

a

NO

SUCH

FILE

error

so

often

I

made

a

batch

file

called

LIST.

BAT.

It

simply

told

the

com-

puter

to

type

the

fi

I e

and

pipe

the

output

to

MORE.

MORE

stops

listing

every

24

lines

and

prompts

April

1991

68xxx

Machines

Page

5

the

user

to

press

a

key

to

contin-

ue.

A

week

later

we

(again

John

with

my

help),

had

Whimsical

run-

ning

under

REX

and

capable

of

com-

piling

itself;

making

an

exact

copy

of

i

tsel

f

abl

e

to

run

under

REX.

Along

the

way,

I

backed

all

my

fi

1

es

off

the

hard

disk

and

reformatted

it

with

the

REX

format

utility.

I

had

a

slight

problem

getting

REX

to

boot

from

the

hard

disk.

A

call

to

Dan

got

me

the

answer

the

next

night

by

phone.

All

works

fine

now.

I've

even

mod-

ified

my

pet

home

made

utilities

so

they

work

under

REX

as

well.

»>

WHERE

DID

REX

COME

FROM

?

«<

Lets

look

at

a

little

history.

Dan,

like

myself,

was

a

long

time

user

of

computers

based

on

the

6800

and

6809

processors.

The

main

operating

system

available

for

those

processors

was

FLEX,

suppl-

ied

with

the

hardware

of

South

West

Technical

Products

Co.

FLEX

was

written

and

supplied

by

Tech-

nical

Systems

Consultants,

origi-

nally

located

in

West

Lafayette

Indiana;

presently

in

Chapel

Hill

North

Carolina.

TSC

as

they

are

known,

have

long

since

dropped

support

of

FLEX

(which

at

least

operationally,

I

understand,

was

a

copy

of

an

oper-

ating

system

developed

by

DEC

for

their

PDP

series

of

computers).

TSC

has

gone

on

to

bigger

and

bet-

ter

things

in

the

form

of

Uniflex,

·a

multi-user,

multi-tasking

oper-

ating

system

developed

first

for

the

6809

and

later

extended

to

run

on

a

68000

bas.ed

computer.

Dan

and

lots

of

others

includ-

ing

myself,

liked

FLEX

a

great

deal.

We

always

felt

we

had

some-

thing

better

than

CP/M

used

by

the

machines

with

the

8080

and

Z-80

Intel

processors.

In

retrospect,

some

of

that

might

have

been

the

"my

dad's

car

is

better

than

your

dad's

car"

syndrome.

Anyway

it

was

agreed

the

6809

is

vastly

easier

to

program

in

assembler

(all

we

had

at

first)

than

it

was

with

the

Intel

proces-

sors.

Therefore

...

it

was

not

un-

reasonabl

e

for

Dan

to

wri

te

an

operating

system

for

the

68000

hardware

very

similar

in

"look

and

feel"

to

FLEX

and

the

earlier

DEC

operating

system.

In

fact,

he

has

done

more

than

that.

He

also

wrote

an

extensive

ROM

monitor

program

called

MONK

to

run

with

REX.

I

must

point

out

both

REX

and

SK*DOS

have

maintained

complete

text

file

compatibility

with

the

old

FLEX.

In

addition,

SK*DOS

has

compatibility

with

binary

program

files

as

well.

That

was

a

natural

desire

since

the

early

development

of

software

for

the

68000

systems

had

to

be

done

on

6809

systems

using

cross

assemblers.

A

cross

assembler

is

an

assember

program

that

runs

on

one

machine

but

gen-

erates

code

for

a

different

pro-

cessor

or

operating

system.

(In

the

process

of

get

ting

a

lot

of

familiar

software

tools

trans-

ferred

over

to

a

new

processor

or

operating

system,

having

a

cross

assembler

or

compiler

is

of

great

value,

as

is

disk

compatibility.)

While

old

FLEX

binary

file

for-

mat

is

not

quite

compatible

with

REX

files,

it

is

easy

to

write

a

program

to

convert

FLEX

files

to

REX

compatible

files.

(Dan

has

already

done

so).

I

won't

get

into

the

binary

file

structure

or

the

differences

in

great

detail.

They

are

fairly

trivial,

Dan

having

I

eft

the

"short

record"

for",

of

FLEX

out,

probably

for

simplicity

and

size.

(A

cross

assembler

or

compiler

that

runs

under

FLEX

and

produces

code

for

SK*DOS

could

be

easily

modified

to

produce

code

for

REX.

Normally

magazines

don't

want

comparison

articles

written

be-

cause

there

is

usually

a

winner

and

a

loser.

That

doesn't

help

advertising

revenue.

["68xxx"

says

let

the

chips

fall

where

they

may.

Ed]

In

this

case,

I

think

I

can

make

a

good

case

for

choosing

any

of

the

three

operating

systems.

I've

mentioned

OS-K

briefly

previ-

ous

1

y,

but

not

in

great

depth.

There

are

numerous

factors

to

con-

sider

in

choosing

your

operating

system.

Let's

look

at

each

in

turn.

»>

A

LOOK

AT

REXDOS

«<

There

are

several

good

reasons

you

would

want

to

consider

REXDOS.

First

of

all

it

is

now

supplied

with

all

Peripheral

Technology

PT68K-4

computers.

These

computers

can

use

high

density

floppy

drives

(the

ones

used

by

AT

and

newer

style

IBM

clone

computers).

That

Page

6

68xxx

Machines

April

1991

means

you

can

install

a

1.44

mega-

byte

3.5

inch

drive

and/or

a

1.2

megabyte

5.25

inch

drive.

They

read

and

write

more

quick-

ly

than

conventional

double

densi-

ty

drives

because

they

pack

the

data

more

closely.

