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THE
July 1990 52.00
,
ER
Ne and Views in the Wrld o OS/68000 and 6809
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-A TALE O F TWO COMPUT ERS
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-DOING WINDOWS
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FILE DESCRI PTOR: A_Tale_Of_Two_Coters
ONER: Scott Griepntrog
ATTRIBUTES: Editor, OS9 Freak
ALLOATI ON MAP: SysopRoot (StG'Net), 72427,335@CI S,
StGium r.iupi.edu
I don't think anybody will argue that the PC mchines are
starting to look goo to even the mst die hard CoC03/0S9
enthusiast. The cost of a base mel XT is actually
starting to drop blow what it costs to pt together a
coarable 059 syste. Even without the mlti-tasking/user
features of OS9, a lot of popLe are fining it hard to
resist using what is really an inferior oprating syste.
As a result of this, a lot of pople have ben clamring
for newer hardware to bring OS9 into the 90's. Enter FHL
(Frank Hogg Labs) an I MS ( I nteractive Media Syste,
formrly Kenneth-leigh Enterprises), an their new mchines,
the Toat series an MM1.
Goin in alpabtical order, I chatte with bth cams in an
attemt to get so insight on the backgrouns bhin the
pople bhin the machines, in adition to the details abut
what we can expct fro the new mchines. I think @
english teacher just rolLed over
Frank Hogg, fro Frank Hogg labs (FHL)
Frank Hogg is what mst pople would call a real character.
The first thing that struck m is his habit of spaking his
min. He'll tell you what he thinks if you wanted to know
or not. But he's no stranger to the CoCo, OS9, an OSK
markets, having sold hardware an software for all. So one
is reined to listen up - he'll give you goo tips fro his
exprience - even if you're going to cote against him.
Frank started his bsiness back in 1976 . at first as a
dental lab. He got involved in microcoters first with
the KI M1, a 6802 mchine. I n '79 he got into the software
bsiness, an the following year cam out with four packages
for the FLEX opratin g syste. He was also aproached at
that tim by Ken Caplan to suprt 059 then level 1, full
of bgs, an had no software.
In '82 cam a big break with Frank's nepew Rich Hogg
discovering how to upgrade the new 32K CoCo to 64k just by
ading four wires. This allowed the several hunred FLEX
packages to work on it, an brought him into the CoCo
mrket. Then at the 1984 Ft Worth Rainbwfest the newly
prted level 1 059 was being sold for the CoCo, an Frank
showed off his O'Pak utilties (also done by Rich). They
used the grapics mde to ad lower case characters an mre
than 32 colus to OS9.
I n the sam year, Frank started selling his first OT
coter, a single bard 68008 (8 bit bs equivalent to
68000). He subsequently cam out with 68000 an '020 mdels
of the QT. But he ran into a proble with the QT line.
Uprading to a faster mel require replacing the entire
bard, which was costly. I n 'W, he solve this proble by
creating the K'Bus syste. Although Frank's idea, it was
designed by Mike Smith an Dave Bridger at Hazelwoo
Coters, who also did the very first prt of OK back in
'83 an mde the OT mtherboards.
The K-Bus is a 16 bit bs, that can adress up to 16 mg.
Having ben aroun for a few years already, has many cards
for it already, incluing math coprocessors, ram, clock/dl
printer, SCSI, Flopy, serial, an a 68030 board. Frank
claims that it is catching on to the point that other
mnufacturers are starting to bild K'Bus cards.
An now, finally, to the new Toat line. The TC9 looks at
first glance like it should b a CoC03. I t is actually a
6803 running at 3mz with a CoC03 GI ME, AT keyboard, 8-bit
soun, an other imroved features. I t has a CoCo bs, so
all CoCo hardware will work with it, an fits into the K-Bus
for conecting to the 6k world. The board was designed by
Bob Pup, creator of the PC keyboard adapter for the CoCo.
