[Coco] Question regarding OS-9 Default Drive (/DD)

Nick Marentes nickma2 at optusnet.com.au
Sat Nov 8 20:54:40 EST 2014


I am wondering how OS-9 handles the default drive.

I always thought that the idea behind OS-9 is that regardless of your 
OS-9 hardware, the driver maps the hardware to a software "translator" 
(my terms because I don't know the official terms yet). This is the 
default drive (/dd)?

That way, whether you have a 40trk, 80trk, drivewire, SDC etc drive, the 
application program doesn't care because it talks to this 
"software/device translator".

So, what has me wondering is why, when I look at the NitrOS-9 software 
website (http://nitros9.sourceforge.net/latest/) there are so many files 
and many are just duplicates but configured for there respective loading 
device?

Seems messy, confusing and goes against what I thought was how OS-9 works.

I would have thought that once one configures an NitrOS-9 to suit their 
setup, the single version of the application disk/s is all that is needed.

Does this mean that when a new program is added, a version of the same 
application needs to be created for each device?

Seems wrong and but I'm sure there is something I'm not understanding here.

Nick


More information about the Coco mailing list