One

of

the

main

features

of

REXDOS

is

the

floppy

disk

file

handling.

REXDOS

(May I

use

REX

for

short?)

handles

disk

files

by

reading

and

writing

a

whole

track

at

one

time.

~ecause

of

the

whole

track

ap-

proach,

the

sectors

are

physically

on

the

drive

in

the

order

in

which

they

must

be

read.

A

whole

track

can

be

read

in

one

revol

ution

of

the

disk.

By

timing

test,

disk

operations

(read

and

write)

are

about

2.5

times

fas

ter

using

REX

than

the

times

of

SK*DOS.

I'd

better

expand

on

that.

The

test

consisted

of

copying

a

very

long

file

from

hard

-disk

to

flop-

py.

Dan's

separate

read

and

write

test*

indicate

reads

from

a

floppy

are

twice

as

fast

and

writes

are

seven

times

as

fast.

Actually

it

is

not

qui

te

that

simpl

e

because

REX

reads

a

whole

track

even

if

only

one

sector

is

needed,

so

REX

is

a

bit

slower

with

very

small

files,

but

considerably

faster

for

large

files.

I

am

told

a

-4

with

the

high

density

drives

reads

and

writes

files

about

2.5

times

fast-

er

then

myoid

-2.

That

approaches

the

disk

operation

speed

of

IBM

clone.

As

for

terminals,

REX

will

run

a

serial

terminal,

a

monochrome

(Hercules)

board

and

monitor

and-

/or

any

color

monitor

from

eGA

to

VGA.

The

PT

uses

third

party

grap-

hics

adaptor

boards.

They

can

be

bought

inexpensively

form

Periph-

eral

Technology

or

your

own

com-

puter

"goodie"

source.

Graphics

adaptors

vary

somewhat.

Some

use

"different"

hardwat:e

which

they

make

compatible

by

means

of

a

onboard

BIOS

ROM.

REX

requires

a

boar&

with

"standard"

hardware.

Check

with

Periphera

1

Technology

for

approved

boards.

Even

with

these

features,

REX

is

a

very

simple

and

small

single

user

operating

system.

Even

so,

it

is

rather

difficult

to

add

other

co-resident

programs.

Perhaps

the

average

user

wouldn't

want

or

need

to

do

that,

at

1

east

not

for

a

whil

e.

REX

gets

along

fine

with

soft-

ware

written

for

loading

at

abso-

lute

addresses.

That

is,

it

does-

n't

require

position

independent

code.

Of

course,

programs

written

in

position

independent

code

work

fine

under

REX

too.

Operating

systems

calls

take

more

bytes

of

code

than

with

SK*DOS.

In

general

there

are

fewer

and

less

capable

as

calls

than

in

SK*DOS.

Most

of

those

who

would

be

capable

of

writing

assembler

code

interfacing

with

the

operating

system

would

be

able

to

code

the

missing

routines

rather

easily.

As

Dan

put

it,

the

operating

system

features

supplied

are

generally

those

required

for

the

operating

system.

Where

functions

might

be

useful

to

a

user,

Dan

has

made

entry

points

available

to

the

user.

The

usual

as

calls

exist

for

such

things

as

opening

a

file

to

read

or

write,

closing

a

file,

etc.

There

are

call

s

to

output

a

string

of

characters

terminated

by

$04

(a

leftover

from

FLEX

in

these

days

when

e

uses

$00

and

most

others

follow).

I

have

converted

several

utility

programs

from

SK*DOS

to

REX

versions

with

little

difficul

ty.

The

original

copy

of

this

discussion

contained

one

strong

negative

reaction

to

REX

due

to

the

lack

of

a

buil

t-in

mul

tiple

directory

feature.

One

night

I

was

discussing

this

wi

th

Dan

and

he

suggested

multiple

small

parti-

tions

for

the

hard

disk.

My

imme-

diate

reaction

was

I

would

then

have

directories

of

fixed

sizes,

which

struck

me

as

a

disadvantage.

However,

after

kicking

the

idea

around,

I

soon

had

a

scheme

tha

t

could

change

partitions

leaving

the

working

drive

number

alone.

I

won't

go

into

detail

here

since

the

subject

is

complex

enough

to

deserve

a

whole

article

at

another

time.

By

the

time

I

was

finished,

I

had

15

partitions

on

my

hard

disk

(aside

from

the

drive

0,

the

system

disk

partition).

Thirteen

of

those

are

30

cylinders

or

just

under

1

Megabyte.

Two

are

60

cylinders,

just

under

2

Megabytes.

By

the

time

I

was

f

ini

shed,

I

had

figured

out

how

to

give

parti-

tions

names,

and

change

REX's

Drive

Information

Table

by

over-

laying

different

starting

sectors.

This

allowed

switching

directories

by

name

(CD

TEXT

would

switch

to

that

directory).

I

was

also

able

to

make

commands

to

find

the

name

of

the

present

directory,

(PO

shows

the

Present

Directory

name).

April

1991

68xxx

Machines

Page

7

OS9/68000

SOFTWARE

OlJ

I

CK

EL)

-

Screen

edi

tor

and

text

formatter

....

$275.00

A

high

quality

documentation

tool

and

program

editor

ideally

suitpd

to

laser

printer

users.

Uses

function

and

cursor

keys

on

any

t",rminal,

con-

figurablp

per

user

..

Microjustifies

mixed

proporti.onal

text.

Automatic

table

of

contents

generation

and

user-definable

macros

and

commands.

Dr

i

ves

any

pri

nter.

I

deal

for

mu

I t i

-user

systems.

Avai

I

abl

e

on

a

30-day

try

before-you-buy

basis.

FLEXELINT

V4

_

00

-

The

C

source

code

checker

.....

$495.00

Flexelint

finds

quirks,

idiosyncracies,

glitches

ann

bugs

in

C

programs.