The TC9 can interact with other K'Bus cards, bt it mst
have a 68k processor (a 68000, '30, or TC70 will do) in the
bs to hanle requests for it. The TC9 can't directly
access the K'Bus, although a 6k processor on the bs can
access all of the TC9's m emry, an can be triggered to do
so via an interrupt. For examle, a mmry mve can be
hanled a lot faster as the 68k processor has access to the
entire TC9's ram without going through the DAT (adress
transLator that allows the 6809 processor to han le mre
than 64k).
Frank also pints out that mre than one TC9 bard can b in
the bs at the sam tim. Just think, a whole bank of
CoCo's in one bx, with OSK running at the sam tim! Too
bad it can't hanle mltipLe 6k processors w
The other mr of the Toat family is the TClO. It is a
6070 processor, with VSC grapics chip, ram, an serial
prts. Although it resemles the MMl in mny ways, Frank
claim that the design had ben in the works even bfore the
advent of the MM1. I t is an alternate 68k processor for the
K-bs, with lots of extra features.
Interestingly enough the Te7D bard was also made so that it
could used as a replacemnt for the older OT mtherbards,
an can be munted on a flopy drive, hany for inustrial
aplications.
As we finished, Frank related a few stories to m. I t seems
that Paul Ward (I MS) had an advertisent in the Rainbw for
three mnths straight. Then when he skipd a mnth, Frank
hapned to pt in an ad for the TC9, an a lot of people
(without reading the ad?) thought that the TC9 was fro
Paul ...
Frank also says he's working O having the capability to run
RSDOS on the TC9, an is seriously thinking about doing a
MAC emlator for the TC70. An he doesn't miss a chance to
rein m that his prt of OSK is more stable, as he pts
it. lots of extra features, like a dde com an that
allows you to just say 'de IdO -coco' to read a CoCo
format disk.
Before I got off the pone with him (several hours later),
he said so things abut OS9 in general I thought very
imrtant to relay. He spoke abut the usefulness of level
J OS9, " The ability was there, bt noboy wrote the
software Like having a c ar that can do 500 m bt no
roads that fast' '. With Level 2 on the CoC03, things were
btter, bt he said, " mnane everyday apliations [still]
have to be done Bouncing balls are not going to cut
it" .
He stressed that OSK developrs should look at the
penoinal oprtunity before the, bcause " the first
software [is] going to make all the mney, [an] everybdy
else is going to pLay catch-up' '. I t's a wide open market
with these new machines, as he pinted out, " everybdy who
is interested in aSK has to participate" . Finally he
convinced m that " bing first is mre imortant than
Sector 3
everything else when the heat of cotion cos on,
anounce a new version an ad features" .
Paul Ward, fro Interactive Media System
Paul got his first CoCo back in '82. He did program ing on
it, PC's an Mac's. In 'b he picked up 059 level 1, an
fell in love with it imdiately. He had trouble with the
Rainbw guide to OS9 though. He thought it allowed too mny
oprtunities for user error an decided to write a new one.
In '8 he started " Start OS9, an enjoyabLe hans-on guid to
059 Lv2 on the CoC03" , wich took abut a year to colete.
The biggest incentive was his feeling that OS9 would b
respnsible for the longevity of the CoCo. In his bok he
has an essay on COl, the future of the CoCo, an interviews
with Microware staff.
The MM1 mchine started with Kevin Pease, Kevin Darling, an
Paul talking abut the 'CoC0' back in Septemr of last
year. Pease, who did the design for the mchine, is a top
R&D hardware designer for Ran McNally. an Paul claim he
works very fast. " We had drawings worked up by the en of
January, with the spcs nailed down by surveys on what
pople wanted an our own design goals" . Four prototyps
were dne by April, in tim for the Chicago Rainbwfest,
" It was actually a lot of fun bcause our roo was packed
full with a lot of coter cases an bards" , said Paul.
