RealDos is Shareware

[MEtalGuy66]

I just want to say i love your MyIDE driver. I can't go back to MyDOS. I have an external MyIDE cart with a flashdrive and SDX running and I think it's the best. Its a nice pull-my-cart take it with my solution.

 

Frank

 

 

Quick.. Go and purchase a lotto ticket. Out of all the e-mail I have gotten about the MyIDE system you are the only one I know of that is happy. I am very happy for you. You should publish every detail on the hardware so that maybe a few others can teak there configuration.

Stephen J. Carden

 

Steve. He's talking about Flashjazzcat's SpartaDOS X MyIDE handler. It does work very well. And it makes MyIDE the fastest mass storage setup available for the ATARI. It also has a separate Fdisk program that is completley GUI/Menu-driven and even supports 80 columns via VBXE.

[Stephen J. Carden]

Well Now I see in his personal monitored forum. I wonder how many other messages he deleted.

The thread he started for his new beta BIOS is locked. Only Sijmen can post to it...

 

What Kind of Programer thinks you can detect 1 rom out hunders by a single byte.

One for whom the only machine worth supporting is one with his ROM plugged into it.

 

And I will publish the Source code I write. Sorry about the rant I just get really pissed of when people have been riped off.

If I can help I will, with code or questions. I have a fairly good understanding of MyIDE, having written the driver.

 

Got a question for the users that spend more time on the internet than I do. Is anyone doing anything with an IDE design that will work?

Check out the IDE Plus 2.0 thread. That's the best upcoming design. However, I'll be working on something in the future, having been approached by a couple of people who want to use my driver suite for something useful. Hias and I deisgned a very nicely realized extensible LBA partitioning system which is completely incompatible with the original MyIDE format, and of course there's the partitioning software which was another project in its own right. I don't want this stuff to go to waste.

 

On the subject of Sijmen, having promoted the exclusive use of MyDOS with the MyIDE interface, he's suddenly started beta testing SpartaDOS X 4.43 with the latest version of his MyIDE ROM, which supports 512 byte sectors. These tests are yielding some screengrabs showing 40KB/s reads. Though still 25KB/s short of what my driver achieves, this demonstrates that - as a final kick in the teeth - he has decided to fully support SDX using his ROM driver, once again without any acknowledgement of what I've already done, or any questions sent my way about how it might be done most effectively. Presumably he wants to completely eradicate the small user base I have. This is self-importance at its worst: he didn't give a s**t about SDX till someone else wrote a driver for it.

 

EDIT: I've just gone across to the AM forum and deleted all my posts and content pertaining to the driver. If Sijmen wants to handle SDX support for the half a dozen people who read his posts over there, he's welcome to the job. I've referred people who want to use a real driver to my website and this forum.

 

In addition, Steve has posted over there that he's interested in taking some practical steps to improve the stability of the MyIDE/Flash interface. This is great news (it shows that at least one of the admins over there actually listens to people), and I've asked him for details so I can test the fix out on my own cart. This may be a big shot in the arm for the SDX driver.

 

 

Hay thanks for the responce. I sent you an personal e-mail. I also sent you some other stuff as well.

 

I got this e-mail for Mr. Atari

 

Hi Steve,

 

Since I'm still programming the new BIOS is makes no sense to continue now. Perhaps in future, if you like that.

 

Atarimax offered to send you a MyIDE, just drop him a email.

 

Later,

Sijmen.

 

P.S.

I removed our issues from the forum.

 

 

The only thing that is bad about his e-mail. There is no way he could produce a stable MY-IDE rom for his users. If he could he would have already done it. I have an OS I wrote many years ago. I have a stable working OS right now. All I need is to add the code to talk to the drive! Sijmen I do not have issues with you Most of People who purchased your MY-IDE (not Tuckers) have Issues with you, and have dragged me into this hoping to get it working. Your efforts have caused Flashjazzcat to drop support for the driver he wrote. I have reviewed many e-mails tonight (sorry these were of a private nature) and I am really surprised at how many people you have Fu** over with you MY-IDE OS software. Steve Tucker is producing your hardware the only smart thing in this whole process. The nicest Hardware is junk if the software does not work. I understand you want to fix it. You most likely would have been able to fix the software if you would accept help. The smartest Doctors in the world go to school to learn. After a while that Doctor becomes more capable than his training. You have no desire to learn how to code or accept help, so your code will always be substandard! The Atari Users are paying for your omnipotent ego with lost computing time; each time they try to make youre MY-IDE work.

Well Mr. Atari I do not care what you do. Go Play in your private monitored forum. I have my own plans for what I am going to do .

 

Stephen J. Carden

Edited April 15, 2011 by Stephen J. Carden

[MEtalGuy66]

Flashjazzcat did not drop support for his SDX MyIDE driver. He has alwayse supported it primarily from Atariage and his wbesite. He simply removed his posts from the Atarimax forum, because any suggestions he made over there were falling on deaf ears.

