[Coco] kevin darling?

[Ray Watts]

<snip>

>>
> Kevin Darling has long left the CoCo community.  Please get it out of 
> your mind that you have to "beg" him for anything.  He is not a diety, 
> and he does not need to be worshipped.  If anything,  Kevin and 
> "cabal" (as Alan DeKok says) kept the source code away from the common 
> man's eyes for a long, long time.  I maintain that he and others 
> stifled the possible growth of OS-9 Level Two in the 1990s.  Yes, I 
> know he was under "contract" from Tandy, but as of today, it's been 15 
> years since the demise of the CoCo 3.  If it weren't for the 
> stubbornness and hard work of people like Alan DeKok, Bill Nobel, and 
> others, the operating system would still be nothing more than pieces 
> and patches.
>
> I will give Kevin the credit he deserves.  He was (and probably still 
> is) a great OS-9 programmer who contributed a lot to the understanding 
> of the operating system.  I also maintain that he and his "Upgrade" 
> team stood in the way of progress, even when it was obvious that 
> releasing the OS-9 source to a long antiquated machine would have hurt 
> no one and would have benefited a lot of folks.
>
> Take notice man... this is exactly why the NitrOS-9 Project exists.  
> It's a slap in the face of that elitism that typified the 80's and 
> early 90's.  The source code is there for all eyes to see, and no one 
> is hoarding it.  So please, stop asking for Kevin Darling for 
> anything.  He is long gone, and I don't think he's coming back.  Go 
> grab the sources yourself, and make a difference!
>
> Gotta get back to work.
> Boisy
>
>
Boisy,  I have to take issue with you on this.  Back when the features 
of the 6309 were discovered, the CoCo reached a fork in the road.  One 
direction is the one now called NitrOS-9.  The resulting legacy of 
NitrOS-9 is a stable, faster, dependable operating system for the CoCo. 
 However, and I was rebuked by Bob Gault for this once, what is REALLY 
new?  Have there been any new apps developed since NitrOS-9 reached a 
state of maturity?  Has the interface appearence changed in any manner? 
 To the best of my knowledge, the answer to both questions is no.  You, 
Mark, Bob, Paul Barton and others have done a remarkable job providing 
the world with modern operating capabilities such as improved SCSI, 
 flash RAM, etc., but fire up a CoCo today and the screen will look as 
it did over ten years ago, as will the apps.  The only change will be, 
and please forgive me, Bob, that they will operate faster and more 
reliable using modern devices.

The other direction was the resulting fiasco we call OS-9 Level3 
upgrade, or, whatever.  Some of that upgrade was dribbled out as patches 
over the years and even incorporated into NitrOS-9.  A large, but very 
imcomplete, segment of it was released to Brother Jeremy about four 
years ago.  Enough of the upgrade now existed to provide CoCo users with 
some interesting, and I felt, nore exciting interfaces which could open 
the door to some new apps written in Basic09.  I struggled with 
decompiling some of the demos and identifying the variables.  From that 
I was able to write an interface which opened up movable, resizable 
windows which  could utilize buttons, slides and selectable dialog 
windows.  As I stated in my earlier post, some valuable parts are still 
missing and Kevin Darling admitted to me at the 2000 PennFest that they 
existed at his house back in Denver.  Hence, my desire to locate him.

The unfortunate aspect (maybe 2 aspects) of this fork in the road is 
that, to the best of my knowledge, the two directions are now 
incompatible and mutually exclusive.  The other aspect is that I may be 
one of a very few who even give a damn.  If the CoCo is to remain a fun 
hobby, though, we should let ourselves explore every avenue of change 
despite previous animosities which ocurred for whatever reasons.  I 
strongly feel the so-called Level3 upgrade is one of them.

Sincerely,     Griz