[Coco] l2update and bbs dsk images in nitros9 source tree

Mon Feb 10 10:46:43 EST 2014

I have no idea... I haven't seen him in over a decade.

L. Curtis Boyle
curtisboyle at sasktel.net

On Feb 10, 2014, at 9:39 AM, Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com> wrote:

> 
> @ Curtis,
> You wouldn't by any chance know if Kevin is still living in North Carolina do you? I know in the Coco days, he was in Raleigh, NC.  If he's still in NC and does have the sources, I might could get up with him personally. I'm ocassionally near Raleigh quite often. Even though I'm in Wilmington NC, my hometown is Rocky Mount NC which is about 20-30 minutes from Raleigh. I'm in that area uite often visiting relatives.
> 
> 
> Bill Pierce
> "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
> 
> 
> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
> http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: L. Curtis Boyle <curtisboyle at sasktel.net>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Mon, Feb 10, 2014 9:40 am
> Subject: Re: [Coco] l2update and bbs dsk images in nitros9 source tree
> 
> 
> The original commercial version of NitrOS-9 did contain a manual that described 
> anything new we had added (new Set/GetStat calls, etc.). When we decided to make 
> it free, I know both Alan and I would have some sort of release notes with each 
> version (or new module) that stated what extra things were added (as well as bug 
> fixes, etc.). We also sometimes put the notes up as webpages (you can see an 
> example from my original web page through the Internet Archive wayback machine: 
> http://web.archive.org/web/20020413224533/http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/~af960/NitrOS9.html 
> )
> 
> Bill and I received the "accidental" level 2 upgrade modules after we were far 
> into the NitrOS9 project... and with no documentation at all. We did start to 
> disassemble the Windint/Grfdrv modules (we noticed the 3d look was in it), but 
> we later abandoned it in favor of keeping NitrOS9 going in the direction it 
> already was going, which was to speed things up as much as possible (Level 2 
> version 3, while adding a lot of new features, is/was way slower than NitrOS9 
> was even at that earlier stage). 
> 
> I did end up adding a couple of things that we had figured out (filled circle 
> and filled ellipse DISPLAY commands being 2 that I remember), and I think Alan 
> may have done a few too, but we never did finish disassembling what parts we had 
> to figure out what else had been added, and we never did have all of it (until 
> Brother Jeremy got it later). I do know that in order to fit all the new stuff, 
> plus the stuff we added/optomized, that GRFDRV would likely have had to expand 
> to 16K to fit it all in. Of course, the level II upgrade stuff that was released 
> independently by Kevin Darling (RBF undelete, Christmas GRFDRV patch, SCF 
> in-line editing, etc.) prior to NitrOS9's development are all included, so any 
> documentation from those is still applicable. As a side note - we also wanted to 
> implement Chris Dekker's additional stuff that he had in his own package; this 
> included double-wide/double-high fonts and other goodies that are not in NitrOS9 
> or the Level II upgrade. Again, we were well along with NitrOS9 by the time we 
> saw it, and (particularly in GRFDRV) running out of room.
> 
> I know Alan sped up pipes drastically, and he was working on getting named pipes 
> (from what I understand, Chris Burke did the Level II upgrade version), but I 
> can't remember if he finished them or not.
> 
> I agree that somebody who is still active in NitrOS9 should (at the very least) 
> make a document of everything that has been added from stock Level II and, 
> ultimately (although it is a huge project), update the existing Level II 
> documentation with all the new stuff.
> 
> I really hope Boisy, or Mark, etc. can convince Kevin to get them the source to 
> the Level II upgrade... it would make trying to add those features much easier 
> (vs. finishing disassembling/documenting everything... and we are still not sure 
> we have everything. I distinctly remember Kevin mentioning at one point at one 
> of the Fests that even Brother Jeremy's version wasn't the absolute latest).
> 
> L. Curtis Boyle
> curtisboyle at sasktel.net
> 
> 
> 
> On Feb 9, 2014, at 9:33 PM, Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> @ Curtis (and anyone else who has knowledge of this),
>> After you stated that some of the "Upgrade" features HAD been included into 
> the Nitros9 repo, I started taking a look around.
>> In looking through the latest "defs" files, I'm finding quite a few of the 
> system calls and gets/setstat parms that are mentioned in the docs and notes in 
> the upgrade. A lot of these "new" features are the kind of things that poeple 
> often "wish" OS9 had... And they were already there!
>> The thing that bothers me, I've stated it before and I'll state it again and 
> again....
>> Where's the documentation?
>> There's things in the additions that would make handling windows, mouse, 
> get/put buffers, graphics, and much more... much easier. Why was all this stuff 
> added then no documentation created on how to use it or even notes that it was 