[Marius]

I remember I had some issues back in 2004 with MyIDE and connecting a MUX to it. I remember I received great support from Sijmen. He created personal versions of the MyIDE OS for me, he showed me the source of the MyIDE routines, he spent hours of writing e-mails to me. That he could not get it worked back than, was not his fault... he did not have access to a mux, so then it is hard to test. I remember that I was frustrated about that issue yes. And I also remember I had a mail-conversation with you (Stephen J. Carden) about this issue, since you were able to improve the Mux Master program. We concluded back then, that MyIDE did not support Percomm commands, and that that the reason was MyIDE was not compatible with mux.

 

The last few weeks I have been beta-testing things for Mr. Atari, and it was a superb experience. With every release of his beta, things were getting better and better, and I have never had the idea he did not listen to my ideas, in fact: every problem I wrote about to him, is fixed in the next release, every idea I wrote him, is realised. I can remember I have been beta testing some other -not MyIDE- big project, with a nasty TIME bug in it... which is never fixed by the author of that project. Is that a reason for me to start a flame-war about that person? Don't think so. I still respect that programmer too very much (I think you know who I mean).

 

I really don't understand your problems with him, and I must say: I woke up this morning with the message in this thread, and I really felt grumpy about it. Perhaps I shouldn't respond to it... perhaps I should not respont to it in public. But on the other hand: I consider Sijmen as one of my friends, and I really don't like the way he is treated now in public.

 

Perhaps it is the tone you guys are using towards him?

 

I remember a rather recent Private discussion with a certain fellow in this thread, which was full of very dominant language. The problem with some people (not Mr. Atari) is that they don't understand that things are a part of a hobby. They think that their point of view is the only existing opinion in the world, and ofcourse the best.

 

That tone, makes it impossible to have a discussion. Really. Even when person A is 100% right. When he can not express him(her)self in a normal, decent way, sorry nobody (well, not me) is listening.

 

There is almost no perfect device, dos, or software. You name a product, and I tell you a problem with it. But so what? That's part of the game. There are also bugs in the BlackBox 2.16 firmware. Emailing with Bob Puff about that does not help. Is this happening, a reason to bash Bob Puff? No way. It's pity, and not more than that, that he can not provide a source, or fix the firmware... but it makes me more active, to fix things myself.

 

I'd say to everyone complaining about Mr. Atari, or whatever person: create a better device yourself, and do it better yourself. Anyway: stop whining about this.

 

I know Sijmen personal, and I like him very much. Ofcourse ... he is stubern, but so am I, and so are a lot of other people; and why wouldn't he be? I think his personality is one of the driving forces behind MyIDE.

 

And last point: I have had most issues with version of Steven Tuckers version of MyIDE. I use the first PCB's from Sijmen himself, which work really better.

Nothing bad about Tucker by the way; he's the best... but I simply don't like the Flash Based MyIDE.

 

MyIDE is not perfect, but it is getting better and better, and I think it can never be perfect, since MyIDE uses a customised Atari OS. I also love the Qmeg OS, that is a great add-on, but yes: also on Qmeg not every software runs (I can't play Johnny's trouble on Qmeg 4.04) but I accept that limitation.

 

So please stop whining, love it, or change it yourself, or leave it. In last case: just leave, you don't have to tell the rest of the world you are leaving the project. No one cares, really.

 

Greetz

M.

[flashjazzcat]

Sijmen will probably talk the hind legs off a donkey if the conversation is about something he's writing himself. What I experienced, however, was complete indifference, which might easily be taken as implicit discouragement and which culminated in him suddenly deciding to start supporting SDX after years of "I not use SDX" and "Please use MyDOS". Don't talk to me about pleasant tone and common courtesy. If he wasn't so insistent on doing everything himself - slowly - and would instead listen to suggestions, ask questions, and perhaps even use someone else's code, MyIDE as a whole would be a much better product.

 

But yes - in some ways you're right. I've chosen to take issue with a situation which may be more circumstantial or implied than any kind of intentional or deliberate slight on yours truly. Fortunately there are other hardware/software developers out there - English speaking or not - who can manage to avoid rubbing me up the wrong way, and those are the people with whom I'll be sharing my work in the future. I've taken all the content off the AM forum because I got sick of p**sing in the wind, and then seeing Sijmen jump on the SDX bandwagon. I left little explanation there other than "Content removed", and I've succinctly explained my reasoning here because Stephen J Carden was having - if anything - a much worse experience than I was and I figured it was kind of relevant.

 

I've got no intention of "whining" on any further about it. I hated it, I changed it myself, and then as far as AM is concerned, I left it. AA members who do care about my support for the product (obviously yourself not included), can continue to enjoy it here. End of.

Edited April 15, 2011 by flashjazzcat

[Marius]

@flashjazzcat

 

Ok I should clarify myself more. I was speaking about the tone of Metalguy and Stephen J. Carden. Not yours.

