[Coco] How much memory

[Aaron Wolfe]

I think you might have said "forth" when you meant "FLEX".   I've been
reading through the 68 Micro Journal and F. Hogg was a big proponent
of FLEX.  AFAIK, normal FLEX does not do multitasking and is a much
more spartan/basic system than even OS9 L1.  I've been playing with
FLEX on the FPGA (John Kent's System09).  It feels a lot like CPM.

There were some enhanced FLEX systems that could multitask and offered
more features.. UniFLEX was one I think.  Don't know much about them
but I've read the ads, they sound interesting.


On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 10:14 AM, Frank Swygert <farna at att.net> wrote:
> I was mainly referring to DECB and other early "home" computers, and even
> the original IBM-PC when concerning GW-BASIC. I did state that only a system
> like OS-9 could easily utilize a full 64K. I didn't consider multi-tasking
> at all. That would quickly burn up a lot of memory for sure!
>
> That's the main reason Frank Hogg was saying that Forth was a much better OS
> for the CoCo than OS-9 in the early days -- Forth allowed multi-tasking and
> used memory a lot more efficiently than OS-9. Of course when the CoCo3 and
> OS-9 Level II came out he had to eat some crow in a way, but considering the
> limitations of Level I and the CoCo 1/2 he was correct as far as Forth being
> "better".
>
> -----------
> Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 12:57:19 -0500
> From: Roger Merchberger<zmerch-coco at 30below.com>
>
> On 11/28/2010 10:07 AM, Frank Swygert wrote:
>
>> >  As Steve said, OS-9 was designed in the late 70s/early 80s when
>> > anything
>> >  more than 64K was a dream for 8 bit computers. Memory was a bit
>> >  expensive, and everything was done with text screens. Who needed even
>> >  64K? Only a (for the time) sophisticated OS like OS-9 could fully use
>> >  64K! Then graphics came along and needed more memory, programs became
>> >  more sophisticated (and slopier coded!), memory and computer prices
>> >  started dropping, etc.
>
> I'd have to disagree -- I was constantly bumping up against the 64K
> barrier on my CoCo2 with OS-9 even without graphics, and 512K was a
> godsend in my CoCo3 -- being able to run TS-Edit in one window, with
> DynaCalc in a 2nd window, Rogue in a 3rd window, and still be able to
> run a 200K ramdisk was when the CoCo was finally "roomy enough" for my
> needs, and I could get a*lot*  more work (or play;-)  ) done without
> constantly exiting applications to free up RAM.
>
>
> --
> Frank Swygert
> Publisher, "American Motors Cars"
> Magazine (AMC)
> For all AMC enthusiasts
> http://www.amc-mag.com
> (free download available!)
>
>
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