" We were soldering an ptting together syste the
thursday night bfore the fest" .
Paul related how they had so goo des to start off the
weeken with, an Kevin DarLing was working back in North
Carolina uploading new ones each night. Because he was
bsy, Kevin couldn't Lead the seinar on 059 he was
schedule for. Dale Puckett took over an invited the three
attening hardware popLe for des an Q/A. All who
attened wilL not soon forget watching PauL an Frank chide
each other abut the differences btween their mchines,
Paul says that " the syste that pople get in August wilL
b the 3rd version of the bard" . He also talks abut
already having orders fro 3 universities for msic, mlti
mia, an prting stuff fro Unix. " We're very agressive
abt getting software on the MM1", says Paul. " The onLy
way to survive for ten years is to co out with btter
technology" . Pease actually suggested the chip selected
for use in the MM1 - the 68070 an the VSC, bth used in COl
player designs. " We designed the syste to b very
affordable by mking the cp bard as minimal a coter as
pssible while still keeping it really sexy."
Paul also talks abut bing very comited to OSK an foun
that Microware was " very profesional an cooperative' '.
He's going after the big fish, trying to cote with the
PC, Mac, an Amiga bcause " that's where the true
cotition lies' '. His pLans incLue " coing up with
minstream software, prmiting minstream hardware ad-ons
an stilL doing sothing different an btter than the
other systems" . He also has plans to go after university
stuents.
Rather bldly Paul told m, " We are going national with
this coter (an our next coter) - whoose details are
coletely uer wraps" . I asked what the story was with
the MM1's bs. He says that pople fear that there will b
no mre ad-on cards. On the drawing bard he claim are a
digitizer, network (ethernet), serial i/o, an tap backup.
It is a 32 bit bs, derived tro VE to mke adaptation of
VE cards to the MM1 bs very easy. He even talks abut
bing able to use PC 16-bit ad-on cards in the future.
Finally, I asked him to define Multi-Media, which forms part
of the nam of his new machine. It simly mans that the
couter has interactive text, grapiCS, animation, an
soun capabilities. I can just see an MM1 bing used as a
watchdog - Listening for unfamiliar sounds an animating a
dog juing at the door while barking Louly
So, to bL up
We've got two new machines, Most pople would say think
that these two guys are pLaying a gam of dueling coters,
trying to outprform each other. It's ben very interesting
so far this year. an it's only going to get btter. But I
don't see this as a war at all. It's natural for a little
friction to heat things up when two very determined popLe
have two very different ideas abut how to do things. Yhat
is reaLly hapning is that these two peopLe have (pssibly
without reaLizing it) given us a choice.
We don't have the mch awaited for 'CoC04' machine, the
fabled machine that would solve all our probLes, we
actuaLly have two real machins that give us totally
different options, ru the sam oprating syste, an will
even have comatible winows! We may be sitting back an
shaking our heads at these two guys thinking, why? Why
couldn't they get together instead of battling it out! But
realize that we, the OS9 pblic, are bnefiting fro this.
Let's just hope they can keep it up eh? Wish them bth goo
Luck next tim you talk to them, an no matter which one you
decide to go with, Keep On OSK'ing!
\
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Sector 4
FILE DESCRIPTOR: Doctor_OSKer
ONER: John Doe
ATTR!BUTES: Question Answerer, Identity Unknown
ALLOCATION MAP: none as yet
In this regular section, our mythical Doctor OSKer will
answer any an all questions abut Life, the Universe, an
Everything abut OS9. Of course, don't expct reasonable
answers on the first two. But we are assembling a panel of
exprts to field those really odball questions, as well as
the just plain ordinary ones.