 

I don't like SDX, that has nothing to do with you, your support for MyIDE and MyIDE itself, but SDX.

 

I like your contribution to the Atari community very much, and I like reading your posts too.

 

I can imagine your irritations. My 'anger' was started after I read the posts above yours and mine, from SJC where he starts a personal attack to Mr. Atari. As I stated before: he is a friend of mine, and ofcourse I've could have chosen to stay out of this, but I simply did not want that.

 

The "whining" part I was writing about, was more about the fact that obviously Stephen J. Carden (and some others) state that Mr. Atari "should" accept help. My point is: no he should not. It's HIS project, HIS thing, and he is doing the way HE wants it. When I work on a tool or project, I'm not going to let some wiseguys telling me how to write my source. When I work together on a project (like I do sometimes with Thelen on this board) it's a different story. Then we work together, and we have a goal together.

 

When I summarize my ideas of MyIDE and my experiences with Mr. Atari's way of doing things, I think his first creations of the MyIDE OS were too much a way of running MYDOS on a harddisk. Everything was focussed and tested with MyDOS. When you use MyDOS, older versions of MyIDE are great. When you never used another DOS (Except for Dos 2.x) you will probably have not that much issues with MyIDE. At the moment I started using myIDE I was a SpartaDOS (not SDX!) user, and I was rather disappointed by the fact that I could use that on MyIDE.

 

Mr. Atari was not SpartaDOS minded, he did not use it, and so no support on that.

 

I also wanted to be able to swap 16MB partitions on the fly. I was used to that on my BlackBox. Another no go on MyIDE... This is all back in 2002/2003

 

I also needed a reboot reset key combination.... another thing Mr. Atari probably never needed before, so that was not implented.

 

In this time, really a lot of work had to be done, and it was really in an early development state.

 

Since I was (am?) very impatient, I decided to write my own tools. I never had the idea Sijmen did not want to help me. I had the idea he did not 'understand' why I needed all this, since he never needed it himself.

 

For me MyIDE has always been (and probably always will be) a hobby project. I'm really amazed by the fact that such a simple device (with just 3 logical components) can be a harddrive interface! Since ever new OS release is getting better, I'm really happy with his work.

 

Someone told me once that it is this way: Mr. Atari creates something HE likes, the way HE thinks it works cool, the way HE wants things to be. If you like it, go with it, if you don't like it... well chose something else. And I think that's the right way to look at things. I like Sijmens version of MyIDE; for a lot of things I could do with my Atari.

 

Greetz

Marius

[flashjazzcat]

Someone told me once that it is this way: Mr. Atari creates something HE likes, the way HE thinks it works cool, the way HE wants things to be. If you like it, go with it, if you don't like it... well chose something else. And I think that's the right way to look at things. I like Sijmens version of MyIDE; for a lot of things I could do with my Atari.

I think you've summed it up perfectly there, Marius. As for misunderstanding the direction of your sentiments: my aplogies. As for the rest, I'll let someone else take it from here if they want to. I need to get on with finishing that driver...

[MEtalGuy66]

Well, when REAL CODERS (who actually have more than a "hobbyist's understanding" of how the ATARI's OS, DOS, and hardware work/interact) write a rom/handler that not only outperforms his, but works 100% correctly with ANY DOS, who is going to use Sijmen's?

 

This is the point. And this is the problem with people who only code for what "they like" and don't care to take the advice of others (in this case, others who are CLEARLY much better and more experienced coders than he is.)

 

MyIDE is not just a Public Domain project hosted on a webpage anymore.. Sijmen has contracted a hardware manufacturer to produce these things and SELL them to MANY people. These people deserve the best functionality from the device they paid for.. Not just whatever Sijmen feels works best for HIM.

 

Sijmen started the "anger" (negativity) with his "bucket of shit" comment on the other forum, and also with his rediculous attitude (for years).. He fails to realize that what is good for MyIDE owners/users is what's good for MyIDE.. not simply what's good for HIM.

 

If you read the email that Steve posted, you'll realize that all Steve did was refuse to make alterations (the ones Sijmen was requesting) to REALDOS that did not even make sense. The very nature of what Sijmen was asking Steve to do shows his gross inexperience. Do you understand what would happen if Steve made REALDOS "detect" a ROM based on the value of a single byte location? If the user had another ROM installed which had the same value at that location, the DOS would assume Sijmen's ROM was installed and break all kinds of functionality. All Steve said was that if Sijmen wants REALDOS to incorporate MyIDE support, then he has to provide the necessary reference information (source for the handler), and Steve also needs hardware to test it on before he can release it. That's it.. Sijmen called that a "bucket of shit".

 

Here in the US, when a man speaks to you in earnest, and you respond by calling his words a "bucket of shit".. You can not expect that to generate anything other than a negative response.

