Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!lll-winken!uunet!snjsn1!bilbo!greg From: greg@bilbo (Greg Wageman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Seeking the new TOS Message-ID: <954@snjsn1.SJ.ATE.SLB.COM> Date: 9 May 89 17:43:39 GMT References: <8905040321.AA21585@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <3752@nunki.usc.edu> <1484@atari.UUCP> <719@dutrun.UUCP> Sender: news@SJ.ATE.SLB.COM Reply-To: greg@sj.ate.slb.com (Greg Wageman) Organization: Schlumberger ATE, San Jose, CA Lines: 47 In article <719@dutrun.UUCP> reeuwijk@duteelb.UUCP (C.van Reeuwijk) writes: >If TOS 1.4 is available for ROM, why don't you (someone at Atari that >is) submit it to the Atari binaries newsgroup? There are enough people >on the net who would be prepared to put TOS into (E)PROM themselves. > >If you want to be REAL sure, just add a small program that does a CRC >check on the new ROMs to ensure that they are ok. Or even better, >include a verify routine in the ROM itself. I don't work for Atari, and I don't pretend to speak for them, but I can see why this would be a real bad idea, for them. Since TOS is really the "soul of the machine" (to coin a phrase), the operation not only of the ST's built-in features, but every program which runs on it could be adversely affected by a bad EPROM or a bad installation. Your ROM check theoretically would catch this, but would require a few more tens of bytes of precious space (CRC values in each ROM and a program to generate a CRC for each ROM for comparison). In addition, if the installation was bad the ST might not even be able to execute the ROM test to diagnose the problem. I can imagine an ST owner getting TOS 1.4, burning in his EPROMs, and then damaging them or the motherboard with static, or bending a pin on insertion and flaming the living daylights out of Atari because "TOS 1.4 doesn't work!". If you think this situation is unlikely, you haven't been reading the net for very long. Atari has to make sure that the ROMs work. They can't afford the costs of fixing all the ST's that would get broken by novices trying to install their new OS. I use my ST almost every day, and rarely do the TOS bugs get in my way. It's become almost second-nature to me to avoid them. I can wait a little longer for Atari to get their mask-programmed ROMs made. Longish .signature follows. Skip now, or don't complain. Greg Wageman DOMAIN: greg@sj.ate.slb.com Schlumberger Technologies UUCP: ...!uunet!sjsca4!greg 1601 Technology Drive BIX: gwage San Jose, CA 95110-1397 CIS: 74016,352 (408) 437-5198 GEnie: G.WAGEMAN ------------------ "Live Free; Die Anyway." ------------------ Opinions expressed herein are solely the responsibility of the author.