[Coco] 6809 assembly programmming

[wdg3rd at comcast.net]

From: Dave Kelly <daveekelly1 at embarqmail.com>
> Don't I remember that MicroSoft wrote the OS for the old TRS-80 before 
> they were MicroSoft.

Microsoft was Microsoft from the release of the first BASIC interpreter for the Altair.  Although possibly at first the name was hyphenated.

Microsoft did not at anytime write any operating systems for Tandy/Radio Shack 8-bit systems.  TRSDOS for the Model One was started under contract by Randy Cook, then taken in-house.  All other products called TRSDOS for 8-bit machines were built in Fort Worth.  TRSDOS-16 (an interim product for the Model 16 prior to Xenix) was by Ryan-McFarland and the only apps that ran on it were the COBOL bookkeeping packages.  The first OS that Tandy shipped that Microsoft had a hand in was Xenix.  Then MS-DOS on the Tandy 2000 8-9 months later.  TRSDOS 6 for the Model 4 was by Logical Systems and was in my arrogant opinion the best OS ever run on a Z-80 and possibly the best single-user (OS-9 is not single-user) operating system in history.
--
Ward Griffiths    wdg3rd at comcast.net

These histrionics were probably unnecessary, since there was no reason to think anybody would be watching us with more than casual interest until I made my first move to follow Buchanon's trail, in London.  Still, somebody might check back this far later, and I always feel that if you're going to play a part, you might as well play it all the way, at least in public -- and it's hard to tell what's public and what isn't, these electronic days.
Donald Hamilton, _The Devastators_, 1965