If you have a question or wish to b on our panel of
exprts, you can write, call, e-mil, etc., any of the
adresses blow:
Doctor OSKer
P.O. Box 24285
Spedway IN 46224
(317) 241-6401
SysopROT (StG-Net)i 72427,335 (CIS); StG@hum r.iupi.edu
Now that that's out of the way, let's get on with the
questions What? No questions? 0 I forgot, this is the
first issue. Noby knows I exist. Let's see, if n
knows that I exist, does that man that I don't? like that
tree that can't fall bcause noby is there to hear it. Or
is existance relative to my own prception of whether I
exist or not,
Anyways, bfore the good Doctor imgines he's go an takes
over the world, let's replace him with so Q's an A's
abut the new mchines. Large prtions of this have ben
derived fro Frank Hogg's question an answer sheet (Thanks
Frank!), plus conversations with bth cas an other
unassorted sources.
Q: Will the TC9 be comatible with the MM1?
A: Not really. This is like asking if a CoCo (6809) an a
68K processor are coatible. The TC9 has a 6809 cotible
CPU, an a coc03 GIME chip, so it's grapics capabilities
are the sam as the CoCo. The MM1 uses a VSC chip for
grapics, which has mre resolution an colors. But then
the TC9's brother, the TC70, also has a V5I chip an uses
the sam CPU as the MM1. Coaring the TC9 an the MM1 is
Like coaring aples an oranges ' bt the TC70 is close
enough to the HM1 to b called coatible, just like the TC9
is close enough to a CoCo to b called coatible. But it
is also interesting to note that the TC9 an the TC70 can
exist in the sam bs. Even though they are not directly
coatible, then can share an talk btween themselves, thus
bridging the gap btween 6809 an 68k. The MM1 will also
have a CoCo 'gateway', which can plug into existing CoCo.
Q: What is the difference btween the MM1 an the TC70?
A: The biggest difference is that the TC70 is a card for the
K-bs, allowing it to use other cards for interfacing to the
real world, whereas the MM1 has a lot of bilt in features
btween its two bards_ The MMl is expected to cost less
than a coarable TC70 setup, bt it is not upradable as
yet. The base MM1 (bth bards) has 1M ram, 3 serial prts,
Stereo soun In/Out, CoCo coatible joystick, hi-res muse
inpts, an an XT keybard, whereas the TC70 has 1.5M ram, 2
serial prts, Mono soun In/Out, an an AT keyboard.
Otherwise they are practically the sam, with the exception
that the MM1 will run faster when expanded to 3M ram.
Q: ill I b able to just uplug the Multi-pak fro m CoCo
3, with Disto II flopy controller, Burke Burke HO
interface RS232 pak an just plug the works into the TC9?
A: Yes, bcause the TC9 has a CoCo Bus everything will work
except RO cartridge gams. You may not need the RS-232 pak
though bcause the TC9 has 2 RS232 style ports on it.
Q: Do | still need the mlti-pak, or can I connect m
existing drives so other way?
A: The TC9 should run 2 Paks on just a cable. The CoCo Bus
on the TC9 is via a header rather than a card edge
connector. This was done to make it easier to cable the
paks in the case. We also pt 12 volts back on the bs for
things like the Burke Burke Interface.
Q: Can I mt @ flopies an hard drives in the TC9 case?
A: Yes, an there is a 200 watt per supLy to hanle it.
Q: Do the new coters have a bilt in muse interface?
A: The TC9 an the M1 have a 8 bit joystick prt, which can
b used with the Tany joysticks an mice. Both mchines
can use a serial prt for a PC typ muse that has btter
resolution.
Q: Will the Tany Hi-Res interface work with the TC9?
A: No, it doesn't have a cassette prt_ But the MM1 has a
bilt in hi-res interface.
Q: What software is inclued with the TC9?
A: All the details are not available yet, bt it should have
a version of Tany's OS9, mdifie to work with the hardware
di fferences.
Q: What software is inclued with the MM1?
A: 059/68000 V2.3, C Coiler, Basic, grapics editor, text
editor, tape bacKup sw, print spooler, PC file mnager, an
other to b announced.
Q: hat abut MSDOS coatibility?
