[Coco] DW4 Turbo 230kb mode was : Eureka!

[Bill Pierce]

Ok, I've found and built the HDBDOSDW4 roms, bins etc.
Now on to NitrOS-9.....
As usual... the DW4read & DW4write modules are not implicated or built in the current NitrOS-9 repo. The sources are only "there". They were being built before but with all the new changes there are a LOT of things not in the makefiles. This being one of them
dwread & dwwrite are used in both the dwio.sb and boot_dw modules. There is no provision in the makefiles nor the sources themselves to include the turbo version. My problem with this is why were they removed in the first place?
Yes, I could just change the " use dwread.asm" and " use dwwrite.asm" in the sources to " use dw4read.asm" and " use dw4write.asm" and rebuild, then I wouldn't have the regular builds.. UGGGGH !
As I have said all along, if it's in the repo BUILD IT!. Even if it's not used... throw it in the proper NITROS9/6x09Lx/MODULES/ directory on the built disks so if someone wants to make such a boot, it's available.
I would gladly go through the whole repo and do this for all the missing stuff if I had the knowledge of how the makefiles relate to each other. Hell, I would make sure there was just a "NitrOS-9 Modules.dsk" for each machine and level that contained all buildable modules in the repo for all Coco systems. With a disk like this, one could build a boot for any sytem with one disk.
Some are being built... just not included on any disk. They need to be on the disk in the MODULES dir.
I know... I know.... you can add this and change that in the repo, but where does this leave the other 95% of the people who just go to the downloads and expect to find a disk for their purposes?

The myth of OS-9 being a programmer's OS is still being perpetuated even 25 years after it's demise. That's sad.

Now, the $50,000,000 question. Were there any changes to the dwread.asm and dwwrite.asm that were NOT reflected in the dw4read.asm and dw4write.asm? Are they going to crash the system if I try to use them or can I just exchange the names and build? It seems everytime I get around to downloading the repo... the name of a lot of the modules have been changed..... again.
I have been trying to make a database of all the various modules used in OS-9/NitrOS-9 for a project I have going and every time  I go to make sure I have everything, I notice the names of modules have changed. I end up deleting my whole database and starting over. This has been done 3 times now over a 2 year span.
Old boot build scripts from 4 months ago will no longer work. And some of the current provided scripts are still not right.

The repo is ALMOST in a stable, buildable state now and I thanks those who have been working to make the needed corrections. I just recently made a complete build that went very smoothly and the things I have tested all worked as expected. We really need to complete this and get everything that's there in working order.
 With the various Coco machines and systems I run (including the emulators), I am willing to test run almost anything with the exception of the sIDE, IDE and CF stuff as I don't have the hardware to test it. But for floppies, dw4, hdbdos, becker, Coco 1, 2, or 3, I can pretty much give it a run for the money if someone is willing to work on this.
I would love to be able to try the DW4 turbo mode on my Coco 3 in NitrOS9 if I can get the proper drivers built.

Bill Pierce
My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
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