[Coco] Another Radio Shack Article

[L. Curtis Boyle]

Wes, Bill and I did the first few versions of NitrOS-9 (including initially getting native mode working... still remember that day, when Bill managed to get it boot to a shell in native mode for the first time) by ourselves. After Wes got too busy with other projects at Gale Force (including his excellent Kwikzap, etc.), we started adding other people, Alan being the first/main one. And eventually we released it the community, of which Boisy, Mark and others have been the main drivers ever since.

L. Curtis Boyle
curtisboyle at sasktel.net



On Jan 6, 2014, at 12:35 PM, Boisy Pitre <boisy at tee-boy.com> wrote:

> On Jan 6, 2014, at 9:57 AM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:
>> I might point out that near the bottom of page 157, you give credit to the 
>> 3 Canadians for doing all the heavy lifting for the 6309-ization of OS-9.  
>> 
>> There were more than those 3 involved, because I was the one that did 
>> RBF.mn at the time.  But nobody paid any attention to my comment that SAS=8 
>> in a dmode report was going to be an ankle biter.  I said at the time that 
>> $10 (doubling the 8) was probably a good idea on floppies, and I routinely 
>> use $20 on my hard drives.
> 
> Gene,
> 
> Generally, the three people associated with NitrOS-9 are Bill Nobel, Curtis Boyle and Wes Gayle. Those were the names that were in the NitrOS-9 documentation that accompanied the floppy disks sold at fests. There were other contributors, as you pointed out, but the omission was not meant to slight anyone.
> 
> I thought I had mentioned Alan DeKok’s contributions to the NitrOS-9 effort, but I don’t recall. He certainly deserved some credit for the later revisions to the OS.
> 
>> I'm not yapping because I think I needed an honorable mention, but I do 
>> think some of that praise could have been worded "and others". I am 
>> reasonably sure there were other volunteers besides myself involved, but at 
>> the time we as a group weren't sure we could do it without repercussions 
>> from Des Moines so it wasn't publicly discussed as to whom was doing what. 
>> IMO if there were others, its long past due they should at least raise a 
>> hand and wave to the crowd. I think its safe now. :)
>> 
>> I have to assume a good word from Boisy may have smoothed the way in that 
>> regard, and that we should be giving a bit of credit there for the freedom 
>> we have had in this effort.  I won't say it's unique, but OTOH, where are 
>> the now community supported upgrades for TOS on my Atari 1040ST-E?  And 
>> amigados has been tied up in litigation for decades now.  Nuff said.
> 
> I don’t think I had any appreciable influence in “calling off the dogs” per se while I was at Microware. NitrOS-9 was practically ignored by the company, who was by then focused on major consumer markets like interactive TV, as well as their more traditional commercial markets.
> 
> 
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