A: Emlating an MSDOS environnt on a 68k processor would
b too slow, an ading a 'x8 processor would probably turn
out to b mre expensive than purchasing a clone an using
it as a terminal to OSK when not running MSDOS. Paul says
the MM1 is " MSDOS frienly" , as it can use DOS disks an
will have many MSDOS aplications prted to it.
Q: What abut Mac coatibility?
A: The Mac uses 6k an hardware that is very similar to the
TC70 an MM1. With the adition of a Macintosh RO set an
so interfacing (like that currently available for the
Atari ST), bth machines should b able to run Mac software.
frank is known to b looking at this closely.
Q: Is the TC9 coletely CoCo coatible? Will RS BASIC
software work with the TC9?
A: Frank is working O RS-SASJC coatibility. bt warns
that it may b a while bfore it is ready an fully
debugged. Because of a nur of hardware differences, so
porly written or highly protected progarms may not work at
all. However, all 059 software will run on it.
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01 leave E-Mail to Wayne@ZOG
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(""Icue $.0 S. $2.0 ex for CD)
lo 24 Week for delivery)
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P.O. BOl 8503
Ls Aeles. C. 9007
bBCt0t b
F I LE DESCRI PTOR: Doi ng_Wi nows
ONER: Chris 'The Bug' Swinefurth
ATTRIBUTES : Stuent, Hun, Hacker
ALLOCATION MAP: bg@root (StG'Net)
Winow? What i s a wi now? Well, mst I BM users wil l say i t
i s soth i ng you throw your coter through! As OSK/OS9
users we have the POER to use winows. Most " mssy" DOS
users do not! We can play chess in one winow while
downloadi ng the daily news in another an even yet i n
another winow soth i ng el se an so forth . The
pssiblities of winows are enless! It doesn't mtter what
you use coters for, wi nows will prove adicti ng! " But
how do you mke an use winows?"
In OS9 Level 2 running on the CoC03 mki ng winows is easy,
bt in OSK winows have not yet ben wi dely stanardize.
We do have a form of winows in OSK, bt they don't have al l
the grapics suprt as OS9 Level 2 CoCo wi nows. There i s
hop even as I typ Kevin Darling is bsy hacking away at
his keybard writing new winow drivers for OSK! We're all
rooting (an wai ting) for you Kevin!!!
In the mantim I ' ll explai n OS9 Level 2 CoCo 3 Winows. I t
i s very easy to mke a wi now! Anyby can do i t. All you
have to do is tell OS9 to attach an set the winow. There
are two min ways to bgin: (1 ) Attach the winow, via the
ISattach call in assemly or the I ni z comn fro shell, to
the active winow queue, a li st of all the active wi nows.
Or, (2) Opn a path to the wi now, via the l $Opn call.
After you opn the winow either by " inizin9" it or
opning a path to it, you mke the winow custo or use the
wi now data in the devi ce descriptor. If you want to use
the data in the device descriptor alL you have to do i s sen
the OS9 Select coes to the wi now. You can do this by
typing " DispL ay 1 8 21 " fro shell or writing S1B S21 to
the winow via the OS9 ISWrite call. You can also write
anything out to the winow, bt mst pople j ust sen
select.
If you want a custo winow you need to sen the DWSet OS9
di splay coes to the winow. The paramters for DWSet are
as follows:
DWSet:= 18 20 typ lcx lcy szx szy forc l r bakc l r brdclr
Typ, cal l e the wi now typ, is the ki n of wi now OS9 wi ll
mke. Seven di fferent ki ns of wi nows are descri bd in the
following list:
Winow Typ Nurs for OS9 Level 2 CoCo 3
No. Cols. Rows. Col rs. Grap. Res. M.
