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From: movshon@acf8.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: DEC RAINBOW compatibility ?
Message-ID: <11120001@acf8.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Jun-86 17:58:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: acf8.11120001
Posted: Wed Jun 25 17:58:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jun-86 07:36:24 EDT
References: <508@rna.UUCP>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 45

Dan Ts'o writes:

	 I have a friend who has a Rainbow 100. Sorry if its been covered
before but... What is the level of compatibility between the Rainbow and
the IBM PC. Can the Rainbow read PC floppies ? Can the Rainbow in general
run PC programs ? Are there hardware or software solutions which can improve
its PC compatibility ?

The answers ...

    1. The Rainbow is about as un-compatible with the IBM PC as an 8088
based MSDOS machine can get. Sorry. The Rainbow will run any generic MSDOS
software, including stuff that relies on an ANSI screen interface, but
little or nothing that is tailored for the IBM PC or clones.

    2. The Rainbow can read IBM floppies, as long as they are single-sided,
double density (make 'em on a PC with the "format /1" command). The Rainbow
"mediachk" function must be "on" (the default). If the floppies were for-
matted on a quad-density drive (like an AT's), then the Rainbow can write
them as well. The latest release of DOS 2.11 helps this disk exchange
process a lot.

    3. There are no hardware solutions to the Rainbow/PC incompatibility
that I know of. Many programs, however, exist in Rainbow versions or can
be adapted to run on the Rainbow, so the situation is by no means hope-
less. The best place to go looking for public-domain stuff is the archive
on DEC-MARLBORO, which is maintained by Bernie Eiben of DEC's LCG. This
system is available for file transfer via anonymous FTP, and can also be
logged in to using the login "log lcg.kermit kermit". I have the phone
number somewhere for the dialup lines, but can't presently lay my hands
on it ...

    4. As I've observed before on the net, the failures of compatibility
that the Rainbow suffers are nearly always because it is *better* than
the PC. If the PC were "Rainbow-compatible", it would be a better machine. 
So it goes.

					Tony Movshon

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