Date   : Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:31:25
From   : jgh@... (J.G.Harston)
Subject: [BeebSoc] Re: Risc PC (Was 'Minitel in France')

Rick Murray wrote:
> Rob wrote:
>> Back in the day, I got part way through writing a full
>> multi-user multi-tasking OS for B&2P.
> How far did you get?

Bggr. You're making me want to dig mine out and find it now.

 From memory, mine had:
  CFS/RFS removed to release space
  Consequently, on startup, a no-filing-system environment was started
  *HELP [M]OS listed full help for OS commands
  *OS entered a command-line prompt environment
  *GO called a point in memory. It may have allowed calling sideways ROMs.
  *SAVE >filename save compressed files, using the same Run-Length-Encoding
   as *ScrSave.
  OPENIN/OUT/UP let you open devices:
   "KBD:" - input from keyboard buffer
   "PRN:" - output to printer buffer
   "SER:" - in/out to/from serial buffers
   "VDU:" - output to OSWRCH
   something input from OSWORD 0 (INPUT)
   ...and some others I can't remember

(or they could have been :KBD, etc.)

> task control using VIA timer to switch, with the stack being split into
> an OS chunk and private chunks for the tasks, but how far can you
> really hope to split up 256 bytes? ;-)

There's a method of swapping the hardware stack to saved process space,
I'm sure there was a mult-tasking add-on for BASIC that swapped out
&00-&8F, &100-&1FF, &400-&7FF, PAGE-MEMTOP.

> I might have greying hair, saggy eyebrows, and memory flakier than a
> worn out flash chip

I was recently told off in my new job for making notes and refusing to
give answers to questions without refering them. My reply was that
I've had 11 years of it being hammered into me of never claiming a fact
without refering to your notes.

>> They are just tools.  I think the proof of this is the Dell TV
>> adverts.  See any specifications anywhere?  Nope; but you can have
>> different coloured lids - that's what's important to the current
>> generation!

LOL! Today's training test was to find the specifications of the DELLs
that %BIGCORP% sell. The only thing in the DELL Desktops list were
four different coloured lids.

>> Have you seen all the "It's for yooooooooouuuuu" ads yet?

Ooo, you can do anything with an Ology. Even customer support for %BIGCORP%.

-- 
J.G.Harston - jgh@...