Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!lll-winken!taco!hobbes!kdarling From: kdarling@hobbes.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) Newsgroups: comp.os.os9 Subject: Re: what is the availability of os-9 software? Keywords: multiview, other good os-9 software Message-ID: <1991Apr2.074850.17515@ncsu.edu> Date: 2 Apr 91 07:48:50 GMT References: Sender: news@ncsu.edu (USENET News System) Organization: North Carolina State University Lines: 62 roccella@pilot.njin.net (Matthew Roccella) writes: > Hello, Lately, I have been really getting into programming my RADIO > SHACK TRS-80 COCO3 under OS-9 Level 2. I was just wondering that since > Radio Shack does not carry software for this machine anymore, will I > still be able to get software for it? Can I purchase MULTIVIEW and the > LEVEL DEVELOPMENT PACK from MICROWARE? How much will they charge? Yes, you'll still be able to get third-party software... there are actually more companies getting into it now than ever before. As for MV and the DevPak, your best choice right now is to ask around to see if a store or someone on the net has a copy for sale. The prices at stores are at least 1/2 off right now, for instance. Make sure the RS manager checks his SPIFF sheet for discontinued prices. Sidenote of interest: I've talked to several people now who've talked their local RS district manager into selling them ALL the coco software and hardware left in local warehouses... sometimes getting TONs of neat stuff for only a few hundred dollars!! They then pass the goods onto local club members for pennies. Something to look into, guys. > BASIC09 and the GFX, GFX2, and the SYSCALL libraries that I love to > use so much, are these unique to the COCO3, or are they available to > any machine under OS-9? I use syscall a lot on 68K machines... it's very easy to write, debug and pack a quickie utility command in Basic. There'll be a "gfx" module on the new 68K machines, simply for ease of porting basic programs. This kind of stuff (subroutine modules) is pretty portable. > Also, what is the difference between OS-9 and OS9K? Will > MICROWARE still support OS-9 or will I have to get another machine > that runs OS-9000 when my COCO3 has had it? "OS-9" is the name for the 6809 and 680xx versions... "OSK" often used as shorthand for "OS-9/68K" simply because it's quicker to write or say. "OS-9000" is their cpu-portable version of OS-9. I've seen it running on 68030 and 80386 machines, and rumors are that SPARC/etc ports will come sooner or later. OS-9/6809 is no longer officially supported by MW. OS-9/68K still is supported, altho we all bet that won't be true in the year 2000 ;-). Again tho, there is always third-party support available for older machines/OS-versions. > Lastly, are there any other machines, other than the MM/1 and > Frang Hogg's TOM CAT that cost under $1500.00 and can run under OS9000? > Something tells me that these machines, just like all the OS-9 > software, is lying around all over the place but that nobody's > advertising and making things hard for me to find! You mean OS9/68K. Sure, there's also the Peripheral Technology machines; others will no doubt give you more info on them if you wish. There are also some of us running OSK on the Atari ST (you can pick up nice ST systems _dirt_ cheap nowadays... check misc.forsale.computers). There are other machines sold overseas. Japan used to have quite a few. And I suspect we'll see even more US models showing up before too long. > * * * If they were running their machines under OS-9 instead, we > wouldn't be having these problems today! * * * You sure said that right! cheers - kevin