🚀 go-pugleaf

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.


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