Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU!GTHEALL
From: GTHEALL@PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU (George A. Theall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro
Subject: Re: Rainbow EchoMail Digest
Message-ID: <9007061114.AA23462@remote.dccs.upenn.edu>
Date: 6 Jul 90 12:04:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 33

>                                           I have heard that Rainbows
>are 100% compatable if your software only uses BIOS calls and doesn't
>short-cut its way to the screen's bitmap, etc...  Is this true?

    Substitute the word "DOS" for "BIOS" above and you've got it
right. At the BIOS-level, though, the machines are quite different.

    Now there are products available for the Rainbow which do
emulate to some degree PC BIOS functions. One is a public domain
program called DIBEM (available from the INFO-DEC-MICRO file archives);
the other is a commercial program named Code Blue (cost ~ $100). From
what I've heard, Code Blue is a souped-up version of DIBEM and provides
substantially better compatibility, enough so that users can run
programs such as WordPerfect 5.0, TURBO Pascal v4.0/v5.0/v5.5, and
CodeView on a Rainbow!

>                                            What's the name of the
>technical refrence manual for the Rainbow that describes its internals
>in this much detail?

    Ah, I think it's called _Rainbow Technical Reference Manual_, and
if it's not any Rainbow person would know what you're talking about
if you called it that. You can probably buy a used copy from someone
on the net, or call Caroline Mack, the editor of _Rainbow News_ at
+1 618 632 1143.


George

---
BITNET: GTHEALL@PennDRLS               Dept. of Economics
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