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From: jhallen@wpi.wpi.edu (Joseph H Allen)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: Re^2: IBM and Apple Operating Systems (Re: dosread.c again)
Message-ID: <5412@wpi.wpi.edu>
Date: 9 Nov 89 10:45:09 GMT
References: <6661@ficc.uu.net> <10609@cbnews.ATT.COM> <143@asihub.UUCP> <6723@ficc.uu.net> <1989Nov3.191142.4163@world.std.com>
Reply-To: jhallen@wpi.wpi.edu (Joseph H Allen)
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA. USA
Lines: 35

In article <1989Nov3.191142.4163@world.std.com> madd@world.std.com (jim frost) writes:
>korenek@ficc.uu.net (Gary Korenek) writes:
>>In article <143@asihub.UUCP>, jmp@asihub.UUCP (John Pantone) writes:
>>> Microsoft and IBM simply blew it when designing MSDOS and the PC...
>>3.  IBM put it's tail on the line in introducing the IBM PC.  No one
>>    knew it would take off like a rocket.  It was a huge gamble.

>The PC was at least IBM's second attempt at creating a PC.  Another
>attempt was called the "IBM System/23 Datamaster".  It ran only BASIC

>The machine was a flop.  It was such a big flop that almost nobody I
>know has ever heard of it.  IBM screwed everyone who bought one of

Wow!  This is the first time I ever heard of anyone who ever heard of this
machine.  Years ago I wrote a payroll program in it.  The support for it was
so bad that the company eventually switched to TRS80 model IIs.  This leads
me to another question::

How many people have used RM/COS on a TRS-80 Model 12 or 16?  This is a really
gross COBOL operating system which ran RealWorld Accounting.  The TRS-80
Model-II through 16 was an interesting machine.  It started out as a Z80
system similer to Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model-Is and IIIs.  They then added a
68000 to it with Model 12.  Both the Z80 and 68000 had protection.  The 68000
side had a register for relocating programs.  It's biggest problem was that
all the I/O had to go through the Z80 so it was slow.  It had 4 operating
systems:  

- TRSDOS (yuck: single user flat file system)
- TRSDOS-16 (same as above but with 68000 support)
- RM/COS (multi-user, small, hierachial directory structure by having a level
	  number attached to each file in one main directory)
- XENIX  (nice but required 3 out of the 8MB of available disk space- BTW,
	  I've recently seen TRS-80 Model 16s with built in hard drive
	  and 8" high density floppy drives on sale _by radio shack_ for
	  $1000)