50

options

control

checking

by

symbol

name

or

error

number.

Checks

in-

clude

intermodule

inconsistencies,

definition

and

usage

of

variables,

structures,

unions

and

arrays,

indentation,

case

fall-through,

type

con-

versions,

printf

and

scanf

format

string

inconsistencies,

and

suspicious

semi-colons.

A

must

for

all

serious

C

programmers.

IMP

-

Intell

igent

Make

Program

..............

$250.00

IMP

does

everything

you

wished

Microware's

Make

would

do,

and

a

great

deal

more.

It

is

well-behaved,

consistent,

and

extremely

flexible.

It

has

a

built-in

C-like

preprocessor

and

has

comprehensive

debugging

facilities.

Rules

can

be

user-defined,

and

make

files

for

jobs

other

than

assembly-language

or

C

compilation

are

easily

constructed.

T'>ISASM~_OS9

-

OS-9/58K

Disassembler

...

, . .

$250.()1)

This

high-speed,

three-pass

68000

disassembler

can

also

handlp

the

68010

and

58020.

It

intelligently

decodes

module

headers

and

produces

symbol

information

that

can

be

repeatedly

edited

and

passed

through

the

disas-

sembler

allowing

iterative

disassembly.

The

system

libraries

are

read

to

supply

symbols.

WINDOWS

-C

Source

Code

Windowing

Library

......

$250.00

This

C

source

code

library

package

supports

multiple

overl"pplnq

windows

displayed

on

one

character-based

terminal

screen.

It

supports

window

headers

and

footers,

and

pop-up

windows.

Windows

may

be

moved,

pannpd,

written

to

while

off-screen,

etc.

PROFILE

-

User

State

Program

FroUler

.............

$270.00

Designed

to

profile

user-state

programs.

Profile

effectively

samples"

traced

execution

building

statistical

information

as

it

goes.

It

reads

symbol

table

modules

to

give

a

function-by-function

account

of

the

time

spent

during

execution.

The

user

may

·zoom

in"

on

a

function

to

find

a

smaller

range

of

addresses

where

time

is

being

spent.

PAN

U"rILITIES

-C

Source

Code

Utility

Set

.......

$250.00

Forty

useful

utilities

are

supplied

in

this

C

sou

Ice

code

package.

In-

cluded

are

utilities

to

move

files,

find

files,

patch

disks,

undelete,

cross-reference

C

programs,

set

and

remove

tabs,

and

spell-check

docu-

ments.

PC

9 - MS-DOS

to

OS-9

WIndowing

System

...........

.

...

$

350.00

PC9

allows

an

MS-DOS

computer

to

be

used

as

a

t.erminal

to

mul

tiple

processes

on

a

remote

08-9

system

linked

by

a

single

serial

cable.

Each

OS-9

process

is

displayed

through

a

resizable,

moveable

window

on

the

PC

screen.

Terminal

emulation

facilities

support

uMACS

and

other

screen

ed

i

tors

and

provi

de

a

programmable

PC

keyboard.

Access

to

PC

disk

dr

i

ves

is

also

available

through

the

OS-9

unified

I/O

system,

giving

disk

capabi

I i

ty

to

ROM

based

OS-9

systems.

A

hot

key

swi

tches

between

DOS

and

OS-9

displays.

* e

mar

co

*

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DE

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O~"9

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a

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of

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MS·OOS

is

a

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Marl

of

Microsoft.

SYSTEM

IV

COMPUTER

THE SYSTEM

IV

is

a

high

performance

computer

system

bAsed

Oll

t

hp

',1,,1

('rol

A ('IlOOO

mi

croprocessor

operat

i

ng

a t a

clock

speed

of

16

liHz Atld

has

heell

eles

i

glled

t

c,

provide

maximum

flexibility

and

versatility,

liicroware's

Profpssiollal

OS9.

68000

operating

system

is

included

,.,ith

the

SYSTEM

IV

providing

all

efficient

multi-user

and

multi-tasking

environment.

This

provides

tile

user

with"

PC

fOJ

home

use,

small

business

applications

and

a

viable

low-cost

solution

for

many

industrial

control

applications

(embedded

systems),

Special

requirements

(such

as

midi,

sound,

A-D/D-A,

net-working,

etc.)

ilre

easily

handled

with

readily

available

low-cost

PC/XT

boards

which

can

plug

into

the

SYSTEM

IV

ex-

pansion

slots.

And,

as

user

requirements

change

or

improved

special

function

boards

become

available,

they

may

be

added

or

replaced

at

the

user's

option.

Thus,

when

software

requiring

multi-media

or

other

new

capability

becomes

a

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ty,

the

user

wi

11

be

able

to

add

tha

t

capabi

I i

ty

eas

i 1 Y

and

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the

I

ates

t

technology

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TO

ACCESS THE LARGEST SOFTWARE BASE

avai

lable,

an

liS-DOS

board,

the

ALT86,

wi

II

be

available

shortly

as

a

low-cost

option.

This

board

has

a

V30

(8086)

micro-

processor

running

at

10

MHz,

includes

1 Meg

of

O-wait

state

RAM,

uses

the

Chips

and

Technology

BIOS,

has

a

socket

for

an

8087

math

co-processor

and

plugs

illt"

one

of

the

SYSTEM

IV

expansion

slots.

Additionally,

an

OS9/6809

software

emul-

ator/interpreter

will

be

available

soon.

The

emulator/interpreter

will

permit

running

most

COCO

OS9/6809

software

on

the

SYSTEM

IV.

OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS

may

be

installed.

These

include

CPM,

UNIFLEX,

MINIX,

STARDOS,

REX

DOS

and

most

any

other

operating

system

capable

of

running

on

the

68000

microprocessor

chip.

