~acftines Vol. I, Issue 3, April 1991 Price: $2.75

76. 68n. /llCbiD" js published and copyright (C) 1991 by Catham Rouse Company, RDI! BOI 371, Wyolling DR 19934. Ph. \302) 492-8~11. The edito~ is Jall~s H. DeStafeno. One year USA subscription is $12.\0. Canada aDd Mexico $14.2~. All otbers \surface $17.25. All "ajor credit cards ",cepted. Our low prices reflect a 10% casb discount. Please add 1 % to credit card orders. AnT site display ad,ertislng is accepted. The half page rate is $IO/issue. Write for other size/duratlon rates. Readers are encouraged to contribute letters, articles, programlling inforllation and other material related to cOllp"ters witb the 68n x) processors; excepting Macs and Amigas. Please send lIaterial to the above address. Thank you for your support.

The This Issue: Editor's Tho~ghts By Jim DeStafeno Editor's thoughts 1 Ref1ections In 'c' 3 Bob van der Poel finishes his 3 part C programming Well. .. Due to Ron Anderson's series. treat, its even a tighter squeeze this month, but its well worth it. REX.R, S1t*DOS and We have had lots of questions OS-~/68000 . . . 5 about REXSDOS and 8K*D08; what are Ron Anderson discusses they, what are they I ike, where and compares the three can they be gotten, etc. Ron has operating systems. done a yoemans job discussing Advertiser's Index 1 them. He even tossed in 08-9/68000 for good measure. Guess Ron is one C1assified Ads 2 of four or five people that have written this article, He has long term in depth first hand experi­ ence with the three operatingsys­ Advertiser's Index tems. This makes him uniquely qua'" lified to undertake the task. I count us luck to have such a man Granite Computer Systems 3 on staff. And speaking of "good guys", The 68xxx Machines 4 van der Poel finishes his three part series this month. I'm not a Bob van der Poe1 Software 4 "e" programmer, yet I've been able to enjoy his ef forts. I hope l' ve delmar company 8, 9 convinced him to share wi th us more of the ways he has used to Palm Beach Software 11 solve vexing programming problems. still havn't heard from IM8 on Peripheral Technology 13 the MM/l or Frank Hogg Lab. s on their machine(s).

April 1991 68xxx Machines Page 1 Microware has just announced a translater program that converts Se:1_ect:::i_<>ns In C source code of their 09/68K BASIC Part 3 of 3 to their 'c' compiler source code. That not only means a Basic pro­ By Bob van nor Poel gram can be compiled to M/L, but when written on one computer it will run on all the computers the Microware 'c' language runs on. I Last issue, in Part 2 of this feel this is a major pargramming series, we created an array of advancement. pointers to functions which let us Lastly, if you've written a create a cursor with different short program, have a new piece of video attributes. This month we software you'd like to evaluate or will take this concept one step have other information our readers further and set up an array which might be interested in, let us contains not only function point­ know. We are always interested in ers, but also a set of unique val­ printing articles from new writ­ ues paired to each function. This ers. And, as always, your comments type of table is very useful in and criticisms are welcome. the main input parser of a prog­ So, kick back and let Ron and ram. Bob take you for a ride; which My text editor VEO has a main would be hard if not impossibl e, loop which simply waits for a key­ to get anywhere else. press and then branches to an ap­ propriate routine: if the keypress is a character then we go to the edit() routine, if it is a control we execute the appropriate func­ Classified Ads tion. This could be done with a massive SWITCH .. CASE, but the met­ hod presented in the following - WANTED 55-50 equipnent. swr CPU fragments is much easier. First card, also Gimix PIO #28 (30 pin) FOG. off, a structure is needed which Alen E. Gordon, 11) / 160 NW 176 st / will hold both the keyvalues and Miami, FL 33169/ (305) 653-8000. the corresponding functions:

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000 static struct jumpent cmdsl]={ 'a'-Ox60, addmacro, Turn that old computer equipment into 'g'-Ox60, append, cash with a 68xxx classified ad. For 'f'-Ox60, find, Sale ads are $5.00 per 50 character 'b'-Ox60, block line. Wanted ads are just $2.50 per 50 'd'-Ox60, delete, character line. 0,0;

for{; ;)(

Page 2 68:u:x Machines April 1991 k=curkey(x,y,*curpos,O); if(k>=' , edit(k); e he if (do jump( k ,cmds » return -1: doerror{ "Unknown function"); } This function receives the key to look f or the base address of Of course, VEDs list of func­ the tabl e. I t loops through the tions is much longer. The main table until a match or the end of jump table has over 60 entries. the table is found. If the charac­ Both the structure and the loop ter 'c' is found in the table the are more complex, but this example corresponding function is called will suffice for our needs here. and a 0 is returned. If a match is What we have done is to set up not found a -1 is returned so that an array with entries matching the caller can alert the user that each possible keypress and the an unknown or illegal option was corresponding function. In this selected. example, if CTRL-A is pressed we The idea of jump table selec­ want to call the function tion can be expanded for your own addmacro(), for CTRL-D we want needs. For example, there is no delete(), etc. All we need now is reason for the match characters to a function, dojump(), which will remain type char. With a simple examine each entry in the array modification they could easily be looking for a match and, if one is changed to integers, floats, or found, call the corresponding fun­ even strings. It is also possible ction. to change things so that parame­ ters are passed to the functions, dojump(c,tbl) and with some trickery the func­ char c; tions could even return values. struct jumpent tbl[]; By using pointers to functions, we can create compact, fast C pro­ { grams. Due to space limitations, for( ; tbl->key; tbl++){ there is onl y space to show code if( tbl->key==c){ fragments and simple examples, but (*tbl->fn)(); with this base you should be able return 0; to expand this technique and adapt