T 40 24 1 6 -' Text -- 2K
2 80 24 16 Text -- 4K
5 80 24 02 640x1 92 1 6K
6 40 24 04 320x192 1 6K
7 80 24 04 60x192 32K
8 40 24 1 6 320x1 92 32K
In adi tion, one mre wi now typ, VDG, exi sts. Look i n
upoing issues of the OSKer for an arti cle expl aining in
mre detai l VOG winows. The lcx an lcy args are the X an
Y coordinates, in chars, for the upr l eft corner of the
screen. Lcx i s the nur, fro the upr left corner, of
chars across, the colus, of the wi now. Ley is the nur
of li nes down, rows. The wi now CANNOT b bi gger than the
screen. Also, mke sure that wi nows do not overlap. There
i s a way to overl ap winows, bt that wi ll b in a future
artic l e.
The forclr, bakclr, an brdclr are the col ors of the winow
(foregroun, backgroun, an brder) the winow ori gi nally
bgins with. The last step is to wri te soth i ng out to the
winow. Usually you wi ll sen the Select caL L (SlB S21) so
the winow you j ust created wil l bco the active winow.
The Select call is li ke the CLEAR key i t mkes the winow
that it was written out to the current acti ve wi now, bt
only if Stdl n is the current active winow. For examle, i f
I have a program running on /Term, opn up a path to /W1,
an I wri te the Select call on that path, W1 would " pp"
on @ screen. This way Pop can mke the winow it j ust
mde co up on the users screen . instead of having the
user press CLEAR until they got to the new wi now.
The program 'Pop' is a uti lity that enables you to mke a
winow of any kin you want. 'Pop' mkes all of i ts winows
full size acording to thei r winow typ nur. The user
tells 'Pop' what winow typ he want an gets the next
avai l able wi now an DWSets an Selects the wi now. Fi nally
i t chai ns a process (or if no nam was spcified, a shell)
to the wi now.
First, 'Pop' figures out what typ of wi now the user wants.
Then, 'Pop' opns a path to the next available winow, via
the wi ld card wi now. Opning a path to the wi ld card
winow, /W, tells OS9 to get the next wi now not currently
bi ng used. Pop then wri tes the DWSet call out to the new
wi now. Next, Pop sens the Sel ect cal l to the wi now. So,
the new winow " pps" up on the users screen. Pop, then,
forks labl. Finally Pop chains to the comn that the
user spcifi ed, or Shell if no coman was gi ven.
Before 'Pop' chai ns the process it tri es to fork a program
nam ' L abl' . Labl i s a program that " steal s" the top
line of the winow for a l abl an prints the nam of winow
on it. Labl is not reui red for 'Pop' . if it is not foun
'Pop' wi ll j ust go on. Labl wi ll b printed i n an upoing
issue.
Using Pop i s easy. The options are all preceded by a dash.
The options are: 1 -c
=
#e The -l option tells Pop not to
fork Labl bfore chaining. The -c option tells Pop to
" pp" the current wi now instead of grabing a new one.
Pop does this by DWEning the wi now bfore DWSetti ng i t
back. The '# opti on is the nur of the w i now typ the
user wants Pop to mke. If th i s is oi tted Pop defaults to
2, an 80x24 full si ze screen. The options can co one
right after the other or b preceded by thei r own dash; Pop
does not care. The last thing on the comn line is the
opti onal nam of another comn to chain to bsides SheL L .
If running Pop fro a Shel l you need to pt an after all
the argunts. This is bcause Shel l does a wai t call after
it forks a process an Pop does not return to its parent
until the program it chained to dies.
The program 'Typ' that apared i n the June 1 90 i ssue of
the Rai nbw page 36 was wri tten by m also, an has a bg.
The bg was NOT part of the coe I subitted, bt inside a
mifi cati on the Rai nbw di d to @ coe pri or to pri nting.
The bg is on page 38, i n the first an only while loop in
the program. The li ne l ooks like this:
while(-argc > 0 && (
*
++argv) [0] == ' ) \
The bg is in the -argc part of the l i ne. I t shoul d read:
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