> there? The only indication of the existence of these calls is the sparse 
> comments beside the calls in the defs files.
>> Pretty soon, no one will be around that knows what these feature are and how 
> they work.
>> For instance, were the named pipes ever implemented?
>> 
>> Just food for thought :-)
>> 
>> 
>> Bill Pierce
>> "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
>> 
>> 
>> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
>> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>> Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
>> http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
>> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
>> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: L. Curtis Boyle <curtisboyle at sasktel.net>
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Sent: Sun, Feb 9, 2014 8:34 pm
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] l2update and bbs dsk images in nitros9 source tree
>> 
>> 
>>> From what I recall, it is in there (and is part of WindInt, for the most 
> part). 
>> I think the bouncing ball demo let you resize the window on the fly. Boisy, I 
>> know Kevin Darling had, at one time, mentioned that he was probably the only 
> one 
>> out of the Level 2 upgrade project that had all of the source; have you tried 
>> seeing if he would be willing to release it now (I believe the repository has 
>> just disassemblies like the ones Bill and I worked on, when we "accidentally" 
>> got some of the level II upgrade from Frank Hogg when we were working on the 
> 2nd 
>> version of the TC-9 drivers).
>> 
>> L. Curtis Boyle
>> curtisboyle at sasktel.net
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Feb 9, 2014, at 7:14 PM, Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> Boisy,
>>> I've booted the "Br Jeremy" boot disk and played around with it.
>>> I really like the look of everything. From the notes I read, there were a lot 
> 
>> of things being worked on.
>>> Do you know if the :resizable/movable" window driver is on those disks 
>> anywhere? Or was that still in planning and not make it to the disks?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Bill Pierce
>>> "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
>>> 
>>> 
>>> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
>>> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>>> Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
>>> http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
>>> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
>>> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>>> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Boisy Pitre <boisy at tee-boy.com>
>>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>> Sent: Sun, Feb 9, 2014 7:41 pm
>>> Subject: Re: [Coco] l2update and bbs dsk images in nitros9 source tree
>>> 
>>> 
>>> It has always been my intention to fold some of the features of the L2 
> Upgrade 
>> 
>>> into NitrOS-9. That’s mostly why those disk images exist in the repo.
>>> 
>>> On Feb 9, 2014, at 5:29 PM, Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Tormod,
>>>> The "Upgrade disks" are most likely there for safekeeping. They are 
>> "possibly" 
>>> the only disks ever preserved of the work being done in the 90s by the 
>> "Upgrade 
>>> Team" before Tandy dropped the Coco and Microware then desolved the team. 
>> There 
>>> are a few features on those disks yet to be implemented in Nitros9 and some 
>> that 
>>> were. There are no sources, only the demo disks and many notes in text files 
>> by 
>>> members of the team, mostly Kevin Darling.
>>>> 
>>>> Yes, those disks exist on almost every archive on the net, but as in the 
>> past, 
>>> archives come and go. 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Bill Pierce
>>>> "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
>>>> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>>>> Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
>>>> http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
>>>> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
>>>> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>>>> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Tormod Volden <lists.tormod at gmail.com>
>>>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>>> Sent: Sun, Feb 9, 2014 6:10 pm
>>>> Subject: [Coco] l2update and bbs dsk images in nitros9 source tree
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> I am cleaning out my TODO list for NitrOS-9 3.3.0 and there are a few
>>>> items left. One of them is the presence of disk images under
>>>> 3rdparty/packages/l2upgrade/ . I believe these are upgrade disks for
>>>> OS-9. So why are they in the NitrOS-9 source repo? I suppose they are
>>>> safely archived somewhere else for anyone needing them.
>>>> 
>>>> Also, under 3rdparty/packages/os9l2bbs/ there is an old os9l2bbs.dsk
>>>> image. The build creates its own under
>>>> 3rdparty/packages/os9l2bbs/6809l2/ Is the prebuilt image something
>>>> checked in by mistake, or does it have something that the created
>>>> image does not have?
>>>> 
>>>> I would be happy to get these blobs out of the source tree.
>>>> 
>>>> Tormod
>>>> 
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