April 1991 68xxx Machines Page 3 the concept to your own programs. If you have any comments on this series or suggestions for future Grea~ 05-9 50f~ware articles please drop me a note here at the "The 68xxx Machines" or directly to me at PO Box 355, VBD: OS-9 Text Editor . $24.96 Porthill, 10, 83853. The best editor for OS-9 just got better. Version 2.0 of this best se­ ller now includes 36 definable mac­ ros, case-switcher, and even more speed. See the review in Mar/Apr Cli­ pboard. Works with 128 or 512K. Up­ I ...... ~ ~ .... grades to version 2.0 with new 28 pg. Coo I I 'C 1Il manual are $12.00 with proof of pur­ III III I "'QCc, -.f..o I chase. 'C~ .... ~ I .. 0- ...... I OIl"'" C C I "'N VPRINT: OS-9 Text Formatter. $29.95 1<1<'" .... I "'00 Qj Qj -~'-'.... An unbelievably powerful formatter. ~~ U Features include complete proportion­ 01 01 '" 'C'C ~' al font support, multiple columns, 01 01 c; c; footnotes, indexing, table of conte­ 01 0:1 I nts and more. Comes with 120 pg. man­ uu I I III ual, demo files and extensive macro 0000 I I ~ ..,. file. 512K RAM recommended. ;;J;;J I .... :e= 0- Cc I IIlC I I C ~"'~ ..; ! I ... ~ Ultra Label Maker 9 . $19.95 ... ,.II: ::s ...... ~ •• .:J I I .... a~Q ...... COl> Turns your printer into a printing ~ ~ .c.... ao=.s ~~ 5 ~ ..~ IC..;E press for labels. WYSIWYG previewing. .. 'C .... N Supports ALL printers. Useful and ='!:!::S = .. QC lots of fun. One of Rush Caley's Top Ztf..lUtf..l fI.l.. ~~~ 10. Requires 512K Coco 3. Coco 2/3 version $14.95

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Page 4 68xxx Machines April 1991 hard drive for the preliminary REX. 5K*D05 an.d tests. 05-9/68000 I found I could boot from the supplied system disk. I immediate­ By Ron Anderson ly duplicated it per the instruc­ tions in the manual. Next I enabled the 40 track This is a "special report" in drives. Soon, I noticed the floppy response to, "What is REX, MONK, MAKDISK utility formated with no SK*DOS and OS-9/68XXX?" (But lets sector interleave (i. e. I saw se­ call 05-9/68000 OS-K) The focus is quentially numbered sectors on on REXDOS and MONK because they each track). REX not only reads a are the newest operating systems track at a time, but no interleave available for Peripheral Technolo­ means it reads a track in one rev­ gy computers. We've been talking olution of the disk drive. Wow! I about SK*DOS for several months, formatted an 80 track disk that and OS-K has been mentioned as way. It turned out to be really well. REXDOS was developed several fast reading and writing. years ago by Dan Farnsworth for Next I tried to format a 40 his own use. It and MONK, a simple track disk, but got a fatal error. startup boot / debugging 68000 A call to Dan with the problem program, (normally called a moni­ rewarded me a few days later with tor program), along with OS-K and a new MAKDISK utility. It seems SK*DOS are now available for the MAKDISK didn't read the drive ste­ Peripheral Technology 68000 com­ prate from the Drive Information puters. Table (DIT) correctly. It tried to step the 40 track drives too fast. with all working cleanly I »> GETTING REX UP «< tried Dan's editor, EDDI, and found the documentation didn't At work I have a number of apply to the video monitor and IBM PT68K-2 (PT= Peripheral Technolo­ keyboard configuration I was us­ gy) computers and an older -lAo I ing. Another ca 11 to Dan got me have a PT68K-2 at home too. The the correct information for com­ company presently doesn't have any mands. of the new PT68K-4 systems, though As soon as EDDI was running, I our next addition will most likely decided to work on the Whimsical be one of them. compiler. After a short conference When Dan Farnsworth asked me to with its author, John Spray (who check out his REX and MONK combi­ works with me), I modified the nation, I reminded him I didn't necessary system interface code. have a -4 system. "That's OK, REX With a little debugging we (John should run on a -2 just as well. with my help), had a cross compil­ We'll have a chance to see if er running; (running under SK*DOS there are any glitches." So I on one machine while compiling agreed to the test. code for PAT to run under REX). I After two weeks of sessi ons, soon had PAT, my own editor run­ some lasting until 2 AM, I had it ning under REX. all working. Don't get me wrong, When long time computer users it wasn't difficult, but I had a switch systems, they (speaking for lot of stuff I wanted to port over myself too) try to make the new to REX. If the stuff couldn't be system look just like the one they ported, I wasn't much interested are used to. For example, FLEX had in using REX for anything. a LIST utility that displays a First job was to get my system text file to the screen stopping configured. I have some old 40 every 24 lines until the user hits track standard DSDD drives. (Dan ESC or space. tells me they are obsolete. Howev­ When I got into MS-DOS I found er, the company probabl y has 20 or TYPE lists a file with no stops. 30 of them on various older sys­ Rather then TYPE, I typed LIST and tems used for development work). got a NO SUCH FILE error so often The system I choose to use for the I made a batch file called test has a Monochrome video board LIST. BAT. It simply told the com­ and monitor, a 20 MEG hard disk, puter to type the fi I e and pipe an 80 track floppy and two 40 the output to MORE. MORE stops track floppies. I disconnected the listing every 24 lines and prompts

