🚀 go-pugleaf

ttak@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Timothy Takahashi) writes:

] In article <1121@fang.dsto.oz> hjh@aeg.dsto.oz.au (H.J.Harvey-AEG) writes:
] >I have been running DR-DOS V3.41 for several months and have been very pleased
] >with it.  Sure, there are a few differences, but the only real problem has
] >been its inability to work 100% with PC-NFS.

] I've heard of Dr-DOS, but never actually seen anybody run it. What are the
] "few differences?" Is it better/faster/smaller than MS-DOS?

Take most of the projected MSDOS 5 features (due out end of this year?)
and we already have them, now.  The only feature that I have heard about
is something called unformat (MSDOS5).

DRDOS has a very good installation/setup program that will allow
tailoring of your environment.  It will manage your [d]config.sys and
your autoexec.bat files automagically.  It has a nice way of handling
your special commands that it doesn't understand that only requires
you to modify your autoexec.bat file once.  All future setup changes
will be contained within it's bounded region.  Slick...;-}

Some of the features found in the [D]CONFIG.SYS processing are:
	*	Loading device drivers into high memory (after loading
		EMM386).
	*	Prompting for the device driver to be loaded.
		eg: ABCD.SYS? (Y/N)
	*	Prompting with a message of your choice.
		eg: Do you want to load your ABCD driver? (Y/N)
	*	ECHO in CONFIG.SYS
		eg: ECHO Loading the ABCD driver.

Other features:
	*	There is a MEM command that attempts to display all
		interesting information about the current memory usage.
		(This is very good, but could have been better by 
		detailing the EMS usage and presenting a map of memory
		above 1M).  (The graphic map belong doesn't translate
		very well to 7-bit ASCII.;-(

+- Address -+- Owner --+- Size -----------+- Type ----------------------------+
|    0:0000 | -------- |  A0000h,  655360 | ------------- RAM --------------- |
+-----------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
|    0:0000 | -------- |    400h,    1024 | Interrupt vectors                 |
|   40:0000 | -------- |    100h,     256 | ROM BIOS data area                |
|   50:0000 |   DR DOS |    200h,     512 | DOS data area                     |
|   70:0000 |  DR BIOS |   18D0h,    6352 | Device drivers                    |
|   70:052F | PRN      |                  |  Built-in device driver           |
|   70:0541 | LPT1     |                  |  Built-in device driver           |
|   70:0553 | LPT2     |                  |  Built-in device driver           |
|   70:0565 | LPT3     |                  |  Built-in device driver           |
|   70:0577 | AUX      |                  |  Built-in device driver           |
|   70:0589 | COM1     |                  |  Built-in device driver           |
|   70:059B | COM2     |                  |  Built-in device driver           |
|   70:05AD | COM3     |                  |  Built-in device driver           |
|   70:05BF | COM4     |                  |  Built-in device driver           |
|   70:0659 | CLOCK$   |                  |  Built-in device driver           |
|   70:0695 | CON      |                  |  Built-in device driver           |
|   70:06A7 |    A:-F: |                  |  Built-in device driver           |
|  1FD:0000 |   DR DOS |   11B0h,    4528 | System                            |
|  1FD:0048 | NUL      |                  |  Built-in device driver           |
|  318:0000 |   DR DOS |   7A00h,   31232 | System                            |
|  34B:0000 | EMMXXXX0 |                  |  Loadable device driver           |
|  34D:0000 | CACHE$   |                  |  Loadable device driver           |
|  AB8:0000 |  COMMAND |   1330h,    4912 | Program                           |
|  BEB:0000 |  COMMAND |    BD0h,    3024 | Environment                       |
|  CA8:0000 | -------- |     F0h,     240 | FREE                              |
|  CB7:0000 |     MARK |    100h,     256 | Environment                       |
|  CC7:0000 |     MARK |    560h,    1376 | Program                           |
|  D1D:0000 |  HISTORY |    100h,     256 | Environment                       |
|  D2D:0000 |  HISTORY |   1DB0h,    7600 | Program                           |
|  F08:0000 |   KERMIT |    100h,     256 | Environment                       |
|  F18:0000 |   KERMIT |  18280h,   98944 | Program                           |
| 2740:0000 |   KERMIT |    FB0h,    4016 | Data                              |
| 283B:0000 |   KERMIT |   9610h,   38416 | Data                              |
| 319C:0000 |  COMMAND |    100h,     256 | Data                              |
| 31AC:0000 |  COMMAND |   1330h,    4912 | Program                           |
| 32DF:0000 |  COMMAND |    110h,     272 | Environment                       |
| 32F0:0000 |      MEM |    100h,     256 | Environment                       |
| 3300:0000 |      MEM |  12A10h,   76304 | Program                           |
| 45A1:0000 | -------- |  5A5E0h,  370144 | FREE                              |
+-----------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
| C000:0000 | -------- |   8000h,   32768 | ------------- ROM --------------- |
| C800:0000 |      EMS |  10000h,   65536 | ---------- EMS memory ----------- |
| DE00:0000 | -------- |   8000h,   32768 | ---------- Upper RAM ------------ |
+-----------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
| DE01:0000 | CON      |                  |  Loadable device driver           |
| DF01:0000 | PC$MOUSE |                  |  Loadable device driver           |
| E20D:0000 |   DR DOS |   2800h,   10240 |  20 Disk buffers                  |
+-----------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
| F000:0000 | -------- |  10000h,   65536 | ------------- ROM --------------- |
+-----------+----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|     3<DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Conventional memory DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD>     |
|     0h   10000h  20000h  30000h  40000h  50000h  60000h  70000h          |
|     0K      64K    128K    192K    256K    320K    384K    448K          |
|     CDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDD     |
|     2222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222     |
|     2222222222222222................1111                                 |
|     EDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDDDEDDDDDD      |
|    512K    576K    640K    704K    768K    832K    896K    960K     1MB  |
|  80000h  90000h  A0000h  B0000h  C0000h  D0000h  E0000h  F0000h 100000h  |
|     >DDDDDDDDDDDDDD>3<DDDDDDDDDDDDDD Upper memory DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD>3     |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Key:  2=RAM  1=ROM  0=Shadow ROM  