THE

DESIGN OF

THE

SYSTEM IV

is

derived

from

previously

successful

designs

all"

uses

components

that

have

been

tested

and

proven

in

other

systems.

SYSTEM

IV's

uniqueness

stems

from

the

ability

of

its

designer

and

manufacturer,

Peripheral

Technology,

to

provide

well

designed,

reliable

hardIVare

at

a

low

cost.

FUl-

ther,

only

the

functions

necessary

to

the

basic

operation

have

been

designed

into

the

mother

board.

Seven

PC/XT

compatible

expansion

slots

allow

an

un-

restricted

selection

of

standard

PC/XT

accessory

boards

by

the

user.

The

usel

is

not

locked

into

any

preconceived

notions

of

what

is

best.

THE

MOTHER

BOARD

is

a 4

layer

XT

size

board

which

holds

the

microprocessor,

sockets

for

up

to

4

MBytes

of

O-wait

state

RAM,

a

battery

backed-up

clock,

4

serial

ports,

2

parallel

ports,

a

high

density

(37C65)

floppy

disk

controller,

7

PC/XT

compatible

expansion

slots,

a

memory

expansion

connector

to

allow

an

addi

tional

6

MBytes

of

O-wai

t

state

DRAM,

keyboard

connector

and

the

necessary

system

support

chips.

THE TERMINAL SYSTEM

includes

the

mother

board

wi

til

1

f1Byte

of

on-board

DRAM,

.-

high

density

floppy

disk

drive

(3

1/2"

or

5

1/4"),1

serial

port

connectors.

il

parallel

printer

port

connector,

a

200

watt

power

supply,

mini-PC

style

casp

capable

of

holding

5

half-height

drives

and

Professional

OS9/68000.

This

con-

figuration

requires

the

use

of

an

external

terminal(s).

T~E

CONSOLE SYSTEM

adds

a

VGA

(800

x

600

x

16)

graphics

board

and

an

AT

stylF

keyboard

and

provides

full

graphics

capability

at

the

console.

Terminals

may

be

added.

THE SYSTEM

IV

comes

with

a

one

(1)

year

parts

and

labor

warranty.

TERMINAL

System

CONSOLE

System

$

999.00

$1,149.00

OPTIONS

3

MByte

additional

DRAM

Hard

Disk

Controller

and

driver

40

MByte

Hard

Disk

20

MByte

Hard

Disk

Additional

5

1/4"

or

3

1/2"

HD

Floppy

Drive

AT

Style

keyboard

and

800

x

600

x

16

VGA

Card

and

driver

Meg

of

Memory

$120.00

$

69.00

$295.00

$240.00

$

92.00

$159.00

For

1024

x

768

x

256

VGA

Card

w/l

in

place

of

standard

VGA

card

Mono

Display

Card

in

place

of

VGA

card

add

$170.00

deduct

$

50.00

Prices

sIlbi-ect

to

change

withont

not:c~.

Special

monitor

prices

when

ordered

with

the

SYSTEM

IV.

See

the

PERIPHERAL

TECHNOLOGY

AD

for

kits.

* e

mar

co

*

Middletown

Shopping

Center

-

PO

Box

78

-

Middletown,

DE

19709

302-378-2555

FAX

302-378-2556

Finally

I

could

make

a

new

direc-

tory

or

remove

one,or

get

a

list

of

all

the

active

directories.

The

fixed

size

for

each

is

not

really

a

major

disadvantage.

A

major

ADVANTAGE

of

the

scheme

is

each

partition

has

its

own

direc-

tory

sectors.

The

directories

tend

to

be

short

or

at

least

shorter

than

if

all

the

files

on

the

disk

were

in

one

I

arge

one,

so

disk

access

is

faster

overall.

The

directory

complication

only

arises

if

you

are

using

a

hard

disk.

If

you

plan

to

use

only

floppy

drives,

you

can

use

a

different

disk

for

each

kind

of

computer

activity.

Each

disk

becomes

a

new

directory.

Another

initial

disadvantage,

REX

was

missing

the

ability

to

redi

rect

input

and

output

as

SK*DOS

and

OS-K

allow.

The

scheme

of

using

device

drivers

and

device

numbers

is

not

implemented.

The

substitute

for

output

to

printers,

the

ability

to

run

two

different

printers

on

different

ports

is

very

good.

The

code

which

runs

the

printers

is

essentially

a

device

driver,

though

a

bi

t

sim-

pier

,and

less

flexible

in

nature

than

that

of

the

other

two

OSs.

SK*DOS

has

the

input

and

output

redirection

to

files

via

t.he

mechanism

of

the

<

and

>

operators

on

a command

line.

I've

written

a

couple

of

utilities

to

handle

those

operations.

old

FLEX

had

an

I

and

an

0

redirection

utility

that

did

just

what

you

think

they

might

suggest.

I've

written

them

for

REX

as

well.

No

doubt

Dan

would

have

done

so

if

he

had

needed

them

for

anything.

They

are

not

very

complicated.

Using

them

(they

are

public

domain

and

will

be

avail

abl

e

from

Dan,

Peripheral

Technology

or

me),

is

quite

simple.

Suppose

you

want

to

assemble

a

file

and

run

the

list-

ing

to

another

file

rather

than

the

printer.

Normally

you

would

assemble

the

file:

ASMK

FILE

+BGS

To

shift

the

output

to

a

file

called

FILE.LST

you

would

use

the

o

utility

like

this:

0

FILE.LS.T

ASMK

FILE

+BGS

The

output

file

specification

must

follow

the

0

which

must

be

first.

0

opens

the

output

file,

substitutes

some

code

to

write

to

that

file

in

place

of

the

termi-

nal.

