[Coco] OS-9 RAM disk with "rdisk" command? And /md descriptor?

[L. Curtis Boyle]

/MD was the “Memory Direct”, that allowed you to access all of OS-9 RAM (we used it to debug kernal code, etc. during NitrOS9 development). I think Alan Dekok came up with that, or at least steered us to using it. So, if you did DED /MD@ or KWIKZAIP /MD@, they would default to showing you the system page. Of course, this is *very* dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing, and modify such memory locations.


L. Curtis Boyle
curtisboyle at sasktel.net



> On Jan 31, 2015, at 8:56 PM, Allen Huffman <alsplace at pobox.com> wrote:
> 
> I cannot remember where I got the OS-9 RAM disk I use, but it was by far my favorite of all the ones I tried over the years. It came with a command called “rdisk” that let you dynamically create the RAM disk as any size you wanted, rather than having descriptors set to different sizes.
> 
> It looked like this:
> 
> Error - Use Rdisk [‘name’] [/device] [size in blocks] [action]
>        where action = T to terminate or R to recover
> 
> I used it all the time to create a big RAM disk when I needed it, else small ones, without changing bootfiles.
> 
> Looking at my old NitrOS-9 boots, circa 1996, the driver inside is called “Rammer”:
> 
> Size: $0115 #277
> CRC: $3AB3AA
> 
> The one included with NitrOS-9 today is also called Rammer, but it does not seem to honor the Rdisk utility. I plan to pull my old one out and use it, but wondered if anyone remembered what this was.
> 
> Also, I note in my bootfile that a second descriptor called “MD” was in there using Rammer, but it was slightly smaller.
> 
> R0 = 47 bytes
> MD = 33 bytes
> 
> I have zero recollection of what /md was for.
> 
> 		— A
> 
> 
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