>Do they really make computers with crippled BIOSs that won't run anything
>other than windoze? If so, since when? I am asking so that I might become
>informed of which models and which vintages to avoid.
I read that some brand name computers use proprietary BIOSes that cause
incompatibilities when the user tries to add another part. So I prefer to go
with a business that builds computers from parts.
>That is a Semi-Tech Microelectronics computer with a silly name that I won't
>mention. It has a single 1.0 Mb high density floppy drive. Quite fast.
>I also have a Northstar Horizon that I don't use. Two floppies - 160k I think.
Clarence,
I never heard of a 1.0 Mb floppy drive. How big is it in physical size? What
year was it made?
Al Stevens' book, "teach yourself... C++", came with a 5.25" 180 KB diskette,
apparently single-sided, which I discovered when I unsuccessfully attempted to
make a DISKCOPY backup.
>I still use CPM on one of my (7) computers. It still runs the accounting
>software I wrote in Basic 18 yrs ago, now modified to suit the times.
Any Internet software for CP/M?
> What OS ran on the PC jr & early XTs? Anybody have experience with CP/M (just
> curiosity on my part, I never saw CP/M in action)? Didn't IBM computers have
> ROM BASIC? All this was long before the World Wide Web.
>Shipped with IBM PC-DOS. I think by the time jr and XT came along, ROM
>BASIC had diappeared. I know original PC had it.
ROM BASIC existed (still exists?) on IBM computers but not IBM clones because of
copyright. ROM BASIC is the difference between BASICA and GW-BASIC, the reason
why BASICA runs only on IBM computers, not on clones. OS/2 Warp 4 has BASICA in
\OS2\MDOS (as well as QBASIC), which would run in a VDM, being a DOS program.
I wonder if eComStation (successor to OS/2 Warp by Serenity Systems) retains
this BASICA.
As far as I know, DOS 1.0 had no hard drive support. If I were to download this
antiquated DOS, I don't know what hardware it would recognize. No CD-ROM, no
Zip drive for lack of device driver capability. High-density 5.25" and 3.5"
floppy drives? File I/O was by FCBs, which were superseded by file handles in
DOS 2.0, so none of the DOS software I have would run under DOS 1. I could ask
the same questions re CP/M. Not being familiar with CP/M, and having no access
to documentation, I'd be lost. I believe CP/M used ASCII 26 as end-of-file
character, which is the historical source of problems in DOS with files that
contain this character. I remember Walnut Creek CDROM, now BSDI, had a CP/M
CDROM, discontinued and no longer available.