Essentially

it

overwrites

the

OUTCH

vector

in

REX. When

control

is

returned

to

REX,

the

input

line

pointer

is

right

at

the

A

of

ASMK,

so

it

assembles

the

file.

The

output

goes

to

FILE.LST.

At

the

end

of

the

assembly,

ASMK

or

any

other

program

does

a

JMP

WARMS.

Warm

start

of

REX

closes

all

open

files,

so

FILE.LST

is

closed.

It

works

fine.

In

fact,

when

you

use

the

P

for

output

to

a

printer,

the

printer

driver

does

pretty

much

what

0

does.

Dan

has

developed

a

pseudo

disk

directory

system

called

SUB

CAT

which

allows

different

directory

files.

They

all

remain

in

one

large

directory

per

drive

whether

or

not

you

use

SUBCAT.

(This

is

true

of

SK*DOS

as

well.

There

is

basically

one

large

directory,

but

files

are

tagged

with

a

directory

code)

.

Using

SUBCAT

is

a

simple

pro-

cess.

You

can

sort

files

into

directories.

Then

you

can

use

the

features

of

SUBCAT,

which

presents

you

a

screen

directory

listing

from

which

you

may

choose

a

file

by

bumping

the

cursor

down

through

the

list.

Then

you

may

choose

one

of

several

options

to

edit

the

chosen

file,

assemble

it,

delete

it,

copy

it

to

another

drive

or

disk,

view

it

on

the

screen,

etc.

One

very

nice

feature,

you

can

insert

up

to

36

characters

as

a

comment

to

go

along

with

each

directory

entry.

(We've

all

at

one

time

or

another,

done

a

directory

of

our

system

disk

and

wondered

what

several

of

the

command

files

were

or

what

they

did.)

A

disad-

vantage

of

the

system

is

you

are

never

"in"

a

directory

as

such.

Newly

created

files

are

not

auto-

mati

ca

11

y

pI

aced

in

the

current

directory.

You

must

remember

to

"load"

them,

probably

an

operation

which

would

shortly

become

second

nature.

Once

you

have

"loaded"

a

file

to

the

directory,

its

name

stays

in

the

directory

regardless

of

how

many

times

you

edi

t

and

reassemble

it.

(The

name

stays

in

the

directory

even

if

you

delete

the

file

without

going

through

SUB

CAT

,

i.e.

directly

with

the

delete

utility).

If

you

like

a

menu

style

of

operation

as

opposed

to

using

a

command

line,

(i.e.

choosing

from

a

list

of

possibilities

rather

than

simply

telling

the

computer

what

to

do),

you

will

like

this

utility

a

great

deal.

On

the

other

hand,

if

you

1

ike

command

line

style,

you

probably

will

avoid

it.

.aqe

10

68xxx

Machines

April

1991

You

might

begin

using

REX

w

th

SUBCAT,

then

a

you

become

famil

ar

with

the

system

switch

to

us

ng

the

command

line

directly.

I f

you

are

a

real

hacker

1

ike

me,

you

probably

will

have

an

overwhelming

reason

to

want

to

have

REX.

Dan

has

made

it

public

domain.

If

you

want

to

develop

software

or

utilities

to

do

some-

thing

special,

you

can

peek

at

the

source

code

and

figure

out

how

it

works

so

you

can

attack

the

prob-

lem.

I

ventured

into

such

a

project

just

a

couple

of

nights

ago.

I

was

trying

both

a

video

(Monochrome)

termina

1

wi

th

an

IBM

c1

one

key-

board

and

a

serial

terminal.

I

was

checking

whether

everything

worked

correct

I y

in

swi

tching

back

and

forth

between

them.

I

needed

two

different

versions

of

my

editor

PAT,

for

no

other

reason

than

I

needed

a

different

terminal

con-

figuration

file

for

the

serial

terminal.

After

digging

in

the

MONK

source

I

found

MONK

places

the

address

of

the

keyboard

handler

in

a

trap

vector

at

memory

address

$74.

Also

byte

$76

became

$IB

when

the

terminal

was

live

and

$IC

when

the

monochrome

was

live.

I

used

that

fact

to

detect

which

is

active

and

load

the

appropriate

PAT

version,

all

transparent

to

the

usel:".

The

point

is,

it

was

easy

when

I

could

look

at

the

operting

system

source

code.

Dan

or

Peripheral

Technology

will

supply

all

the

source

code

for

REX

and

MONK.

I

think

the

price

is

$15.

With

it

you

can

program

your

own

MONK

ROMs.

If

you

prefer

to

buy

the

ROMs

also,

the

charge

is

$20.

This

discussion

wouldn't

be

complete

without

a

mention

of

one

very

nice

feature

of

REX.

It

has

a

buil

t-in

terminal

emulator

which

operates

when

you

use

it

wi

th

an

IBM

keyboard

and

moni

t

or.

It

accepts

a

substantial

subset

of

the

commands

for

a

Televideo

925

terminal.

Part

of

the

reason

it

was

so

easy

to

get

PAT

running

under

REX

was

the

terminal

emulation.

I

simply

selected

a

configuration

file

I

already

had

for

a

Televideo

terminal

and

modified

it

a

little.

Dan

claims

the

IBM

keyboard

is

"fully

decoded".

However

I

found

t·he

cursor

keypad

arrows

to

emi

t

the

same

codes

as

'H,

'J

'L,

and

'M.

That

is

easy

to

get

around.

When

you

get

a

key

and

it

is

one

of

those,

you

can

look

at

a

vari-

able,

which

is

non-zero

if

the

control

key

is

being

pressed.

