Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!bu-cs!bloom-beacon!eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!ukc!harrier.ukc.ac.uk!zodiac.ukc.ac.uk!cur022
From: cur022@zodiac.ukc.ac.uk (Bob Eager)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: rainbow problems
Message-ID: <9504@zodiac.ukc.ac.uk>
Date: 2 Dec 89 21:38:10 GMT
References: <4438@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.
Lines: 22

In article <4438@eagle.wesleyan.edu>, dkonerding@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes:
> 	Hello, folks.  I've got a small problem with a Rainbow. ...

You don't say where the 3.3 DOS came from, but I would hazard a guess that
it wasn't for a Rainbow. A common misconception is that DOS runs unchanged
on all machines; it doesn't. The error arises because most machines are IBM
compatible and you can usually (not always) use any PC version of DOS.

The Rainbow DOS uses the Rainbow BIOS to communicate with the hardware. This
has an interface nothing like the PC. First (and major) problem. Second problem
is that the Rainbow does its I/O and some other stuff through an onboard Z80;
the Rainbow DOS disk contains extra boot stuff to set this up, I believe.
Second problem.

Unless you do a *lot* of digging and hacking, or can locate a DOS 3.3 for the
Rainbow (doubtful) then I guess you are stuck with 2.x. There was certainly 
a 2.11 for the Rainbow; I think that was the last but I might be wrong.

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Bob Eager            | University of Kent at Canterbury
rde@ukc.ac.uk        | +44 227 764000 ext 7589
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