[Coco] Nitros9 and Smartwatch

[piperfox74]

Thanks, Frank.

Old, tired neurons are starting to fire for me again, as I’m slowly beginning to recall memories from the brief period of time I spent playing with OS-9 back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. At one point, I had accumulated enough knowledge and experience to have a pretty cool CoCo3 rig back in my teens. CoCo 3 512K, MPI, dual 5.25” DSDD floppies, RS-232 pack with a connection to a remote Radio Shack DT-1 data terminal in another room, modem connection to dial up BBSs, etc. I stupidly sold all my CoCo gear some time around ’92 or ’93 and went all in on an Amiga 500 system, which along with a DECstation 5000/25 served as my computing environment throughout college.

So, I’m starting to remember OS-9 command syntax, and starting to remember some of the differences from *nix type operating systems. The most important for me to remember so far was the dual directory nature of OS-9, with separate working and execution directories. Now, I’d like to start remembering modules, patching, cobblering boot disks, creating and destroying windows, etc.

I’m working on it, it’s just slower going than I’d like. :-)

Christopher



> On Dec 7, 2016, at 07:07, Francis Swygert <farna at att.net> wrote:
> 
> Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2016 19:49:57 -0500
> From: piperfox74 <piperfox74 at gmail.com>
> 
> <rant on>
> Regarding software and documentation, I find it a bit odd to argue that any piece of software, no matter how simple, “does not need documentation”. I’d say a pervasive attitude like that in the community could turn away newcomers. I’ve been away from the CoCo seen for a very long time, and I was quite young back in the ‘80s and ‘90s when I was heavily into these computers. I’m eager to get back in, learn as much as I can, and help out others if possible, but the overall lack of consistent documentation for all of the new toys (especially DriveWire and Nitros-9) make this endeavor more of a struggle than it perhaps needs to be.
> 
> I’m not meaning this to sound like I’m jumping on you. I appreciate your help, as I appreciate this entire community of bright, eager people looking to keep the CoCo alive as long as possible. I’m just hoping to express that focusing a bit on documentation and covering those topics that the “old timers” consider common knowledge or too simple to document might encourage more participation and help bring in new people to the community.
> <rant off>, and thank you!
> =======================================================
> I understand your position. There is the "Start OS-9" book available on Malted Media. Unfortunately I lost the disk that went with it that had some utilities. I don't think anyone has located and uploaded a disk image, but you can find the individual utilities easy enough. The book is a "lesson plan" based on the original CoCo3 OS-9, but will still be helpful with Nitros9. I had wanted to re-write it for Nitors9, but never found the time, and really don't know Nitros9 enough to make many of the additions that would be needed. 
> 
> Robert did point out that you can use the built-in help though. Many of the OS-9 utilities have an extensive help file/function -- usually enough that additional documentation isn't required. If you have no idea what the utility is for you might have a little difficulty figuring it out, but usually not. 
>  Frank Swygert
> Fix-It-Frank Handyman Service
> 803-604-6548
> 
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