When

the

arrow

keys

are

used

PT68K2/4

Progrnms

for

REXDOS

&

SK*DOS

EDOI

SPELLn

ASl\IK

sunCAT

KRACKER

NAI\IES

A

~creen

editor

And

form:tller

$50.00

.$50.00

$25.00

$25.00

$25.00

$25.00

A 160,OOO-word

spelling

checker

A nAtive

code

As~emhler

A

sub-directory

mnn:tger

A diSAssembler

progrAm

A nllme

And

Rddr~~s

mnnl1ger

Inclllde

operating

system,

disk

rormAt,

lerminnl

Iype

And

te1t>phone

number

with

order.

Person:!1

checb

Accepted.

No

chnrge

ennk

April

1991

PALM

IH~ACII

SOFl"VAHE

Rou(e 1 Box

11911

Oxford,

FL

32684

9041748-5074

68xxx

Machines

Page

11

alone,

the

control

key

is

up.

of

course

when

you

type

AL,

the

control

key

is

down.

I

found

I

still

couldn't

distinguish

between

the

1

eft

arrow

and

the

backspace

key

since

both

emi

t

code

$08

and

the

control

key

is

not

down

for

either

of

them.

Dan

has

been

very

quick

to

fix

things

and

to

add

things

I

have

requested.

what

is

left

to

clean

up

is

in

the

area

of

differences

in

the

opera

ti

on

of

very

simil

ar

utilities,

or

perhaps

in

skimpy

documentation.

I am

in

the

process

of

trying

to

help

Dan

with

the

documentation.

l'

ve

been

so

busy

playing

with

REX

I

haven't

made

a

lot

of

progress.

However

I now

know

enough

about

REX

to

be

able

to

do

an

intelligent

job

(1

hope).

REX

is

the

simplest

of

the

three

operating

systems

and

as

such

might

be

an

easy

one

to

use

while

learning

about

the

68000

processor.

Enough

software

is

presently

available

for

it

to

be

useful.

Dan

has

his

editor

EDDI,

the

assembler

ASMK,

the

directory

system

SUBCAT,

as

well

as

his

spelling

checker

SPELLB

for

sale.

I

have

PAT

running

under

REX,

subject

to

a

little

more

testing.

I've

been

using

it

for

several

weeks

with

no

new

bugs

found.

The

Whimsical

compiler

is

running

fine.

Thanks

to

John

Spray,

I

also

have

a

cross

compiler

version

running

which

I

can

use

to

compile

programs

on

the

SK*DOS

machine

that

can

be

read

and

run

on

the

REX

machine.

In

addition,

Dan

is

working

on

a BASIC

interpreter,

and

there

is

a

good

possibility

of

a C

compiler

in

the

future,

»>

A

LOOK

AT

SK*DOS

«<

SK*DOS

was

written

by

Peter

stark,

STAR-K

Software.

He

is

a

long

time

computer

hobbyist,

writer

of

computer

articles,

teacher

of

computer

science,

and

friend

(I

hope

still).

Peter

wrote

SK*DOS

several

years

ago.

It

had

been

shipped

with

Peripheral

Technology

hard-

ware

until

just

recently.

Athough

SK*DOS

is

also

based

on

FLEX,

it

has

capabi

Ii

ties

beyond

those

of

FLEX.

It

is

written

wholly

in

position

independent

code,

there-

fore

even

all

the

utilities

are

posi

tion

independent.

This

makes

it

easier

to

stack

programs

in

memory

without

interference

and

gives

greater

overall

flexibility.

Whimsical,

a

language

similar

to

Pascal

that

compiles

to

M/L,

which

runs

under

SK*DOS

also

generates

position

independent

code.

However,

SK*DOS' s

"c"

compiler

generates

absolute

posi-

tion

code;

which

is

a

little

inconvenient.

SK*DOS

can

run

wi

th

a

serial

terminal,

monochrome

(Hercules)

board

and

monitor,

or

with

a

CGA

board

and

monitor.

I

understand

Peter

is

working

on

EGA/VGA

com-

patibility

presently.

SK*DOS

is

available

for

the

-4

hardware.

It

supports

high

density

disk

drives;

both

3.5"

and

5.25".

A

revised

version

for

the

older

-2

computers

can

also

support

high

density

drives

via

a

floppy

controller

board

that

plugs

into

the

I/O

bus.

It

is

supplied

by

Peripheral

Technology.

from

from

for'

SK*DOS

can

be

purchased

Peripheral

Technology

or

Peter

Stark.

Contact

ei

ther

details

on

the

current

version.

One

reason

why

you

might

want

to

try

SK*DOS

is

the

built-in

multiple

directories.

In

SK*DOS

you

are

always

in

a

"current

directory"

on

your

working

drive.

If

you

edit

a

file,

or

create

one,

it

is

automatically

done

in

the

current

directory.

You

can

use

directories

on

your

system

drive

too,

but

I

don't.

In

fact

you

can

simply

ignore

multiple

directories

if

you

like.

Another

reason

for

using

SK*DOS

it

has

more

software.

RBASIC

from

Bob

Jones

in

Canada

runs

very

well.

The

"c"

compiler

available

from

Computer

Systems

Consultants

in

Georga

works

well,

as

does

ASM,

their

assembler.

ASH

is

a

neces-

sary

part

of

the

"c

n

compiler.

Dan

Farnsworth

has

SK*DOS

versions

of

EDDI,

SPELLB,

his

assembler

ASHK,

and

the

catalog

program

SUBCAT. I

have

my

edi

tor

PAT

and

a

simple

text

formatter

called

JUST.

There

are

several

other

utility

programs

written

by

users,

available

through

STAR-K's

bull

etin

board.

I

have

several

I

can

supply

to

anyone

who

wants

them.

More

about

that

in

a

later

issue

of

this

newsletter.

(Most

all

of

them

will

also

be

available

for

REX.)

I

ought

to

mention

batch

files.

