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From: knudsen@ihwpt.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m6809
Subject: Re: Level 2 OS9 Comments, HInts
Message-ID: <1584@ihwpt.ATT.COM>
Date: Thu, 9-Apr-87 13:51:44 EST
Article-I.D.: ihwpt.1584
Posted: Thu Apr  9 13:51:44 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Apr-87 15:38:53 EST
References: <1576@ihwpt.ATT.COM> <2335@tektools.TEK.COM>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 56
Summary: Level2 commands missing, BUT...

> I have a question.  We don't have Level II around here yet,  and I keep hearing
> this rumor that Tandy left a bunch of the commands out of L II and is selling
> them in a second package with a bonus (for THEM!) price.  True or False?
> thanks,
> 		Jon

Yes, it's true to some extent.  Level II is missing stuff for
developing new programs (ASM) and even patching the existing
modules (SAVE, VERIFY, DUMP, and DEBUG).

However, all of these can be borrowed from a Level 1 disk
and they work.  DEBUG needs a couple zaps to work on non-system
modules, but it does disk descriptors just fine as-is.
(You get descriptors under CONFIG for double-sided
and/or 40 and 80 tracks,  And they work!)
These I can verify from experience in the past week (got
L2 a week ago TODAY).  I expect ASM and C compiler to
work just fine too.

L2 does include that weird EDIT with some new features added
(or maybe just the manual is so much better written that you
can see them.  The docs are MUCH nicer in every way, tho
not typo-free).  TSEDIT works just fine.  So does every
Level 1 program I've written myself, including some hairy
graphics-screen stuff.  Haven't tried my old DynaStar yet
on the 80-column window, but the word is it doesn't
work yet.

So, you're not restricted to program development.
The "developer's pack", whose projected price I forgot
(well under $100 I think),
will have ASM, C (!) and yet another screen editor
called SCRED which I hear has been around the OS/68K world
a while.  Most important, this will include expanded DEFS
files with data structures to support the terrific
windowing, menu, and mouse system calls described in the
main manuals.

Tandy is indeed "unbundling" Level II, but not entirely out
of greed.  After all they throw in BASIC09, a $100 value
under Level 1.  And with 40K of workspace in Level II,
BASIC09 may be worth something now.

Also separate, some day, is "MultiView" (sp?), a Mac/ST-like
environment, which should help folks overcome OS9-phobia.
The support for all such goodies is already there in the $79
Level II system.

Sorry you Oregonians are still waiting, but some places in US
and Canada had it 2 weeks before Chicago.  It's worht the wait.
You might never boot Level 1 again.	mike k

-- 
Mike J Knudsen    ...ihnp4!ihwpt!knudsen  Bell Labs(AT&T)
	Delphi: RAGTIMER    CIS: <memory test failed>
	" ~E(x):[is_lunch(x) && cost(x)==0] "