[Coco] DW4 Turbo 230kb mode was : Eureka!

Fri Sep 20 19:50:09 EDT 2013

There's always the option of writing easy to use software, but sometimes it's a feature trade-off, and of course we (well, I at least) do tend to cut corners here when we're writing for ourselves rather than for others.  I may be interested in taking part in the production of such a project eventually myself, though I don't think I've got the time quite yet or the understanding of OS-9 that would be warranted for it.  Once I have the time, we'll see where I am with respect to the understanding.  If I end up being able to get my hands on the Glenside adapter and maybe the new SuperSD thing from Cloud-9 when it comes out, I'll have a vested interest in knowing how all of that is handled anyway.

Chris

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bill Pierce" <ooogalapasooo at aol.com>
> To: coco at maltedmedia.com
> Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 1:59:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] DW4 Turbo 230kb mode was : Eureka!
> 
> 
> Well said Chris. You are right. It is a programmer's OS but with a
> twist. The programmer has the option to write good software that's
> plug-n-play so the non-programming public doesn't have to do a ton
> of setup work just to run a program.
> 
> A good example is the Radio Shack line of games for OS9. Infocom,
> Sierra, etc. I enjoyed just sliding the King's Quest III disk in,
> typing DOS and playing the game. If you had a Coco 3 and a disk
> drive, you were in. It couldn't have been easier.
> 
> These days with the advent of things like DriveWire, it's almost
> mandatory to run a virtual HD system. This I don't mind at all, it's
> just the actual setup to get a good stable DW VHD system going that
> it take a little while to grasp the whole concept. Again, it all
> comes down to making new OS9Boot files. There's no way around it
> even with the versatility of the current repo offerings, there's no
> "complete" systems.
>  In DriveWire, the optimum setup disk would actually be a VHD with
>  all commands, games, software, utilities, system files and a
>  complet copy of the built repo modules for building new boot files.
> All programs would be setup properly, ready to run from the startup.
> This would be a VHD you could stick in DW slot 0, type DOS in HDBDOS
> and it "just works". From there, if you need a few "custom" drivers
> for your hardware, an Automated Boot Creation utility (easy as ABC?)
> could be run which with a few mouse clicks, would create your new
> boot on that same VHD, reboot and you've got a custom system.
> This is the kind of software I am currently trying to develope. Along
> with this utility comes a GUI that will also host other "swapable"
> modules that will make life with OS9 much easier for those who fear
> the cmd line, just point and click to run anything. This GUI can be
> run from the startup therefore completely avoiding the cmd line. I
> have so far, about 8 modules in design and some nearly finished that
> automates the very things that people hate about OS9. I have about 8
> or 9 more in planning. Right now it's all waiting on the GUI to get
> finished and that's where the most thought is going. On how to make
> it all easy.
> 
> And if OS9 wasn't a programmer's OS, I guess it would have been much
> harder to even think of doing this any other way. The built in power
> of OS9's system calls were way ahead of their time.
> So no, it's not a myth that OS9's a programmer's language, it was a
> myth that the software would come out to make it more than that. Too
> many programmers writing too many utilities to make programming
> easier so they could write more utilities.
> 
> It's long past the time for us to write real software, not utilities
> to write software... that never gets written :-)
> 
> Bill Pierce
> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
> http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christopher Smith <csmith at wolfram.com>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Fri, Sep 20, 2013 1:33 pm
> Subject: Re: [Coco] DW4 Turbo 230kb mode was : Eureka!
> 
> 
> So far I see two problems here.  Bill's "myth that OS-9 is a
> programmer's OS"
> may not be a myth.  I don't mean this in a bad way as Bill seems to.
>  It's just
> that since I've gotten serious about writing code and started to look
> once more
> at this system, I see a certain brilliance behind it that is far and
> away
> greater than what I previously have seen.  So, I think it certainly
> is as much
> of a programmer's system as anything can be, even if it is also a
> good system
> for others, which I think it is.  The myth is that programmers and
> non-programmers can't use the same software.  Maybe this is a bit of
> a semantic
> distinction.
> 
> Next, Al has been writing CoCo software for years, but thinks the
> OS-9 build
> process is for geeks and doesn't like to do it.  I was going to ask
> what other
> types of people would still use a machine that was completely
> de-supported by
> the manufacturer in the 80s or early 90s.  Yes, at this point it
> probably is for
> geeks.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, and it doesn't mean that
> each of us
> have to enjoy working with these machine is precisely the same way.
>  Still, to
> suggest that writing code or installing an OS on one of these systems
> is a
> "geek" pursuit while still using them to play games or run word
> processors is
> not, well that seems to be a bit of a pot vs. kettle problem.  By all
> means, I
> think people should make things as easy to use as possible.  It
> widens the
> audience for the project, and it saves some people a good bit of
> time.  The only
> point is that we're not all that different here regardless of what
> we're doing
> still using a computer platform that was designed
>   in the 70s. :)
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
>  
> 
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-- 
Christopher Smith
Systems Engineer, Wolfram Research