In

SK*DOS

the

first

filename

on

the

command

line

is

assumed

to

be

Page

12

68xxx

Machines

April

1991

a

command

(.COM)

file.

If

that

file

is

not

found,

SK*DOS

searches

the

system

drive

for

a

file

of

the

same

name

with

the

extension

.BAT.

If

one

is

found,

it

is

used

as

an

input

command

file.

That

is,

it

substitutes

input

from

that

file

for

command

lines

entered

on

the

terminal.

The

switch

from

command

file

to

batch

file

is

mode

automa-

ticlly.

Long

ago,

I

wrote

a

batch

file

called

FORMAT3.BAT.

It

calls

the

format

utility.

Prompts

for

format

are

answered

by

redirecting

the

input

to

a

file

that

has

all

the

correct

response

answers.

SK*DOS

input

files

have

the

exten-

sion

.PIP

so

my

input

file

is

FMT3.PIP

and

the

batch

file

is

a

single

line

that

looks

like:

FORMAT

3

<0.FORMAT3.PIP

FORMAT3.PIP

contains:

40

dddblank

1

y

These

are

the

necessary

answers

to

the

prompts,

being

careful

to

have

CRs

only

where

they

are

needed.

I

use

a

default

disk

name

of

BLANK

and

a

defaul

t

number

of

1.

Later

you

can

use

DISKNAME

to

rename

the

disk,

give

it

a

number

and

date.

SK*DOS

is

a

more

grown

up

version

of

the

FLEX

style

operat-

ing

system

then

REX.

There

are

more

features

available,

it

is

more

modular

and

more

flexible.

This

should

allow

for

easier

updates

and

improvements.

On

the

other

hand,

the

sourse

code

for

SK*DOS

is

not

available.

Also

SK*DOS

has

slower

floppy

disk

read

/

write

operations.

»>

A

LOOK

AT

OS-K

«<

I

have

used

OS-K

on

a

68020

system,

a

68008

system

and

very

briefly

on

a CoCo

(6809).

It

is

a

high

capability

operating

system

from

Microware

that

supports

multiple

users

and

multi-tasking.

Its

I/O

is

interrupt

driven.

As

an

example,

printing

can

be

done

(not

via

a

spooler)

while

editing

another

file,

and

a

compiler

running

in

the

background.

I

found

the

68020

system

to

be

so

fast

it

wasn't

practical

to

try

to

do

multiple

tasks

on

it

other

than

printing

a

file

or

a

listing

while

doing

something

else.

I

would

start

the

C

compiler

and

go

to

edit

something

else

only

to

find

the

compi

I

er

done

before

I

had

written

three

or

four

words.

of

course

it

shines

with

two

or

three

users

on

the

same

computer.

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April

1991

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68xxx

Machines

Page

13

From

one

or

more

users,

the

re-

quests

cause

the

requested

pro-

grams

to

load

into

memory.

Each

user

runs

them

from

there

from

his

own

variable

space.

In

the

event

a

user

attempts

to

load

a

program

that

is

already

in

memory

because

a

prior

user

is

running

it

(Multi-

pI

e

users)

the

os

notes

the

pro-

gram

is

already

in

memory

and

just

sets

up

a

variable

for

the

new

user.

Both

users

use

the

same

program,

which

is

in

memory

only

one

time.

I

found

I

coul

d

load

PAT

and

run

two

different

terminals

as

two

users

with

no

problems.

Each

user

has

his

own

variable

space

so

when

my

time

slice

comes,

all

my

vari-

abl

es

are

in

use,

and

when

yours

time

slice

comes,

all

your

vari:'

abIes

are

in

use

(including

the

variables

from

the

two

different

terminal

configuration

files).

The

result,

your

terminal

can

work

with

different

commands

than

mine.

.

Essentially

we

each

have

our

own

program

counter

during

our

time

slice,

which

makes

my

running

of

the

program

independent

of

your

running

of

the

program.

(Note,

this

is

totally

different

then

what

MS-DOS

machines

call

network-

ing,

but

appears

to

the

user

to

be

much

the

same

as

is

done

on

UNIX

systems.

Ed)

OS-K

has

many

features

that

make

it

a

mini

UNIX

system.

It

has

multiple

directories

and

sub-dire-

ctories

with

file

path

specifica-

tions

equivalent

to

those

in

UNI~;

.

simil

ar

to

MS-DOS. I t

uses

device

descriptors

and

drivers

that

are'

completely

modular.

OS-K

is

easily

adapted

to

different

hardware

configurations.

Some

time

ago

there

was

a

6809

version

that

ran

on

everything

from

the

SWTPc

to

the

Radio

Shack

Co I

or

Computer.

(OS-K

is

very

I/O

and/or

memory

intensive.

As

such

a

hard

disk

is

manitory

for

any

serious

work.)

It

is

well

supported

by

its

creator,

Microware.

There

are

many

competing

software

packages

avail-

able

for

it

including

PLuS,

a

compiled

language

from

Windrush

Micro

Systems

in

England;

Microware's

BASIC-09,

a

mix

of

BASIC

and

Pascal;

a

very

complete

C

compiler

from

Microware;

a

very

complete

(and

expensive)

Pascal

from

OmegaSoft,

several

word

processors

and

editors,

a

4th

generation

databas,

an

assembler,

and

other

language

compilers

including

(I

think)

Fortran.

Granite

Software

Systems

sup-

plies

software

to

do

directories,

and

read

and

write

text

files

back

and

forth

between

OS-K

and

MS-DOS

formatted

disks.

OS-K

has

a

couple

of

drawbacks.

First

it

is

EXPENSIVE.

Second

it

is

not

easy

to

configure

for

any

given

system.

I

found

I

had

to

read

instructions

long

and

care-

full

y

to

get

it

set

up

for

my

system.

