Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!uwvax!per2!dag
From: dag@per2.UUCP (Daniel A. Glasser)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Comments on STE -- (un)known facts
Summary: Cookie Jar similar to WIMP directive under P/OS . . .
Message-ID: <881@per2.UUCP>
Date: 7 Dec 89 21:25:55 GMT
References: <2310@pkmab.se> <370002@acf5.NYU.EDU> <2348@pkmab.se> <1842@atari.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Persoft Inc., Madison, WI
Lines: 26

In article <1842@atari.UUCP>, kbad@atari.UUCP (Ken Badertscher) writes:
> Yes, there is a new OS service offered in the ROM, beginning with
> STE TOS, called the Cookie Jar.  The startup code in the new ROM versions
> set up an area of memory with "cookies" which describe various system
> configuration options, and with values for the cookies that describe
> what's actually there.

The "Cookie Jar" sounds to be similar to the "WIMP" directive that
was (is?) in P/OS running on the DEC Professional series (325, 350, 380).
WIMP stood for "What's In My Professional?".  I'm glad that you folks
have finally caught up with 1982 in that area, though you're still back
in the mid-to-late 70's with most of TOS, and the early to mid 80's with GEM.

Will the "Cookie Jar" ever appear in a revision to TOS for the older machines?
Is there a reasonable way to detect that there is no cookie jar on a machine
which a program can use?  If it is a new XBIOS style function, the return
value from the call to the system service would be a value indicating that
an illegal function was called, which is enough to tell the program that
there are no cookies.  If calling this function on an older OS causes a
buss error or similar unpredictable or unacceptable behavior, I'll be VERY
dissapointed.
-- 
 _____________________________________________________________________________
    Daniel A. Glasser                           One of those things that goes
    uwvax!per2!dag                              "BUMP!!!(ouch)" in the night. 
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