[Stephen J. Carden]

I just want to say i love your MyIDE driver. I can't go back to MyDOS. I have an external MyIDE cart with a flashdrive and SDX running and I think it's the best. Its a nice pull-my-cart take it with my solution.

 

Frank

 

 

Quick.. Go and purchase a lotto ticket. Out of all the e-mail I have gotten about the MyIDE system you are the only one I know of that is happy. I am very happy for you. You should publish every detail on the hardware so that maybe a few others can teak there configuration.

Stephen J. Carden

 

Steve. He's talking about Flashjazzcat's SpartaDOS X MyIDE handler. It does work very well. And it makes MyIDE the fastest mass storage setup available for the ATARI. It also has a separate Fdisk program that is completley GUI/Menu-driven and even supports 80 columns via VBXE.

 

 

Damn! I was hoping Mr. Atari could have one user that was really happy… I guess his dog could be his buddy and loyal user of the Mr.Atari My-IDE device.

 

Steve

[Marius]

*sigh*

[Stephen J. Carden]

Well, when REAL CODERS (who actually have more than a "hobbyist's understanding" of how the ATARI's OS, DOS, and hardware work/interact) write a rom/handler that not only outperforms his, but works 100% correctly with ANY DOS, who is going to use Sijmen's?

 

This is the point. And this is the problem with people who only code for what "they like" and don't care to take the advice of others (in this case, others who are CLEARLY much better and more experienced coders than he is.)

 

MyIDE is not just a Public Domain project hosted on a webpage anymore.. Sijmen has contracted a hardware manufacturer to produce these things and SELL them to MANY people. These people deserve the best functionality from the device they paid for.. Not just whatever Sijmen feels works best for HIM.

 

Sijmen started the "anger" (negativity) with his "bucket of shit" comment on the other forum, and also with his rediculous attitude (for years).. He fails to realize that what is good for MyIDE owners/users is what's good for MyIDE.. not simply what's good for HIM.

 

If you read the email that Steve posted, you'll realize that all Steve did was refuse to make alterations (the ones Sijmen was requesting) to REALDOS that did not even make sense. The very nature of what Sijmen was asking Steve to do shows his gross inexperience. Do you understand what would happen if Steve made REALDOS "detect" a ROM based on the value of a single byte location? If the user had another ROM installed which had the same value at that location, the DOS would assume Sijmen's ROM was installed and break all kinds of functionality. All Steve said was that if Sijmen wants REALDOS to incorporate MyIDE support, then he has to provide the necessary reference information (source for the handler), and Steve also needs hardware to test it on before he can release it. That's it.. Sijmen called that a "bucket of shit".

 

Here in the US, when a man speaks to you in earnest, and you respond by calling his words a "bucket of shit".. You can not expect that to generate anything other than a negative response.

 

Ken, I think I have been looking at this all wrong. I know why the "bucket of shit" was use a long with MY-IDE, seems to me like he is referring to his code. Could he be so embarrassed by it that he does not want to show it.

 

Here is what I need, for someone to send me one of his internal rom images.

 

Boot from RealDos with one of his working roms. Once RealDos command line is up running. Do this

D1:\real\os_cap d1:\my_ide.rom

Then e-mail me the my_ide.rom that was produced by os_cap.com. Once I get this rom I will turn it back into source code.

 

Thanks in advanced!

Stephen J. Carden

Edited April 15, 2011 by Stephen J. Carden

[Stephen J. Carden]

Well, when REAL CODERS (who actually have more than a "hobbyist's understanding" of how the ATARI's OS, DOS, and hardware work/interact) write a rom/handler that not only outperforms his, but works 100% correctly with ANY DOS, who is going to use Sijmen's?

 

This is the point. And this is the problem with people who only code for what "they like" and don't care to take the advice of others (in this case, others who are CLEARLY much better and more experienced coders than he is.)

 

MyIDE is not just a Public Domain project hosted on a webpage anymore.. Sijmen has contracted a hardware manufacturer to produce these things and SELL them to MANY people. These people deserve the best functionality from the device they paid for.. Not just whatever Sijmen feels works best for HIM.

 

Sijmen started the "anger" (negativity) with his "bucket of shit" comment on the other forum, and also with his rediculous attitude (for years).. He fails to realize that what is good for MyIDE owners/users is what's good for MyIDE.. not simply what's good for HIM.

 

If you read the email that Steve posted, you'll realize that all Steve did was refuse to make alterations (the ones Sijmen was requesting) to REALDOS that did not even make sense. The very nature of what Sijmen was asking Steve to do shows his gross inexperience. Do you understand what would happen if Steve made REALDOS "detect" a ROM based on the value of a single byte location? If the user had another ROM installed which had the same value at that location, the DOS would assume Sijmen's ROM was installed and break all kinds of functionality. All Steve said was that if Sijmen wants REALDOS to incorporate MyIDE support, then he has to provide the necessary reference information (source for the handler), and Steve also needs hardware to test it on before he can release it. That's it.. Sijmen called that a "bucket of shit".