By

the

time

I

needed

to

do

that

operation

again,

I

had

for-

gotten

how

and

had

to

go

through

the

same

learning

process

once

again.

Few

people

have

mastered

writ-

ing

device

descriptors

and

drivers

for

it.

The

documentation

is

large

and

fairly

complete,

but

not

well

organized;

therefore

difficult

to

follow.

(I

once

had

to

skim

through

about

80

pages

of

the

manual

to

figure

out

how

to

write

the

header

for

an

assembler

pro-

gram).

In

my

opinion,

if

you

want

a

full

blown

operating

system

in

which

to

get

deeply

involved

you

would

like

(Love.

Ed)

OS-K.

However,

if

you

are

a

computer

USER

.

(not

interested

in

program-

ming)

and

want

a

wide

variety

of

anyone

application

like

desktop

publishing,

spreadsheets,

word

processors

wi

th

on-line

spe

11

ing

checker,

on-line

thesaurus,

etc.

you

don't

want

any

of

these

oper-

ating

systems.

In

fact,

you

don't

want

one

of

these

68000

computers;

not

at

least

for

the

present.

None

of

the

software

presently

available

for

any

of

these

appli-

cations

is

equal

to

the

high

level

capabilities

you

can

get

for

a

Mac,

an

IBM

desktop

or

clone.

However,

if

you

want

to

learn

about

computers

and

how

they

run,

operating

systems,

developing

useful

software

utilities,

or

maybe

even

more

ambitious

projects

in

the

realm

of

graphics

program-

ming

or

word

processing,

you

will

like

one

(or

maybe

even

all

three)

of

the

above

OSes.

If

anyone

is

interested,

I

have

written

some

utilities

to

inter-

change

text

fi

1

es

between

SK*DOS

and

OS-K

disks.

Running

under

SK-DOS,

these

a 11

ow

you

to

do

a

directory

of

an

OS-K

disk

and

then

to

copy

files

from

one

format

to

the

other.

I may

well

soon

have

REX

versions

too.

Page

14

68xxx

Machines

April

1991

»>

ALL

OF

THE

ABOVE?

«<

It

would

be

nice

to

be

able

to

run

any

or

all

of

the

above

oper-

ating

systems

on

the

same

comput-

er.

Unfortunately

presently

you

need

to

change

monitor

ROMs

to

do

so.

Monk

is

included

with

the

PT

hardware

to

allow

the

booting

of

REX

or

OS-K.

STAR-K' s

HUMBUG

monitor

can

boot

SK*DOS

or

OS-K.

I've

been

asking

Dan

Farnsworth

to

add

the

capability

to

MONK

to

boot

SK*DOS

too.

I

don't

think

SK*DOS

uses

much

code

from

Humbug,

if

any.

Dan

is

presently

working

on

the

same

capabilities

for

REX.

Its

not

much

fun

to

change

the

ROMS

to

switch

back

and

forth

.between

systems.

1

sweat.

over

damaging

pins

and

making

a

set

of

ROMs

unusable.

Maybe

Peripheral

Tech

could

do

an

adaptor

board

to

hold

both

sets

of

ROMs.

They

could

be

installed

at

the

same

address

with

an

enable

voltage

supplied

by

a

physical

switch.

That

way,

the

user

coul

d

swi

tch

ROMs

and

run

either

operating

system.

Unfortunately

the

three

systems

require

different

hard

disk

for-

mats.

SK*DOS

wi

11 I

et

you

parti-

tion

the

hard

disk

so

you

can

run

OS-K

on

one

part

and

SK*DOS

on

the

other.

Either

can

be

booted

from

the

SK*DOS

power-up

monitor

prompt.

Right

now

your

"main"

system

can

be

run

from

the

hard

disk

and

a

couple

of

secondary

systems

from

floppies.

As

the

old

saying

goes,

"ya

pays

yer

money

and

ya

takes

yer

choice".

could

I

make

one

last

point?

If

you

are

thinking

of

one

of

these

systems

at

least

consider

a

hard

disk.

If

you

look

hard

you

can

find

an

ST-225

drive

without

controller

for

around

$185.

The

controller

from

PT

is

$79

for

a

total

of

$264.

If

you

go

with

a

floppy

drive

you

wi

11

soon

find

you

need

at

least

2

floppy

drives

and

those

will

cost

you

just

about

$200.

of

course

with

the

hard

disk

you

will

still

need

one

floppy

dri

ve

to

transfer

disk

supplied

files

to

your

hard

disk.

You

caul

d

use

a

floppy

and

a

RAMDISK. Of

course

RAMDISK

needs

more

memory

then

without

one.

One

megabyte

of

RAM

can

be

gotten

for

under

$100.

(I

remember

when

1

paid

$129

for

16

Kbytes

of

memo-

ry).

However,

1

am

rather

wary

of

RAMDISK.

Maybe

I'm

getting

too

old

and

absent

minded

but

1

tend

to

turn

the

computer

off

having

forgot

ten

to

copy

any

new

f

i1

es

from

RAMDISK

to

a

physical

disk.

I

am

also

afraid

of

power

failures.

Again,

it

is

a

persona

1

pref

er-

ence.

Anyway,

I

hope

you

enjoy

using

one

or

more

of

these

operating

systems.

Happy

computing!

Advertisers

This SpaceIs Waiting For Your

Ad

The Cost? As little as $10 per month for a half page ad.

Provide us with your camera ready copy or we can help

you design and produce your ad.

Call (302) 492-8511 for more information.

April

1991

68xxx

Machines

Page

15

-The

68xxx

Machines-

The

Chatham

House

Company

RDN1

Box

375

Wyominq,

DE

19934U~

-

Address

Correction

Requested

-

--

...

_--------

---~.--

~~!W.<.,

-

First

Class

-