[Coco] OS-9 Floppy / Printer configuration?

[Bob Devries]

Hi all,

may I be so bold as to point out that Chad H is using Level ONE of OS9?

AFAIK, level ONE was HARD CODED for single-sided disks. You needed to replace the floppy driver and descriptors with a modified one (available on RTSI IIRC) to read/write double-sided disks.

Regards, Bob Devries
Dalby, QLD, Australia

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Chad H 
  To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts' 
  Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 1:04 PM
  Subject: [Coco] OS-9 Floppy / Printer configuration?


  Ok, I've only slightly tinkered with OS-9 slightly over the years.  I
  usually only load it because an application or game requires it.  I'm trying
  to learn a bit more about it so I can make better use of it.

  Here's the issue I'm working on right now: trying to configure it to take
  advantage of the printer and floppy drive setup I have attached.  I have a
  FD-502 with dual 5.25 double-sided 360k drives with a modified RS-DOS EPROM
  that allows the top unit to be drives 0/1 and the bottom 2/3.  How do I
  configure OS-9 to take advantage of the other sides of the drives, either as
  /d2, /d3, etc. or by making /d0 and /d1 double-sided devices.   Also, a
  person on this list was gracious enough to sell me a serial-to-parallel
  converter that allows me to print to a old HP DeskJet 540 printer rather
  well.  I've coded some RS-DOS BASIC programs to work properly with it (i.e.
  setting 1200baud and CRLF) but is there a way to set such parameters in
  OS/9?  If memory serves, the printer is /P device, right?  I've seen a
  couple of OS-9 applications allow the setting of the baud rate inside the
  application setup, but not much other settings.   Only way I could get these
  to printt down a page instead of all text on the first line was to run a
  RS-DOS BASIC initialization program to initialize the printer and then go
  into the OS-9 apps and print.

   

   I know there are more advanced things out there now for the CoCo.  I find
  the idea of using SD card for storage fascinating.  However, I got into the
  world of computers and programming on this very CoCo 2 when I was 14 and I'm
  trying to remain true to its original character.  Some of what I once had
  learned years ago I've forgotten and I'm slowly trying to relearn all I can
  and then some.

   

  P.S. I have the original OS-9 level 1 rev. 1.0.0.  Wish I could find a later
  revision.  I know the DeskMate diskette I have says level 1 rev. 2.0.0 but I
  think it's missing a lot of the OS-9 files. 

   

  Thanks for any help.

   


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