Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!drivax!frotz From: frotz@drivax.UUCP (Frotz) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc Subject: Re: DR-DOS (Long biased opinion;-) Keywords: DRDOS,comments Message-ID: Date: 21 Jul 90 23:14:30 GMT References: <1121@fang.dsto.oz> <8502@ur-cc.UUCP> Sender: frotz%drivax@uunet.uu.net Reply-To: frotz%drivax@uunet.uu.net Organization: Digital Research, Monterey CA Lines: 193 ttak@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Timothy Takahashi) writes: ] In article <1121@fang.dsto.oz> hjh@aeg.dsto.oz.au (H.J.Harvey-AEG) writes: ] >I have been running DR-DOS V3.41 for several months and have been very pleased ] >with it. Sure, there are a few differences, but the only real problem has ] >been its inability to work 100% with PC-NFS. ] I've heard of Dr-DOS, but never actually seen anybody run it. What are the ] "few differences?" Is it better/faster/smaller than MS-DOS? Take most of the projected MSDOS 5 features (due out end of this year?) and we already have them, now. The only feature that I have heard about is something called unformat (MSDOS5). DRDOS has a very good installation/setup program that will allow tailoring of your environment. It will manage your [d]config.sys and your autoexec.bat files automagically. It has a nice way of handling your special commands that it doesn't understand that only requires you to modify your autoexec.bat file once. All future setup changes will be contained within it's bounded region. Slick...;-} Some of the features found in the [D]CONFIG.SYS processing are: * Loading device drivers into high memory (after loading EMM386). * Prompting for the device driver to be loaded. eg: ABCD.SYS? (Y/N) * Prompting with a message of your choice. eg: Do you want to load your ABCD driver? (Y/N) * ECHO in CONFIG.SYS eg: ECHO Loading the ABCD driver. Other features: * There is a MEM command that attempts to display all interesting information about the current memory usage. (This is very good, but could have been better by detailing the EMS usage and presenting a map of memory above 1M). (The graphic map belong doesn't translate very well to 7-bit ASCII.;-( +- Address -+- Owner --+- Size -----------+- Type ----------------------------+ | 0:0000 | -------- | A0000h, 655360 | ------------- RAM --------------- | +-----------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+ | 0:0000 | -------- | 400h, 1024 | Interrupt vectors | | 40:0000 | -------- | 100h, 256 | ROM BIOS data area | | 50:0000 | DR DOS | 200h, 512 | DOS data area | | 70:0000 | DR BIOS | 18D0h, 6352 | Device drivers | | 70:052F | PRN | | Built-in device driver | | 70:0541 | LPT1 | | Built-in device driver | | 70:0553 | LPT2 | | Built-in device driver | | 70:0565 | LPT3 | | Built-in device driver | | 70:0577 | AUX | | Built-in device driver | | 70:0589 | COM1 | | Built-in device driver | | 70:059B | COM2 | | Built-in device driver | | 70:05AD | COM3 | | Built-in device driver | | 70:05BF | COM4 | | Built-in device driver | | 70:0659 | CLOCK$ | | Built-in device driver | | 70:0695 | CON | | Built-in device driver | | 70:06A7 | A:-F: | | Built-in device driver | | 1FD:0000 | DR DOS | 11B0h, 4528 | System | | 1FD:0048 | NUL | | Built-in device driver | | 318:0000 | DR DOS | 7A00h, 31232 | System | | 34B:0000 | EMMXXXX0 | | Loadable device driver | | 34D:0000 | CACHE$ | | Loadable device driver | | AB8:0000 | COMMAND | 1330h, 4912 | Program | | BEB:0000 | COMMAND | BD0h, 3024 | Environment | | CA8:0000 | -------- | F0h, 240 | FREE | | CB7:0000 | MARK | 100h, 256 | Environment | | CC7:0000 | MARK | 560h, 1376 | Program | | D1D:0000 | HISTORY | 100h, 256 | Environment | | D2D:0000 | HISTORY | 1DB0h, 7600 | Program | | F08:0000 | KERMIT | 100h, 256 | Environment | | F18:0000 | KERMIT | 18280h, 98944 | Program | | 2740:0000 | KERMIT | FB0h, 4016 | Data | | 283B:0000 | KERMIT | 9610h, 38416 | Data | | 319C:0000 | COMMAND | 100h, 256 | Data | | 31AC:0000 | COMMAND | 1330h, 4912 | Program | | 32DF:0000 | COMMAND | 110h, 272 | Environment | | 32F0:0000 | MEM | 100h, 256 | Environment | | 3300:0000 | MEM | 12A10h, 76304 | Program | | 45A1:0000 | -------- | 5A5E0h, 370144 | FREE | +-----------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+ | C000:0000 | -------- | 8000h, 32768 | ------------- ROM --------------- | | C800:0000 | EMS | 10000h, 65536 | ---------- EMS memory ----------- | | DE00:0000 | -------- | 8000h, 32768 | ---------- Upper RAM ------------ | +-----------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+ | DE01:0000 | CON | | Loadable device driver | | DF01:0000 | PC$MOUSE | | Loadable device driver | | E20D:0000 | DR DOS | 2800h, 10240 | 20 Disk buffers | +-----------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+ | F000:0000 | -------- | 10000h, 65536 | ------------- ROM --------------- | +-----------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 3 | | 0h 10000h 20000h 30000h 40000h 50000h 60000h 70000h | | 0K 64K 128K 192K 256K 320K 384K 448K | | CDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDD | | 2222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222 | | 2222222222222222................1111 | | EDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDD | | 512K 576K 640K 704K 768K 832K 896K 960K 1MB | | 80000h 90000h A0000h B0000h C0000h D0000h E0000h F0000h 100000h | | >DDDDDDDDDDDDDD>33 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Key: 2=RAM 1=ROM 0=Shadow ROM 655,360 bytes, ( 640K), conventional memory 446,432 bytes, ( 435K), largest available block 3,145,728 bytes, (3072K), extended memory 3,145,728 bytes, (3072K), extended memory used 0 bytes, ( 0K), extended memory available ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * All commands (except built-ins) have a /H[elp] usage and this usage is aware of the current screen size. eg: MODE /Help generates: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MODE R1.22 Printer and screen mode utility Copyright (c) 1988,1989 Digital Research Inc. All rights reserved. MODE /Help or LPT#:[n][,[m][,[P][,s]]] or LPT#:=COMn or mode[,lines] or [mode],m[,T] or CON: [LINES=lines] [COLS=cols] [RATE=r DELAY=d] or COM#:b[,p][,d][,s][,P] or device CODEPAGE options LPT#:n,m,P Set-up printer #=Printer port number n=characters per line (80, 132) m=lines per inch (6 or 8) P=Continuous retry on timeout LPT#:=COMn Redirect printer port # output to serial port n mode,lines Set display mode 40 or BW40=40 columns no color (CGA) 80 or BW80=80 columns : CO40=40 columns color (CGA) CO80=80 columns : MONO=80 columns (MDA) lines=number of text rows: 25, 43 or 50 [mode],m[,T] Set display mode, mode parameter as described above m=CGA display shift direction: L or R T=show test pattern CON: LINES = lines lines=number of text rows: 25, 43 or 50 CON: COLS = cols cols=number of text columns: 40 or 80 CON: RATE = r DELAY = d r=keyboard typematic rate: 1..32 d=keyboard typematic delay: 1..4 COM#:b,p,d,s,P Set serial port #=serial port number b=baud rate - 110..19200 p=parity - Even, None or Odd d=data bits - 7 or 8 s=stop bits - 1 or 2 P=Continuous retry on timeout device CODEPAGE PREPARE=((cplist) [d:][path]filename[.ext]) device one of CON, PRN, LPT1, etc cplist one or more of 437, 850, 860, 863, 865 filename specifies the file containing the character shapes device CODEPAGE SELECT=cp device one of CON, PRN, LPT1, etc cp one of 437, 850, 860, 863, 865 device CODEPAGE REFRESH device one of CON, PRN, LPT1, etc device CODEPAGE /STATUS device one of CON, PRN, LPT1, etc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I could go on, but I think that this is enough of an advertisement. Re:DRDOS v5 and PC-NFS. Just before v5 was released, there was a great improvement in the support of communications/networking programs. You might give PC-NFS a try again with DR-DOS v5 and see how it fairs. -- John "Frotz" Fa'atuai frotz%drivax@uunet.uu.net (email@domain) Digital Research, Inc. {uunet|amdahl}!drivax!frotz (bang!email) c/o MIS Dept. (408) 647-6570 (vmail) 80 Garden Court, C13 (408) 649-3896 (phone) Monterey, CA 93940 (408) 649-0750 (fax) ========== "He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know." -- Lao Tzu