April 1991 68xxx Machines Page 5 the user to press a key to contin­ that. He also wrote an extensive ue. ROM monitor program called MONK to A week later we (again John run with REX. with my help), had Whimsical run­ I must point out both REX and ning under REX and capable of com­ SK*DOS have maintained complete piling itself; making an exact text file compatibility with the copy of i tsel f abl e to run under old FLEX. In addition, SK*DOS has REX. Along the way, I backed all compatibility with binary program my fi 1 es off the hard disk and files as well. That was a natural reformatted it with the REX format desire since the early development utility. I had a slight problem of software for the 68000 systems getting REX to boot from the hard had to be done on 6809 systems disk. A call to Dan got me the using cross assemblers. A cross answer the next night by phone. assembler is an assember program All works fine now. I've even mod­ that runs on one machine but gen­ ified my pet home made utilities erates code for a different pro­ so they work under REX as well. cessor or operating system. (In the process of get ting a lot of familiar software tools trans­ »> WHERE DID REX COME FROM ? «< ferred over to a new processor or operating system, having a cross Lets look at a little history. assembler or compiler is of great Dan, like myself, was a long time value, as is disk compatibility.) user of computers based on the While old FLEX binary file for­ 6800 and 6809 processors. The main mat is not quite compatible with operating system available for REX files, it is easy to write a those processors was FLEX, suppl­ program to convert FLEX files to ied with the hardware of South REX compatible files. (Dan has West Technical Products Co. FLEX already done so). I won't get into was written and supplied by Tech­ the binary file structure or the nical Systems Consultants, origi­ differences in great detail. They nally located in West Lafayette are fairly trivial, Dan having Indiana; presently in Chapel Hill I eft the "short record" for", of North Carolina. FLEX out, probably for simplicity TSC as they are known, have and size. (A cross assembler or long since dropped support of FLEX compiler that runs under FLEX and (which at least operationally, I produces code for SK*DOS could be understand, was a copy of an oper­ easily modified to produce code ating system developed by DEC for for REX. their PDP series of computers). Normally magazines don't want TSC has gone on to bigger and bet­ comparison articles written be­ ter things in the form of Uniflex, cause there is usually a winner ·a multi-user, multi-tasking oper- and a loser. That doesn't help ating system developed first for advertising revenue. ["68xxx" says the 6809 and later extended to run let the chips fall where they may. on a 68000 bas.ed computer. Ed] In this case, I think I can Dan and lots of others includ­ make a good case for choosing any ing myself, liked FLEX a great of the three operating systems. deal. We always felt we had some­ I've mentioned OS-K briefly previ­ thing better than CP/M used by the ous 1 y, but not in great depth. machines with the 8080 and Z-80 There are numerous factors to con­ Intel processors. In retrospect, sider in choosing your operating some of that might have been the system. Let's look at each in "my dad's car is better than your turn. dad's car" syndrome. Anyway it was agreed the 6809 is vastly easier to program in »> A LOOK AT REXDOS «< assembler (all we had at first) than it was with the Intel proces­ There are several good reasons sors. Therefore ... it was not un­ you would want to consider REXDOS. reasonabl e for Dan to wri te an First of all it is now supplied operating system for the 68000 with all Peripheral Technology hardware very similar in "look and PT68K-4 computers. These computers feel" to FLEX and the earlier DEC can use high density floppy drives operating system. (the ones used by AT and newer In fact, he has done more than style IBM clone computers). That

