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From: braun@drivax.UUCP (Karl Braun)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari16
Subject: Re: How close to ALCYON C is TOS?
Message-ID: <434@drivax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Apr-86 13:15:41 EST
Article-I.D.: drivax.434
Posted: Thu Apr 17 13:15:41 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Apr-86 08:27:42 EST
References: <8604121902.AA24030@ucbvax.berkeley.edu>
Reply-To: braun@drivax.UUCP (Karl Braun)
Organization: Digital Research, Monterey, CA
Lines: 64

In article <8604121902.AA24030@ucbvax.berkeley.edu> RDROYA01%ULKYVX.BITNET@SU-Forsythe.ARPA writes:
>
>I have received a lot of buzzing about an entry I had on the net.
>RUMORS was the name.  In it I asked if TOS was really cp/m68k.  No
>it is not everyone said.  But I'll bet it's written in ALCYON C
>because the file header format and the exception format are too close
>for coincidence...
...
>
>David Betz writes about developing xlisp for the Atari using MicroEmacs
>under CP/M-68K.  This was said to be in the _BYTE_ section of *Compuserve*.
>So, has anyone used the crippled cp/m-68k *and* TOS who can explain why
>header format is the same and so forth and yet TOS was to have been designed
>from the ground up?
>
>RDROYA01@ULKYVX.BITNET

I don't quite follow your line of questioning, so I will just throw this out
and see if it helps:

GEM was written for the PC.  Atari had this new machine (the 520) and liked
the GEM environment, and asked us to provide such an environment on the 68k.
Original plans were for some sort of crude DOS emulator on top of CPM/68K.
But one of our (former) engineers, Jason (born to code) Loveman had a "Dos
Jr." prototype running (this is the infamous JasonDos written about in 
Inforworld (I think)).  It was a better alternative to bring this prototype
to production than coerce CPM/68K to do the same, so GEMDOS was born.  It
was developed under CPM/68K, and so the Alcyon compiler was used.  So:

GEMDOS uses the Alcyon compiler, and I presume Atari does too (we hand code
over to them for their mods); thus the familiar object format.  It is not, nor
has it ever been CPM/68K.  



-- 


			  kral
ihnp4!-------- \
mot! ---------- \
                 >    drivax!braun
ucscc!--------- /
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-- 

-- 


			  kral
ihnp4!-------- \
mot! ---------- \
                 >    drivax!braun
ucscc!--------- /
amdahl!------- /

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The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the 
opinions of my employers, my country, the minor deities from the Halls of
Asgaard, or the great Prophet Zarquon.

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