 

Here in the US, when a man speaks to you in earnest, and you respond by calling his words a "bucket of shit".. You can not expect that to generate anything other than a negative response.

 

I think I have been looking at this all wrong. I have already put work around Within RealDos with the ABBUC build. For the Mr. Atari My-IDE users (not the Tucker design) that are using internal My-IDE OS you can solder a normally open switch into the 800xl or 130xe. Solder one Leg to pin 3 of the GTIA and the other leg to Pin 10 of the Gtia. When this switch is closed it will ALWAYS force RealDos into using the Rom Present siov. You asked for this Marius in one of your messages.

In fmtdir.com when you get ready to hit the finial key to start the dir formatting if you hold down the select key it will force fmtdir to write out a 16meg partition out to the target drive. Maybe I should not have added that code but I did because of the number of people who have that device.

Whoever mailed the two internal MY-IDE devices to think one is for the 800xe and the other is for the 130xe. Thanks, I will see if I can make this a little better for you.

Marius, As you stated we are friends and I am sure we always will be. I remember helping you when you had nowhere to goes with your software problems. I remember telling you what I needed from you so I could help you. You provided the info and you got the software patches you wanted. I wrote a ton of code for you because you need help. Mr. Atari got the same thing from me you did. Can you help, yes but this is what I need. He is unwilling to provide his part so the compatibility cannot be done with a few hours of code that it should take. Then he posts a message in his forum of half truths. Then deletes responses that don’t suit him. You damn right I am pissed off. For that matter I have seen you more pissed off about a vender in the USA that did you wrong. I am sick and tired of getting complaints about the Mr. Atari MY-IDE interface.

Mr. Atari asked me for help when he really did not want it so he could make a post in his private forum that I would not help. Then attacked me in is forum.

My Apologies go out to all to everyone and yes even You Mr.Atari.

This is the last of my brain cells and time I am going to waste on none code producing threads.

I will try to help most anyone who is having Dos problems with their hardware. I have devoted many hours to RealDos so that it will work with new hardware. When I started back coding for RealDos it already did everything I needed it to for me.

Do I care what Mr.Atari does with the My-IDE? NO! I have wasted two days of time I should have been coding.

 

I should remove all my-ide support from RealDos because it is none compliant design. Do Not Worry! I not going to remove the support because I know there are a lot of these devices around and the people who purchased them want to use them.

 

They say there is always a silver lining. And there is in this one in this case. I had a reason the check out FlashJazzCats web site. Now he has some cool coding project going on. I gave a fully registered site license and he has access to the entire Source that makes up RealDos. If I have code that can help him he can have it.

 

Have a great Day!

Stephen J. Carden

[Marius]

I think I have been looking at this all wrong. I have already put work around Within RealDos with the ABBUC build. For the Mr. Atari My-IDE users (not the Tucker design) that are using internal My-IDE OS you can solder a normally open switch into the 800xl or 130xe. Solder one Leg to pin 3 of the GTIA and the other leg to Pin 10 of the Gtia. When this switch is closed it will ALWAYS force RealDos into using the Rom Present siov.

 

That is an interesting feature. I did not know about it (till now)... and I'm definately going to try it. I have one more question about that: will this produce incompatibility on other parts, or is that just a never-used connection?

 

You asked for this Marius in one of your messages.

 

True! And I'm happy with this possible workaround. My suggestion is still that an external configuration tool for realdos would be awesome. Dos 2.5 has such a thing too. A tool that let you 'tweak' settings like these. I understand completely you don't want to make that, because REALDOS is detecting everything by itself, and that is extermely cool. But even then... a tweak-tool would still an awesome extra.

 

In fmtdir.com when you get ready to hit the finial key to start the dir formatting if you hold down the select key it will force fmtdir to write out a 16meg partition out to the target drive. Maybe I should not have added that code but I did because of the number of people who have that device.

 

Thanks a lot for that. I know my SIO2IDE 3.3a also has problems with format commands, so that is also a pretty cool fix for Sio2IDE too. (On sio2IDE I use for the smaller images the format tool of BeWe Soft that has a 'build directory' option; that does not send a format command, but just writes a cleared directory)

 

Marius, As you stated we are friends and I am sure we always will be. I remember helping you when you had nowhere to goes with your software problems. I remember telling you what I needed from you so I could help you. You provided the info and you got the software patches you wanted. I wrote a ton of code for you because you need help.

 

That is absolutely right, and yes I consider you definately as a friend. That's why I responded in this. I was (really!) surprised by seeing you writing this in public about another Atarifriend of mine. I'm very glad with your most recent post (The one I'm replying to right now).

 

Mr. Atari got the same thing from me you did. Can you help, yes but this is what I need. He is unwilling to provide his part so the compatibility cannot be done with a few hours of code that it should take. Then he posts a message in his forum of half truths. Then deletes responses that don’t suit him. You damn right I am pissed off.

