[Coco] origins of OS-9

[Aaron Wolfe]

Just found this article:
http://www.newelectronics.co.uk/article/7744/You-can-lean-on-me.aspx

It's short but contains this interesting bit:

" So why is something that was originally developed as a platform on
which to run a basic language interpreter more than 20 years ago,
continuing to gain followers?
Ric Yeates, senior software architect on RadiSys’ OS-9 project,
attributes OS-9’s popularity to several factors. Firstly he suggests:
“It was used to support the Motorola 6809 processor (which featured in
the popular Tandy computer) and it was a logical progression to
convert this run time environment to a full OS. So that’s where it got
its size and performance characteristics.”

Once again a mention of OS-9 as originally being just a support system
for Basic09.   There are some inaccurate (or very over generalized
statements) in the rest of the text, so take it with a grain of salt.


On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 9:53 PM, Stephen H. Fischer
<SFischer1 at mindspring.com> wrote:
> If you compare Microware's BASIC09 and TSC's Basic / Preprocessor they both
> have a compiler type operation.
>
> Other basic's like DECB either read the original source line or a tokenized
> form.
>
> The industry was going away from basics like DECB requiring line numbers for
> all lines and only two character variable names.
>
> Thanks Bill for his great basic used in the CoCo!
>
> SHF
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Aaron Wolfe" <aawolfe at gmail.com>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2010 2:20 AM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] origins of OS-9
>
>
> I just found a Microware ad in the Mar-Apr 1979 issue of 68 Micro
> Journal (vol1 no2).
>
> ... the A/BASIC
> compiler ...
>
> ..so it seems Microware had quite some experience with operating
> systems and BASICs prior to the 6809.  Motorola's decision to partner
> with them for the Basic09 and OS-9 projects may well have been based
> on these products, and I do wonder if some of the ideas if not the
> code of RT/68 are present in OS-9.
> Interesting stuff.
>
>
>
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