      655,360 bytes, ( 640K), conventional memory
      446,432 bytes, ( 435K), largest available block

    3,145,728 bytes, (3072K), extended memory
    3,145,728 bytes, (3072K), extended memory used
            0 bytes, (   0K), extended memory available
----------------------------------------------------------------------
	*	All commands (except built-ins) have a /H[elp] usage
		and this usage is aware of the current screen size.
		eg: MODE /Help generates:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MODE R1.22    Printer and screen mode utility
Copyright (c) 1988,1989 Digital Research Inc. All rights reserved.

MODE   /Help
    or LPT#:[n][,[m][,[P][,s]]]
    or LPT#:=COMn
    or mode[,lines]
    or [mode],m[,T]
    or CON: [LINES=lines] [COLS=cols] [RATE=r DELAY=d]
    or COM#:b[,p][,d][,s][,P]
    or device CODEPAGE options

     LPT#:n,m,P     Set-up printer
                        #=Printer port number
                        n=characters per line (80, 132)
                        m=lines per inch (6 or 8)
                        P=Continuous retry on timeout

     LPT#:=COMn     Redirect printer port # output to serial port n

     mode,lines     Set display mode 40 or BW40=40 columns no color (CGA)
                                     80 or BW80=80 columns     :
                                           CO40=40 columns color (CGA)
                                           CO80=80 columns     :
                                           MONO=80 columns (MDA)
                                     lines=number of text rows: 25, 43 or 50

     [mode],m[,T]   Set display mode, mode parameter as described above
                                     m=CGA display shift direction: L or R
                                     T=show test pattern

     CON: LINES = lines              lines=number of text rows: 25, 43 or 50

     CON: COLS = cols                cols=number of text columns: 40 or 80

     CON: RATE = r DELAY = d         r=keyboard typematic rate: 1..32
                                     d=keyboard typematic delay: 1..4

     COM#:b,p,d,s,P Set serial port #=serial port number
                                    b=baud rate - 110..19200
                                    p=parity    - Even, None or Odd
                                    d=data bits - 7 or 8
                                    s=stop bits - 1 or 2
                                    P=Continuous retry on timeout

     device CODEPAGE PREPARE=((cplist) [d:][path]filename[.ext])
           device      one of CON, PRN, LPT1, etc
           cplist      one or more of 437, 850, 860, 863, 865
           filename    specifies the file containing the character shapes

     device CODEPAGE SELECT=cp
           device      one of CON, PRN, LPT1, etc
           cp          one of 437, 850, 860, 863, 865

     device CODEPAGE REFRESH
           device      one of CON, PRN, LPT1, etc

     device CODEPAGE /STATUS
           device      one of CON, PRN, LPT1, etc
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I could go on, but I think that this is enough of an advertisement.

Re:DRDOS v5 and PC-NFS.  Just before v5 was released, there was a
great improvement in the support of communications/networking
programs.  You might give PC-NFS a try again with DR-DOS v5 and see
how it fairs. 

--
John "Frotz" Fa'atuai	frotz%drivax@uunet.uu.net	(email@domain)
Digital Research, Inc.	{uunet|amdahl}!drivax!frotz	(bang!email)
c/o MIS Dept.		(408) 647-6570			(vmail)
80 Garden Court, C13	(408) 649-3896			(phone)
Monterey, CA  93940	(408) 649-0750			(fax)
==========
"He who knows does not speak.  He who speaks does not know."
	-- Lao Tzu