 

I'm sorry to read that this all happened. I realy believe there must be some misunderstaning somewhere, somehow. I know Sijmen; het is really a very kind fellow, and very interested in all kind of atari things. I think you both might have pressed the wrong 'button' on eachother, and suddenly this 'war' started. I agree with you -and metalguy66- that some cooperation probably will increase the fun and the quality of the myide interface. I sure believe in the potential of MyIDE, and I still like the interface very much.

 

On the other hand -I already wrote that- it is Sijmens project, he is working on it, and he knows what's in his head. I know from experience it is hard (perhaps even impossible) to step into a project when you wasn't there from the start. And I think it is also difficult for him to merge other ideas with his. I respect that, and I really respect all the work he is doing for MyIDE. Even when I'm the only person in the world: I sure think the latest beta releases are (almost) superb.

 

For that matter I have seen you more pissed off about a vender in the USA that did you wrong.

 

True. I know my limitations, and I can be VERY frustated and angry too. It's true.

 

I am sick and tired of getting complaints about the Mr. Atari MY-IDE interface.

 

I think the issues people have with realdos and myide are because people do not understand how things work. All dosses with a 'fixed' own SIOV won't work with myIDE. Stephan Dorndorf released his XDOS with a Fast Sio and a 'Normal' Sio routine. The Fast version will never work with MyIDE. That is not the fault of MyIDE, that's how things work in Atari. As soon as a DOS uses a non-OS SIOV, MyIDE won't work. That's the MyIDE nature. I also use QMEG a lot, that's same story. With QMEG I have a built in Ramdisk (the ramdisk driver is IN the OS ROM) so that makes it possible to boot from RAMDISK. With RealDOS (and all other DOS-ses with own SIOV) I can not acces this ramdisk.

 

That is the reason I want a realdos that NEVER uses it's own SIOV. Not only for MyIDE, but also for my QMEG. My QMEG ROM has a superiour SIOV and there is no DOS in the world that will do that better. So I only use DOS-ses that respect the OS ROM SIOV. If the DOS forces me to use the SIOV of the DOS, then I won't use that dos. That Ramdisk on D6: and D7: in Qmeg is AWESOME. Qmeg also would let me set the fast and normal sio for every drive (just like the blackbox can). So I can set D1: on Fast, but D2: on NORMAL SIO if i want. With RealDos SIOV this will also not work.

 

I hear you thinking: well then RealDOS should detect Qmeg OS, so you are done. Yes and no. As soon as there will be a new release of Qmeg in the future, you have to adapt RealDos AGAIN so it will detect newer version of Qmeg. So here comes my wish again: please release an option to disable the own SIOV of RealDos forever. I will never use the SIOV of realdos, and I'm pretty sure more people would.

 

Mr. Atari asked me for help when he really did not want it so he could make a post in his private forum that I would not help. Then attacked me in is forum.

My Apologies go out to all to everyone and yes even You Mr.Atari.

Well that is very sportive from your side!+1 for that.

 

This is the last of my brain cells and time I am going to waste on none code producing threads.

I will try to help most anyone who is having Dos problems with their hardware. I have devoted many hours to RealDos so that it will work with new hardware. When I started back coding for RealDos it already did everything I needed it to for me.

 

OK I really hope you will build that 'disable SIOV' thing I'm hoping for (not only with that GTIA switch thing). It has more parts than just MyIDE like I described above in the QMEG part of this reply.

 

Do I care what Mr.Atari does with the My-IDE? NO! I have wasted two days of time I should have been coding.

 

Well I agree with you that certain responses I saw on this topic, were definately a waste of time yes ;)

 

I should remove all my-ide support from RealDos because it is none compliant design. Do Not Worry! I not going to remove the support because I know there are a lot of these devices around and the people who purchased them want to use them.

 

To be honest: your DOS does not need any MyIDE support at all. Serious! When it respects the OS-ROM SIOV, it will work. MyIDE is not that strange! It does not need a driver (it's all in the OS ROM) and it doesn't need an adaption of your DOS at all. Even in the newest version of the MyIDE ROM the needed percomm commands are operational, so even FMTDIR will work without adaption.

 

But... like I wrote before: that fmtdir option is very cool for Sio2IDE so please leave it in

 

They say there is always a silver lining. And there is in this one in this case. I had a reason the check out FlashJazzCats web site. Now he has some cool coding project going on. I gave a fully registered site license and he has access to the entire Source that makes up RealDos. If I have code that can help him he can have it.

 

FlashJazzCat is doing great things indeed. I gave him a Blue Peter Badge for that

 

Have a great Day!

Stephen J. Carden

 

Have a nice day yourself too Stephen.

[Stephen J. Carden]

The 130xe is a very hard machine to solder on. Do this MOD at your own risk! or have a very quilified person do it for you. Solder one Leg to pin 3 of the GTIA and the other leg to Pin 10 of the Gtia. When this switch is closed it will ALWAYS force RealDos into using the Rom Present Siov.