Page 6 68xxx Machines April 1991 means you can install a 1.44 mega­ n't require position independent byte 3.5 inch drive and/or a 1.2 code. Of course, programs written megabyte 5.25 inch drive. in position independent code work They read and write more quick­ fine under REX too. Operating ly than conventional double densi­ systems calls take more bytes of ty drives because they pack the code than with SK*DOS. data more closely. One of the main In general there are fewer and features of REXDOS is the floppy less capable as calls than in disk file handling. REXDOS (May I SK*DOS. Most of those who would be use REX for short?) handles disk capable of writing assembler code files by reading and writing a interfacing with the operating whole track at one time. system would be able to code the ~ecause of the whole track ap­ missing routines rather easily. As proach, the sectors are physically Dan put it, the operating system on the drive in the order in which features supplied are generally they must be read. A whole track those required for the operating can be read in one revol ution of system. Where functions might be the disk. By timing test, disk useful to a user, Dan has made operations (read and write) are entry points available to the about 2.5 times fas ter using REX user. The usual as calls exist for than the times of SK*DOS. such things as opening a file to I'd better expand on that. The read or write, closing a file, test consisted of copying a very etc. There are call s to output a long file from hard -disk to flop­ string of characters terminated by py. Dan's separate read and write $04 (a leftover from FLEX in these test* indicate reads from a floppy days when e uses $00 and most are twice as fast and writes are others follow). I have converted seven times as fast. Actually it several utility programs from is not qui te that simpl e because SK*DOS to REX versions with little REX reads a whole track even if difficul ty. only one sector is needed, so REX The original copy of this is a bit slower with very small discussion contained one strong files, but considerably faster for negative reaction to REX due to large files. I am told a -4 with the lack of a buil t-in mul tiple the high density drives reads and directory feature. One night I was writes files about 2.5 times fast­ discussing this wi th Dan and he er then myoid -2. That approaches suggested multiple small parti­ the disk operation speed of IBM tions for the hard disk. My imme­ clone. diate reaction was I would then As for terminals, REX will run have directories of fixed sizes, a serial terminal, a monochrome which struck me as a disadvantage. (Hercules) board and monitor and­ However, after kicking the idea /or any color monitor from eGA to around, I soon had a scheme tha t VGA. The PT uses third party grap­ could change partitions leaving hics adaptor boards. They can be the working drive number alone. I bought inexpensively form Periph­ won't go into detail here since eral Technology or your own com­ the subject is complex enough to puter "goodie" source. Graphics deserve a whole article at another adaptors vary somewhat. Some use time. By the time I was finished, "different" hardwat:e which they I had 15 partitions on my hard make compatible by means of a disk (aside from the drive 0, the onboard BIOS ROM. REX requires a system disk partition). Thirteen boar& with "standard" hardware. of those are 30 cylinders or just Check with Periphera 1 Technology under 1 Megabyte. Two are 60 for approved boards. cylinders, just under 2 Megabytes. Even with these features, REX By the time I was f ini shed, I is a very simple and small single had figured out how to give parti­ user operating system. Even so, it tions names, and change REX's is rather difficult to add other Drive Information Table by over­ co-resident programs. Perhaps the laying different starting sectors. average user wouldn't want or need This allowed switching directories to do that, at 1 east not for a by name (CD TEXT would switch to whil e. that directory). I was also able REX gets along fine with soft­ to make commands to find the name ware written for loading at abso­ of the present directory, (PO lute addresses. That is, it does- shows the Present Directory name).

April 1991 68xxx Machines Page 7 OS9/68000 SOFTWARE

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FLEXELINT V4 _ 00 - The C source code checker ..... $495.00 Flexelint finds quirks, idiosyncracies, glitches ann bugs in C programs. 50 options control checking by symbol name or error number. Checks in­ clude intermodule inconsistencies, definition and usage of variables, structures, unions and arrays, indentation, case fall-through, type con­ versions, printf and scanf format string inconsistencies, and suspicious semi-colons. A must for all serious C programmers.

IMP - Intell igent Make Program ...... $250.00 IMP does everything you wished Microware's Make would do, and a great deal more. It is well-behaved, consistent, and extremely flexible. It has a built-in C-like preprocessor and has comprehensive debugging facilities. Rules can be user-defined, and make files for jobs other than assembly-language or C compilation are easily constructed.

T'>ISASM~_OS9 - OS-9/58K Disassembler ... , . . $250.()1) This high-speed, three-pass 68000 disassembler can also handlp the 68010 and 58020. It intelligently decodes module headers and produces symbol information that can be repeatedly edited and passed through the disas­ sembler allowing iterative disassembly. The system libraries are read to supply symbols.

WINDOWS - C Source Code Windowing Library ...... $250.00 This C source code library package supports multiple overl"pplnq windows displayed on one character-based terminal screen. It supports window headers and footers, and pop-up windows. Windows may be moved, pannpd, written to while off-screen, etc.

PROFILE - User State Program FroUler ...... $270.00 Designed to profile user-state programs. Profile effectively samples" traced execution building statistical information as it goes. It reads symbol table modules to give a function-by-function account of the time spent during execution. The user may ·zoom in" on a function to find a smaller range of addresses where time is being spent.

PAN U"rILITIES - C Source Code Utility Set ...... $250.00 Forty useful utilities are supplied in this C sou Ice code package. In­ cluded are utilities to move files, find files, patch disks, undelete, cross-reference C programs, set and remove tabs, and spell-check docu­ ments.

PC 9 - MS-DOS to OS-9 WIndowing System ...... $ 350.00 PC9 allows an MS-DOS computer to be used as a t.erminal to mul tiple processes on a remote 08-9 system linked by a single serial cable. Each OS-9 process is displayed through a resizable, moveable window on the PC screen. Terminal emulation facilities support uMACS and other screen ed i tors and provi de a programmable PC keyboard. Access to PC disk dr i ves is also available through the OS-9 unified I/O system, giving disk capabi I i ty to ROM based OS-9 systems. A hot key swi tches between DOS and OS-9 displays.

