arachne-digest wrote:
>
> Thomas Mueller wrote:
> >
> > Anybody have experience with CP/M (just
> > curiosity on my part, I never saw CP/M in action)?
>
> 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.
>
> There were accounting packages available for use on a PC about that time,
> but I didn't have/didn't like the PC and I didn't want to learn to be an
> accountant.
But Clarence, you probably don't have experience with 8bit CP/M 2.2 for
Z-80 based 8bits microcomputers. It was pretty advanced hack or even
rewrite of some official CP/M 2.x, which run on Sharp MZ-800. In some
respects, it was more advanced than early MS-DOS:
there was interactive setup which allowed eg. specifying program
executed at boot time, there was Norton Commander -style Nipsoft
commander, and other cursor-key based program-lauchers.
Function keys were used-definable, and 25th line of console was used to
display function key assignment, time (unfortunately just
system uptime, as there was no system clock and EPROM), keybord mode,
etc.
> could run CP/M on the Commodore 128. When you hit the question about your
> terminal type, you usually had to answer "Lear-Sigler ADM-3A". The 128 had
> been designed to emulate that type (I guess it was popular), but most folks
> just weren't going to know that.
Hmm, Sharp MZ-800 had "quality" 80x25 (or 640x200) four-colour mode,
which looked much better than CGA ;-) Termnial emulation was somehow
"generic" for most CP/M programs, and CP/M programs usually had feature
for "learning" cursor keys, so setup was question of executing some
setup utility and press all keys required by program to work..
> Add in the fact that floppy disk formats were different for different
> computers (yes, there was software designed to help you read other formats,
On Sharp, there was XDOS utility available, which was able to read/write
MS-DOS floppies. Additionaly, Sharp emulator for PC was able to boot
CP/M from CP/M floppy ;-)