That is an interesting feature. I did not know about it (till now)... and I'm definitely going to try it. I have one more question about that: will this produce incompatibility on other parts, or is that just a never-used connection?

The Multiplexer has code in its slave rom that uses the same switch to turn off/on the Multiplexer Buss. Because there is no hardware mapped to pin 3 & 10 of the GTIA no commercial program for the xl/xe uses it.

True! And I'm happy with this possible workaround. My suggestion is still that an external configuration tool for realdos would be awesome. Dos 2.5 has such a thing too. A tool that let you 'tweak' settings like these. I understand completely you don't want to make that, because REALDOS is detecting everything by itself, and that is extermely cool. But even then... a tweak-tool would still an awesome extra.

The Code that manages the Siov routines cannot be removed from RealDos. Does not matter which Siov is needed the Siov cannot be READ ONLY MEMORY! What you are wanting would remove any way of wedging ramdisk code ahead of the Drive Siov. With RealDos build 30 it has a program called “RealSiov.com” that will allow the user to change the Siov on the fly without rebooting. I want to create for RealDos an external command.com, config.sys, and io.sys. But I am at a point that I cannot do it all. And there is a Real shortage of people who can write dos code. I will always need a bypass function on Siov selection. When I am able to move the command line interface out of the RealDos mem low and mem top will be better than ICD SDX 21 build. (gotta to be careful here. SDX is also being worked on and they are doing nice things) If anyone has ever ran BBS Express Pro you know about the overlay function. So Really I am writing Dos that will end up using all the cool things the BBS did. In the Process I should be able to free up OS ram space. Create a prompt function and other cool things.

I am trying to finish drawing the SmartOS up so I can get some boards made. I have been using SmartOS here since 1997. The SmartOS lets me change the OS from a binary file. I have already written support utility for the SmartOS into RealDos. I have written tools within the RealDos construction set so that you can backup your ramdisk and then reload it from a data file. There are ways to capture the OS in the computer so you do not need to de-solder the chip and then copy it. Ramdisk handler can be run in single or double density. My Ramdisk Handler can be put into sleep mode so that you can get to a drive. You can change the ramdisk drive number on the fly or by poking a value into $705.

If $705 = $00 Ramdisk not present

$705=$01 ramdisk is drive 1 $09 ramdisk is drive 9

$705=10 ramdisk in sleep mode.

Once you get your Ramdisk the way you want you can run a program call ram_cap and it will write a datafile for you. To reload your ramdisk just run ram_load dn:\path\filename.ext. I use this all the time with the Atari win 800 emulator. I set the emulator to have 576kb run ramdisk d9: /fd. Load the ramdisk the way I want. Run ram_cap dn:\path\filename.ext. edit my autoexec.bat to run ram_load after I set my ramdisk.

The code I am most proud of is my driver code. Each Drive registers its self within RealDos so you cannot run a driver twice like you could with the old ICD tdline. If you run my TDline2 twice all it does is update the time. Tdline2 looks for the ape, r-time 8, Multiplexer, or the SIO2USB (ABBUC Version). I even wrote a little text editor called editfile so you can change a configuration file if you like.

If you want to see the support for the SmartOS just run the program called OS_menu.com. The SmartOS configuration I am using right now has a programmable on the fly OS, 576k battery backed Ramdisk, and 2k by 8 Sram mapped into $d7xx.

In fmtdir.com when you get ready to hit the finial key to start the dir formatting if you hold down the select key it will force fmtdir to write out a 16meg partition out to the target drive. Maybe I should not have added that code but I did because of the number of people who have that device.

Thanks a lot for that. I know my SIO2IDE 3.3a also has problems with format commands, so that is also a pretty cool fix for Sio2IDE too. (On sio2IDE I use for the smaller images the format tool of BeWe Soft that has a 'build directory' option; that does not send a format command, but just writes a cleared directory)

Fmtdir.com just builds the directory structure. Except for the force 16 meg mode it uses percom to calculate the directory structure.

 

On the other hand -I already wrote that- it is Sijmens project, he is working on it, and he knows what's in his head. I know from experience it is hard (perhaps even impossible) to step into a project when you wasn't there from the start. And I think it is also difficult for him to merge other ideas with his. I respect that, and I really respect all the work he is doing for MyIDE. Even when I'm the only person in the world: I sure think the latest beta releases are (almost) superb.

I understand that Sijmens had an Atari project called My-IDE. However when he sold the first device, he became an Atari Vender. It is no longer his private hobby project it is a business and he should stand up and support his customers and what their needs are and not his. I think I read somewhere he uses My-Dos. His customers want RealDos and other Dos systems so if the Hardware can do it then he is going to have to support it. Bob Puff did not like SpartaDos, but his customers were buying Black boxes and he understood he had to support SpartaDos.