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THE SYSTEM IV is a high performance computer system bAsed Oll t hp ',1,,1 ('rol A ('IlOOO mi croprocessor operat i ng a t a clock speed of 16 liHz Atld has heell eles i glled t c, provide maximum flexibility and versatility, liicroware's Profpssiollal OS9. 68000 operating system is included ,.,ith the SYSTEM IV providing all efficient multi-user and multi-tasking environment. This provides tile user with" PC fOJ home use, small business applications and a viable low-cost solution for many industrial control applications (embedded systems), Special requirements (such as midi, sound, A-D/D-A, net-working, etc.) ilre easily handled with readily available low-cost PC/XT boards which can plug into the SYSTEM IV ex­ pansion slots. And, as user requirements change or improved special function boards become available, they may be added or replaced at the user's option. Thus, when software requiring multi-media or other new capability becomes a real i ty, the user wi 11 be able to add tha t capabi I i ty eas i 1 Y and have the I ates t technology at his disposal. TO ACCESS THE LARGEST SOFTWARE BASE avai lable, an liS-DOS board, the ALT86, wi II be available shortly as a low-cost option. This board has a V30 (8086) micro­ processor running at 10 MHz, includes 1 Meg of O-wait state RAM, uses the Chips and Technology BIOS, has a socket for an 8087 math co-processor and plugs illt" one of the SYSTEM IV expansion slots. Additionally, an OS9/6809 software emul­ ator/interpreter will be available soon. The emulator/interpreter will permit running most COCO OS9/6809 software on the SYSTEM IV. OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS may be installed. These include CPM, UNIFLEX, MINIX, STARDOS, REX DOS and most any other operating system capable of running on the 68000 microprocessor chip. THE DESIGN OF THE SYSTEM IV is derived from previously successful designs all" uses components that have been tested and proven in other systems. SYSTEM IV's uniqueness stems from the ability of its designer and manufacturer, Peripheral Technology, to provide well designed, reliable hardIVare at a low cost. FUl­ ther, only the functions necessary to the basic operation have been designed into the mother board. Seven PC/XT compatible expansion slots allow an un­ restricted selection of standard PC/XT accessory boards by the user. The usel is not locked into any preconceived notions of what is best. THE MOTHER BOARD is a 4 layer XT size board which holds the microprocessor, sockets for up to 4 MBytes of O-wait state RAM, a battery backed-up clock, 4 serial ports, 2 parallel ports, a high density (37C65) floppy disk controller, 7 PC/XT compatible expansion slots, a memory expansion connector to allow an addi tional 6 MBytes of O-wai t state DRAM, keyboard connector and the necessary system support chips.

THE TERMINAL SYSTEM includes the mother board wi til 1 f1Byte of on-board DRAM, .­ high density floppy disk drive (3 1/2" or 5 1/4"),1 serial port connectors. il parallel printer port connector, a 200 watt power supply, mini-PC style casp capable of holding 5 half-height drives and Professional OS9/68000. This con­ figuration requires the use of an external terminal(s).

T~E CONSOLE SYSTEM adds a VGA (800 x 600 x 16) graphics board and an AT stylF keyboard and provides full graphics capability at the console. Terminals may be added. THE SYSTEM IV comes with a one (1) year parts and labor warranty. TERMINAL System $ 999.00 CONSOLE System $1,149.00 OPTIONS 3 MByte additional DRAM $120.00 Hard Disk Controller and driver $ 69.00 40 MByte Hard Disk $295.00 20 MByte Hard Disk $240.00 Additional 5 1/4" or 3 1/2" HD Floppy Drive $ 92.00 AT Style keyboard and 800 x 600 x 16 VGA Card and driver $159.00 For 1024 x 768 x 256 VGA Card w/l Meg of Memory in place of standard VGA card add $170.00 Mono Display Card in place of VGA card deduct $ 50.00

