OS-9 as Replacement for DECB. Was: [Coco] Portal-9 IDE

[Stephen H. Fischer]

Hi,

I started thinking about what I would like in a new Disk Basic and another
idea popped up.

On a CoCo 3 2-Meg system, can we strip down OS-9 and put it into rom (Just
load a disk file initially) and build a system that will be acceptable to
the DECB users. Keeping OS-9 hidden for the most part but having the power
there for those whom can use it. The look and feel of DECB to be kept as
much as possible.

Trying very hard to not require knowledge of OS-9.

Perhaps a shell written that responds like DECB in a even more friendly way

OS-9 was designed to be embedded, Bosie has already done it.

Think about having all the needed parts and utilities in the rom initially
to provide the same power on capabilities as DECB when it starts, but OS-9
is running.

Then think about a GUI shell and the add ons which now will be so much 
easier to do.

If we work on a Updated basic, will not most of the work be involved in 
duplicating what OS-9 does already?

Stephen H. Fischer

Robert Emery wrote:
>> On this note I'm also interested in knowing if there are any current
>> projects being developed using Portal-9 that you might want to share with
>> other writers to help them see how easy it is to build a CoCo
>> program.

> One thing I'd like to see is what Nick M. mantioned a little while back,
> but it appeared to generate little interest. We need an updated Disk
> Basic. Nick wanted to incorporate a gui, which some of you know is an
> interest I share. I'd like to see a new DECB rom for the CoCo3 with the
> following features:
> *DECB/HDBDOS software compatible
> *supports read/write to MSDOS formatted disks (default mode)
> *compatible with original RSDOS/OS9 formated disks (compatibility mode)
> *supports (requires?) RTC for file date/time stamping
> *built-in gui interface with hi-res joystick support
>
> This is all just speculative dreaming. This is a project I think I could
> contribute a lot to, and could learn from the process of comparing my
> Basic programming methods with ML development.
>
> Bob