[Coco] Making OS-9/NitrOS9 more user friendly Facebook group discussion

[David Gettle]

In OS9 level2 there was a boot file creation utility (I think it was called
config) on the configuration disk that can work with OS9level1 and NitrOS9
I have used it for both in the past, The program started by having you
select /d0 or /d1 to create the boot disk in, then it would have you select
which modules you want in that version, with the required modules
automatically loading if they followed the standard OS9 naming conventions,
once that was done the program would ask if you wanted the cmds directory
created, if you chose "Y" for yes then it would call format and format the
floppy drive you chose for it's current configuration, then create the boot
file by calling OS9Gen, then it would Dsave the current data directory to
the floppy drive with all associated sub directories.

The way I used the utility I created a directory named for the version of
the operating system I wanted, and loaded every file associated with that
version into the standard OS-9 directory structure of a floppy boot disk,
and created a custom startup file for that version, then used the utility
to create a boot disk from that directory.

Since the structure of the NitrOS9 modules directory is broken into
versions of each file type it makes creating NitrOS9 boot files more
complicated, as the OS9 Config utility looks for all modules to be in the
same directory.

I also created my own custom help file for each version. I had created my
own help file for each program I used as well as the standard OS9 command
set, I also included a help file for each custom command I had created for
myself so if I forgot how to use my own utility I could access help for it.

additionally every custom utility I created for myself had the -h option to
display help for that command.

Adding the -h option for any new OS9/NitrOS9 programs would be a great way
to standardize help functionality in OS9/NitrOS9 in the future, and in that
way it would eventually make the help command obsolete.

For example I have a utility I wrote to recursively copy a hard drive to a
zip disk (and back) on my CoCo3 while expanding the file size of the
directorys to reduce fragmentation. here's what the -h output looked like:

hdcopy -h

hdcopy -h <drive1> <drive2> ## -f

copys directory structure and all files from one drive to another allowing
the expansion of the directory entries up to 99% or 199% the size of the
original directory size if drive space allows, before directory file
fragmentation will begin.

-h help
<drive1> - source drive (the one being copied)
<drive2> - destination drive (the one the copy is being created on)
## percentage to increase file entries for all directories before
fragmentation begins (rounded to the next highest whole number, unless
smaller than system default)
-f - do not copy files

internally what this program did was to recursively look for directories on
the source drive and when it found one it would count the number of
entries, then multiply that by 1+ the percentage of increase and create a
directory on the destination drive with the resulting number of empty
entries until the entire directory structure was re-created, then it would
execute the following command "chd <drive1>;dsave -b -m -s40 -t -v
<drive2>  ! shell" to copy and verify the files.


On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 9:40 AM, William Carlin <whcarlinjr at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I know of two.  One is KwikGen by Sardis Technologies and Licensed by Gale
> Force Enterprises.  The other is EZGen by unknown author.  The -? help
> message shows no company or programmer identification and my DOCS directory
> has no documentation that I would normally put in that location.  Both are
> of course command line boot file editors.
>
> William H. Carlin, Jr.
> whcarlinjr at gmail.com
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 7:48 AM, Francis Swygert <farna at att.net> wrote:
>
> > Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2017 22:34:39 -0500
> > From: Gene Heskett <gheskett at shentel.net>
> >
> > Suggestion: What we need for boot creation is an editor that can look at
> > a descriptor, obtain the driver that goes with it, and makes sure its in
> > the bootlist. Or if we remove a descriptor, checks to see if its the
> > last user of a driver and deletes in from the bootlist if it was. With
> > context aware help, that would go a long way towards improving the user
> > friendliness.
> >
> > Cheers, Gene Heskett
> > ==============================================
> > I seem to recall that Rick Ulland wrote a boot generator and sold it
> > through his company, CoNect!, and FARNA Systems. Can't remember the name
> > and don't have a copy, but if someone finds it/has one they can put it up
> > on one of the archive sites.
> >  Frank Swygert
> >  Fix-It-Frank Handyman Service
> >  803-604-6548
> >
> > --
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> >
>
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