[Coco] HDBDOS And Word Processors

[Francis Swygert]

Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2017 09:04:56 -0700
From: elderpav at yahoo.com

I don't post much, but I just have this burning question...

I've tried a number of non-OS9 word processors for the Coco, and I haven't found any so far that play nice with HDBDOS. Either they won't work at all, or they only support drive numbers 0-3. Do any of you know of a word processor that works best with HDBDOS and hard drives, be it virtual or physical?

Thanks,
Fred Provoncha
Stansbury Park, UT
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Fred, Word Processors aren't the only programs with this "problem". Many programs move things around in DECB upper memory, making room for a bigger buffer (most WPs) or other things, sometimes deleting/overwriting routines that aren't needed to do so. Others are simply hard programmed for drives 0-3 because that's all a real CoCo supports. 

When things are moved/deleted they affect HDBDOS, of course, and being hard programmed for the drive letters effectively disables that function in HDBDOS. Most simply leave room on one of those drives to copy files/programs that will only use them to overcome this limitation. 

I would recommend just not putting files on drive 0 and 1 permanently since there are some programs that expect files on one of those. Of course if the word processor is the only program you run that doesn't use one of the higher number drives it doesn't matter which of the lower four you leave for files. Just copy them to a higher number drive for safe keeping later. 

As far as what WP to use, I always liked Simply Better best, with Telewriter 64 a close second. SB was written for the CoCo3, but TW64 will run on it as well. 
 Frank Swygert
 Fix-It-Frank Handyman Service
 803-604-6548