[Coco] Why DECB is important to OS-9 folk.

[PaulH96636 at aol.com]

In my case, perhaps the subject might be:   why OS9 was not  so important to 
DECB folk.
 
Consider this:  
   I was developing several small databases on a Coco 1/2   but was limited 
to 32kb for
programming and data.  Then heard about OS-9's ability to use all 64kb  ram;  
great!
That is, great, until learning about the overhead of basic-09 and other  
modules, awa the
ominous learning curve.  Shortly thereafter, I heard about  Key-264k  with 
its ability
to also use the upper 32kb ram and make it accessible to those of us who  
already knew
enough about DECB, to make use of the extra headroom, and its overhead  of 
only ca. 1
graphics page in each 32kb bank.  This made a bunch of extra room for  both 
programs
and data, and filled my needs perfectly.
 
One of the DBs made possible the combining of several years of Heathkit  tube 
test data
charts (whose paper rolls became quite tattered) into one convenient file  
which could
fit on one floppy disk as well as make a paper copy (which produced some  
60-70
pages of single space lines; took a bit over 2 hours on dot matrix; circa  
1985).
One variation of the program made it possible to look up the data for  
various tube type
tests and display them on the tv screen using the 51 column display  mode.
Yep, those were the  days.       -ph