Prices sIlbi-ect to change withont not:c~. Special monitor prices when ordered with the SYSTEM IV. See the PERIPHERAL TECHNOLOGY AD for kits. * e mar co * Middletown Shopping Center - PO Box 78 - Middletown, DE 19709 302-378-2555 FAX 302-378-2556 Finally I could make a new direc­ pointer is right at the A of ASMK, tory or remove one,or get a list so it assembles the file. The of all the active directories. output goes to FILE.LST. At the The fixed size for each is not end of the assembly, ASMK or any really a major disadvantage. A other program does a JMP WARMS. major ADVANTAGE of the scheme is Warm start of REX closes all open each partition has its own direc­ files, so FILE.LST is closed. It tory sectors. The directories tend works fine. In fact, when you use to be short or at least shorter the P for output to a printer, the than if all the files on the disk printer driver does pretty much were in one I arge one, so disk what 0 does. access is faster overall. Dan has developed a pseudo disk The directory complication only directory system called SUB CAT arises if you are using a hard which allows different directory disk. If you plan to use only files. They all remain in one floppy drives, you can use a large directory per drive whether different disk for each kind of or not you use SUBCAT. (This is computer activity. Each disk true of SK*DOS as well. There is becomes a new directory. basically one large directory, but Another initial disadvantage, files are tagged with a directory REX was missing the ability to code) . redi rect input and output as Using SUBCAT is a simple pro­ SK*DOS and OS-K allow. The scheme cess. You can sort files into of using device drivers and device directories. Then you can use the numbers is not implemented. features of SUBCAT, which presents The substitute for output to you a screen directory listing printers, the ability to run two from which you may choose a file different printers on different by bumping the cursor down through ports is very good. The code which the list. Then you may choose one runs the printers is essentially a of several options to edit the device driver, though a bi t sim­ chosen file, assemble it, delete pier ,and less flexible in nature it, copy it to another drive or than that of the other two OSs. disk, view it on the screen, etc. SK*DOS has the input and output One very nice feature, you can redirection to files via t.he insert up to 36 characters as a mechanism of the < and > operators comment to go along with each on a command line. I've written a directory entry. (We've all at one couple of utilities to handle time or another, done a directory those operations. old FLEX had an of our system disk and wondered I and an 0 redirection utility what several of the command files that did just what you think they were or what they did.) A disad­ might suggest. I've written them vantage of the system is you are for REX as well. No doubt Dan never "in" a directory as such. would have done so if he had Newly created files are not auto­ needed them for anything. mati ca 11 y pI aced in the current They are not very complicated. directory. You must remember to Using them (they are public domain "load" them, probably an operation and will be avail abl e from Dan, which would shortly become second Peripheral Technology or me), is nature. Once you have "loaded" a quite simple. Suppose you want to file to the directory, its name assemble a file and run the list­ stays in the directory regardless ing to another file rather than of how many times you edi t and the printer. Normally you would reassemble it. (The name stays in assemble the file: ASMK FILE +BGS the directory even if you delete To shift the output to a file the file without going through called FILE.LST you would use the SUB CAT , i.e. directly with the o utility like this: 0 FILE.LS.T delete utility). ASMK FILE +BGS If you like a menu style of The output file specification operation as opposed to using a must follow the 0 which must be command line, (i.e. choosing from first. 0 opens the output file, a list of possibilities rather substitutes some code to write to than simply telling the computer that file in place of the termi­ what to do), you will like this nal. Essentially it overwrites the utility a great deal. On the other OUTCH vector in REX. When control hand, if you 1 ike command line is returned to REX, the input line style, you probably will avoid it.

.aqe 10 68xxx Machines April 1991 You might begin using REX w th PAT version, all transparent to SUBCAT, then a you become famil ar the usel:". The point is, it was with the system switch to us ng easy when I could look at the the command line directly. operting system source code. I f you are a real hacker 1 ike Dan or Peripheral Technology me, you probably will have an will supply all the source code overwhelming reason to want to for REX and MONK. I think the have REX. Dan has made it public price is $15. With it you can domain. If you want to develop program your own MONK ROMs. If you software or utilities to do some­ prefer to buy the ROMs also, the thing special, you can peek at the charge is $20. source code and figure out how it This discussion wouldn't be works so you can attack the prob­ complete without a mention of one lem. very nice feature of REX. It has a I ventured into such a project buil t-in terminal emulator which just a couple of nights ago. I was operates when you use it wi th an trying both a video (Monochrome) IBM keyboard and moni t or. It termina 1 wi th an IBM c1 one key­ accepts a substantial subset of board and a serial terminal. I was the commands for a Televideo 925 checking whether everything worked terminal. correct I y in swi tching back and Part of the reason it was so forth between them. I needed two easy to get PAT running under REX different versions of my editor was the terminal emulation. I PAT, for no other reason than I simply selected a configuration needed a different terminal con­ file I already had for a Televideo figuration file for the serial terminal and modified it a little. terminal. Dan claims the IBM keyboard is After digging in the MONK "fully decoded". However I found source I found MONK places the t·he cursor keypad arrows to emi t address of the keyboard handler in the same codes as 'H, 'J 'L, and a trap vector at memory address 'M. That is easy to get around. $74. Also byte $76 became $IB when When you get a key and it is one the terminal was live and $IC when of those, you can look at a vari­ the monochrome was live. I used able, which is non-zero if the that fact to detect which is control key is being pressed. active and load the appropriate When the arrow keys are used

