[Coco] WordPak RS/CO80

[Arthur Flexser]

On Mon, 3 Jan 2005, Boisy Pitre wrote:

> 
> There's more than just a base address difference.  The co80 driver that 
> I started with is very simplistic in what it does, and doesn't even 
> begin to address the complexity that this card has when it comes to 
> setting up.
> 
> I did dig up something interesting about this driver in one of the 
> Kissable OS-9 columns in the Rainbow.  Puckett was writing about one of 
> the Microware OS-9 expos in Des Moines, and one of the programmers 
> talked about the CO80 module being written according to a specification 
> that Tandy provided them, but with hardware that was in prototype 
> stage.
> 
> What a mystery...
> 

In that case, my guess would be that Tandy was planning to come out with its own
80-column display at the time, and had a driver programmed according to its
specs and included with OS-9.  Then, that device was scrapped in favor of
offering a version of the PBJ WordPak through its Express Order program (or
whatever that program was called, where you could get non-RS products at RS
stores by special order), and so the co80 driver actually drives no existing
device at all.  I believe the WordPak-RS originally came with an OS-9 driver
on disk, though I'm not 100% certain.  Somebody out there surely should have a
copy.

Art