[Coco] Re: FLEX+ runs on a COCO3

[Richard E. Crislip]

Hello John

Did you know that Flex was ported to the Amiga and can be found on Aminet? I
got it running a long while back, but since I didn't have any software for
it or any knowledge of its command structures.. I kinda gave up on it. I
have since learned of the existance of the Flex Users Group, nut now don't
have a lot of free time to explore it <sigh>. BTW it is the 6809 version
that was ported.

On 12/09/03, John E. Malmberg wrote:
> jimcox wrote:
>> 
>> Having never used Flex, I'm curious what the big deal seems to be about 
>> it.  Could you enlighten me?  How is it better or different than OS-9?
> 
> Flex-09 was the first commercial alternative operating system for the
> COCO.
> 
> It is a single user operating system with some background tasks.
> 
> Very lightweight, the entire OS, + editor, + assembler would fit on a 
> single 35 track double density floppy.
> 
> Unlike OS-9, it supported double sided drives on all of the COCO floppy 
> controllers.
> 
> I would consider it the equivalent of CP/M for the 6809 series computers.
> 
> I could not say it was superior to OS-9 though.  OS-9 may be more memory 
> hungry than Flex and fit better on a COCO-3 than a COCO.
> 
> The sources to Flex are supposed to be publically available now, but I 
> have not found a working download site.
> 
> I wrote a program that allowed me to run COCO DECB under FLEX out of ROM 
> with FLEX doing the screen and keyboard I/O.
> 
> This gave me ROM basic with the 51 * 20? HIRES screen, and scriptable 
> under FLEX09 control.
> 
> For text based BASIC programs, that was my preferred environment.
> 
> I could use the Flex text editor to write a BASIC program, and then 
> script it into the interpreter and save it to a DECB formatted disk.
> 
> That program only works with DISK BASIC 1.0, After I find a way to 
> transfer the Flex disks to another O.S., I plan to modify the program to 
> work with DISK BASIC 1.1 and post it.
> 
> -John
> wb8tyw at qsl.net
> Personal Opinion Only
> 
> 
Regards
-- 
Cruisen                                                         _|_
              on AutoPilot with an Amiga   ---o-( )-o---   and a CoCo
 
                                             Richard