PT68K2/4 Progrnms for REXDOS & SK*DOS

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April 1991 68xxx Machines Page 11 alone, the control key is up. of memory without interference and course when you type A L , the gives greater overall flexibility. control key is down. I found I Whimsical, a language similar still couldn't distinguish between to Pascal that compiles to M/L, the 1 eft arrow and the backspace which runs under SK*DOS also key since both emi t code $08 and generates position independent the control key is not down for code. However, SK*DOS' s "c" either of them. compiler generates absolute posi­ Dan has been very quick to fix tion code; which is a little things and to add things I have inconvenient. requested. what is left to clean SK*DOS can run wi th a serial up is in the area of differences terminal, monochrome (Hercules) in the opera ti on of very simil ar board and monitor, or with a CGA utilities, or perhaps in skimpy board and monitor. I understand documentation. I am in the process Peter is working on EGA/VGA com­ of trying to help Dan with the patibility presently. SK*DOS is documentation. l' ve been so busy available for the -4 hardware. It playing with REX I haven't made a supports high density disk drives; lot of progress. However I now both 3.5" and 5.25". A revised know enough about REX to be able version for the older -2 computers to do an intelligent job (1 hope). can also support high density REX is the simplest of the drives via a floppy controller three operating systems and as board that plugs into the I/O bus. such might be an easy one to use It is supplied by Peripheral while learning about the 68000 Technology. processor. Enough software is SK*DOS can be purchased from presently available for it to be Peripheral Technology or from useful. Dan has his editor EDDI, Peter Stark. Contact ei ther for' the assembler ASMK, the directory details on the current version. system SUBCAT, as well as his One reason why you might want spelling checker SPELLB for sale. to try SK*DOS is the built-in I have PAT running under REX, multiple directories. In SK*DOS subject to a little more testing. you are always in a "current I've been using it for several directory" on your working drive. weeks with no new bugs found. The If you edit a file, or create one, Whimsical compiler is running it is automatically done in the fine. Thanks to John Spray, I also current directory. You can use have a cross compiler version directories on your system drive running which I can use to compile too, but I don't. In fact you can programs on the SK*DOS machine simply ignore multiple directories that can be read and run on the if you like. REX machine. In addition, Dan is Another reason for using SK*DOS working on a BASIC interpreter, it has more software. RBASIC from and there is a good possibility of Bob Jones in Canada runs very a C compiler in the future, well. The "c" compiler available from Computer Systems Consultants in Georga works well, as does ASM, »> A LOOK AT SK*DOS «< their assembler. ASH is a neces­ sary part of the "cn compiler. SK*DOS was written by Peter Dan Farnsworth has SK*DOS stark, STAR-K Software. He is a versions of EDDI, SPELLB, his long time computer hobbyist, assembler ASHK, and the catalog writer of computer articles, program SUBCAT. I have my edi tor teacher of computer science, and PAT and a simple text formatter friend (I hope still). called JUST. There are several Peter wrote SK*DOS several other utility programs written by years ago. It had been shipped users, available through STAR-K's with Peripheral Technology hard­ bull etin board. I have several I ware until just recently. Athough can supply to anyone who wants SK*DOS is also based on FLEX, it them. More about that in a later has capabi Ii ties beyond those of issue of this newsletter. (Most FLEX. It is written wholly in all of them will also be available position independent code, there­ for REX.) fore even all the utilities are I ought to mention batch files. posi tion independent. This makes In SK*DOS the first filename on it easier to stack programs in the command line is assumed to be

Page 12 68xxx Machines April 1991 a command (.COM) file. If that version of the FLEX style operat­ file is not found, SK*DOS searches ing system then REX. There are the system drive for a file of the more features available, it is same name with the extension .BAT. more modular and more flexible. If one is found, it is used as This should allow for easier an input command file. That is, it updates and improvements. On the substitutes input from that file other hand, the sourse code for for command lines entered on the SK*DOS is not available. Also terminal. The switch from command SK*DOS has slower floppy disk read file to batch file is mode automa­ / write operations. ticlly. Long ago, I wrote a batch file called FORMAT3.BAT. It calls the format utility. Prompts for »> A LOOK AT OS-K «< format are answered by redirecting the input to a file that has all I have used OS-K on a 68020 the correct response answers. system, a 68008 system and very SK*DOS input files have the exten­ briefly on a CoCo (6809). It is a sion .PIP so my input file is high capability operating system FMT3.PIP and the batch file is a from Microware that supports single line that looks like: multiple users and multi-tasking. FORMAT 3 <0.FORMAT3.PIP Its I/O is interrupt driven. As an example, printing can be done (not FORMAT3.PIP contains: via a spooler) while editing 40 another file, and a compiler dddblank running in the background. 1 I found the 68020 system to be y so fast it wasn't practical to try to do multiple tasks on it other These are the necessary answers to than printing a file or a listing the prompts, being careful to have while doing something else. I CRs only where they are needed. I would start the C compiler and go use a default disk name of BLANK to edit something else only to and a defaul t number of 1. Later find the compi I er done before I you can use DISKNAME to rename the had written three or four words. disk, give it a number and date. of course it shines with two or SK*DOS is a more grown up three users on the same computer.

68000 Single Board Computers \\lTI-16 Bllse 16MIIZ Kil wilh boartland pariS $189.00 for RS232 operation. hlcludes REX/MONK. l'r68K4-16 16MIIZ lCii wilh S 12K DRAM, 1 RS232 + $399.00 2 parallel Ports, lID Floppy Controller, pC inlerface, MONK/IlEX operaling syslem. BARE IJONES 16MIIZ Syslem Board wilh 1MB DRAM, $849.00 Kit Cabinet, power Supply, Choice of lligh Pellsily Floppy, Professional OS9 wilh C. REX/MONK Operalillg system for rT68K2 and PT681C4 $19.95 SK·OOS Operatillg system illcluding HUMBUG $100.00 059/68000 ProCessional OS9, Includes C Compiler $299.09 Addilional kits are available. VISA, MC, MO accepled. - personal checks allow 10 days. Shipping charge $1 fur kils. See Ihe DELMAR AD for syslemsl Peripheral Technology H80 T\!ff\!\1 Mill Rd. Suite 870 Marlella, GA 30067 (404) 984-0742

