Date   : Wed, 13 Jan 1993 17:09:37 GMT
From   : pipex!pavo.csi.cam.ac.uk!tjrc1@uunet.uu.net (T.J.R. Cutts)
Subject: Re: What is the legal status of CP/M?

There is still some CP/M development going on in the UK, largely for Amstrad's
PCW series of Z80 word-processors.  These are marketed with a wp called
Locoscript, which is self-booting, although using CP/M disk format.  This may
have changed since I had one at home; the more recent ones have 3.5" disks, not
the far less common 3" disks they originally used, and may have moved over to
MS-DOS format to aid file transfer to Locoscript PC).  When I had one of these
machines (bought in 1984 and still going strong in 1990), it was running CP/M
Plus (3.14), which I was programming using a really great suite consisting of
Debugger/Disassembler, Full-screen editor, and Z80 macro assembler, called
Devpac80.  This was written by a company called HiSoft based in Dunstable, UK,
who write and/or market a wide variety of compilers for CP/M 2.2 and later.
The last catalogue I had included at least two different C compilers, Pascal,
Fortan, Forth, Pilot, Modula-2, Prolog, Devpac80, and various flavours of
BASIC, including Locomotive's Mallard BASIC, said to be the most powerful 8-bit
BASIC around.  Mallard BASIC is also bundled with Amstrad PCW machines.

As far as I am aware these are still marketed (HiSoft's stall at the 1991
Computer Shopper Show had most of these for sale), and they are pretty cheap;
about L35.00 per package.  For serious CP/M hobbyists, they maight be worth
trying to get hold of.  Anyone who's interested please mail me, and I'll e-mail
you HiSoft's address which I will dig out at home.

Tim.


End of INFO-CPM Digest V93 Issue #8
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