April 1991 68xxx Machines Page 13 From one or more users, the re­ and other language compilers quests cause the requested pro­ including (I think) Fortran. grams to load into memory. Each Granite Software Systems sup­ user runs them from there from his plies software to do directories, own variable space. In the event a and read and write text files back user attempts to load a program and forth between OS-K and MS-DOS that is already in memory because formatted disks. a prior user is running it (Multi­ OS-K has a couple of drawbacks. pI e users) the os notes the pro­ First it is EXPENSIVE. Second it gram is already in memory and just is not easy to configure for any sets up a variable for the new given system. I found I had to user. Both users use the same read instructions long and care­ program, which is in memory only full y to get it set up for my one time. system. By the time I needed to do I found I coul d load PAT and that operation again, I had for­ run two different terminals as two gotten how and had to go through users with no problems. Each user the same learning process once has his own variable space so when again. my time slice comes, all my vari­ Few people have mastered writ­ abl es are in use, and when yours ing device descriptors and drivers time slice comes, all your vari:' for it. The documentation is large abIes are in use (including the and fairly complete, but not well variables from the two different organized; therefore difficult to terminal configuration files). The follow. (I once had to skim result, your terminal can work through about 80 pages of the with different commands than mine. manual to figure out how to write . Essentially we each have our own the header for an assembler pro­ program counter during our time gram). In my opinion, if you want slice, which makes my running of a full blown operating system in the program independent of your which to get deeply involved you running of the program. (Note, would like (Love. Ed) OS-K. this is totally different then However, if you are a computer what MS-DOS machines call network­ USER . (not interested in program­ ing, but appears to the user to be ming) and want a wide variety of much the same as is done on UNIX anyone application like desktop systems. Ed) publishing, spreadsheets, word OS-K has many features that processors wi th on-line spe 11 ing make it a mini UNIX system. It has checker, on-line thesaurus, etc. multiple directories and sub-dire­ you don't want any of these oper­ ctories with file path specifica­ ating systems. In fact, you don't tions equivalent to those in UNI~; . want one of these 68000 computers; simil ar to MS-DOS. I t uses device not at least for the present. descriptors and drivers that are' None of the software presently completely modular. available for any of these appli­ OS-K is easily adapted to cations is equal to the high level different hardware configurations. capabilities you can get for a Some time ago there was a 6809 Mac, an IBM desktop or clone. version that ran on everything However, if you want to learn from the SWTPc to the Radio Shack about computers and how they run, Co I or Computer. (OS-K is very I/O operating systems, developing and/or memory intensive. As such a useful software utilities, or hard disk is manitory for any maybe even more ambitious projects serious work.) in the realm of graphics program­ It is well supported by its ming or word processing, you will creator, Microware. There are many like one (or maybe even all three) competing software packages avail­ of the above OSes. able for it including PLuS, a If anyone is interested, I have compiled language from Windrush written some utilities to inter­ Micro Systems in England; change text fi 1 es between SK*DOS Microware's BASIC-09, a mix of and OS-K disks. Running under BASIC and Pascal; a very complete SK-DOS, these a 11 ow you to do a C compiler from Microware; a very directory of an OS-K disk and then complete (and expensive) Pascal to copy files from one format to from OmegaSoft, several word the other. I may well soon have processors and editors, a 4th REX versions too. generation databas, an assembler,

Page 14 68xxx Machines April 1991 »> ALL OF THE ABOVE? «< disk and a couple of secondary systems from floppies. As the old It would be nice to be able to saying goes, "ya pays yer money run any or all of the above oper­ and ya takes yer choice". ating systems on the same comput­ could I make one last point? er. Unfortunately presently you If you are thinking of one of need to change monitor ROMs to do these systems at least consider a so. Monk is included with the PT hard disk. If you look hard you hardware to allow the booting of can find an ST-225 drive without REX or OS-K. STAR-K' s HUMBUG controller for around $185. The monitor can boot SK*DOS or OS-K. controller from PT is $79 for a I've been asking Dan Farnsworth to total of $264. add the capability to MONK to boot If you go with a floppy drive SK*DOS too. I don't think SK*DOS you wi 11 soon find you need at uses much code from Humbug, if least 2 floppy drives and those any. will cost you just about $200. of Dan is presently working on the course with the hard disk you will same capabilities for REX. Its not still need one floppy dri ve to much fun to change the ROMS to transfer disk supplied files to switch back and forth .between your hard disk. systems. 1 sweat. over damaging You caul d use a floppy and a pins and making a set of ROMs RAMDISK. Of course RAMDISK needs unusable. Maybe Peripheral Tech more memory then without one. One could do an adaptor board to hold megabyte of RAM can be gotten for both sets of ROMs. They could be under $100. (I remember when 1 installed at the same address with paid $129 for 16 Kbytes of memo­ an enable voltage supplied by a ry). However, 1 am rather wary of physical switch. That way, the RAMDISK. Maybe I'm getting too old user coul d swi tch ROMs and run and absent minded but 1 tend to either operating system. turn the computer off having Unfortunately the three systems forgot ten to copy any new f i1 es require different hard disk for­ from RAMDISK to a physical disk. I mats. SK*DOS wi 11 I et you parti­ am also afraid of power failures. tion the hard disk so you can run Again, it is a persona 1 pref er­ OS-K on one part and SK*DOS on the ence. other. Either can be booted from Anyway, I hope you enjoy using the SK*DOS power-up monitor one or more of these operating prompt. Right now your "main" systems. Happy computing! system can be run from the hard

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April 1991 68xxx Machines Page 15 --..._------~.--~~!W.<., -The 68xxx Machines­ The Chatham House Company RDN1 Box 375 Wyominq, DE 19934U~

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