 

The My-IDE users should realize that the MY-IDE is a disk storage device and a custom OS

About 1 /10 of a second after RealDos starts to boot hold down the select key. This will bring up a menu that you can pick the Siov you want to use. Or if RealDos is loaded and is working and you want to change the Siov use ‘REALSIOV.COM” and you can change over to the OS Roms siov.

Send me a copy of the qmeg rom. You can do this from RealDos construction set

“D1:\real\os_cap d1:>qmeg.rom”

Like that you do not even have to remove the chip from your machine. Now Marius I am putting changes in RealDos for you. Are you going to register it?

If the Atari Users want RealDos to get better here is what I need. I need a rom Image so that I can start testing for it. Then I need to know what is the best Siov for that Rom.

US Doubler SIOV

SIOV from OS

ILS's Fast Mux SIOV

ILS's NEw Fast SIOV

Use the Siov From OS Rom

 

I started to write an Fmtdir.com that you could enter how many sectors were on the drive. I have a Black Box that has a SCSI to IDE bridge and then an IDE to Compact Flash adapter that works Real Well. The Black Box does not low format it so it does not know the total sector count. So I am going to need to write a special Directory formatter for it based on the size of the compact flash card. That will Build x number of 16 meg Partitions.

I use the Multiplexer OS all the time. So for me The MY-IDE Rom is of no use. FlashJazzCat sent me a copy of his driver to help me put a driver together for the Multiplexer OS. Thanks Jon!

Please do not e-mail me looking for a copy FlashJazzCat driver. I will not give you a copy of the source!

I do not know who one of them is but Two very Nice users have sent me a 130xe and an 800xl internal My. Atari designed My-IDE. Another user sent me His personal Tucker My-IDE Cart with 512 Transcend drive. Whether I am able to get them working or not I will return your Tucker MY-IDE cart.

I have played with the Tucker MY-IDE cart yet!

I hooked up the internal 130xe my-ide board. Attached a small 2.5 5volt hd and started to get some weird results. Hooked up the O-Scope and I am getting a ton of inducted noise on the buss. Anyone got any Ideas on how to quiet the buzz induction?

 

Registered RealDos users get the Own special ATR. Where all the support files have imbedded crc’s so you can detect if a file has been altered.

 

Here is a picture of My 576kxe with SmartOS, Battery backed ram. The other two pictures are of my 800xl 256k that I installed an sio2sd in.

Have a great Day!

Stephen J. Carden

[flashjazzcat]

When I am able to move the command line interface out of the RealDos mem low and mem top will be better than ICD SDX 21 build. (gotta to be careful here. SDX is also being worked on and they are doing nice things).

You'd better be wearing asbestos underpants if you're gonna go up against SDX.

 

If anyone has ever ran BBS Express Pro you know about the overlay function. So Really I am writing Dos that will end up using all the cool things the BBS did. In the Process I should be able to free up OS ram space. Create a prompt function and other cool things.

Freeing up the OS space is most desirable. RealDOS (and SpartaDOS 3.x) don't work with my word processor - which I use regularly - because they fight over the Shadow RAM, so a DOS which lives there makes no sense for me. However, I shoulder part of the blame for this myself, of course, since a version of The Last Word is required for those who prefer Sparta 3.x and RealDOS. However, that one will absolutely require a 130XE, so you can't win really.

 

Since you're discussing ideas for RealDOS enhancements, I'll drop a few ideas in:

 

1. The ability to read the path to the current working directory on a given drive, and display it as part of the prompt. Also an XIO function for this (if it's not already there: I apologize if it is). I find this essential for finding my way around complex folder hierarchies in SDX.

2. Some sort of provision for environment variables.

3. Quad density support.

 

They are just three of the things which make using SDX a no-brainer for me. Naturally, SDX will never be equalled by a DOS which loads from disk. The advantages of running from a cartridge, of having relocatable, dynamically-linking binaries, a symbol library, a virtual disk on ROM, bags of space for banked code, are unique to that delivery media. But the functionality listed above is doable, and I bet RealDOS users would welcome it.

 

While I'm about it, another thing which troubles me about Sparta 3.x and RealDOS is the speed of the disk directory listing to the screen. I reckon the formatted output function in RealDOS could do with an overhaul.

 

I don't say any of this to be critical - they are just suggestions from the point of view of another developer who loves to code up DOS stuff!

Edited April 16, 2011 by flashjazzcat

[Stephen J. Carden]

When I am able to move the command line interface out of the RealDos mem low and mem top will be better than ICD SDX 21 build. (gotta to be careful here. SDX is also being worked on and they are doing nice things).

You'd better be wearing asbestos underpants if you're gonna go up against SDX.

 

If anyone has ever ran BBS Express Pro you know about the overlay function. So Really I am writing Dos that will end up using all the cool things the BBS did. In the Process I should be able to free up OS ram space. Create a prompt function and other cool things.

Freeing up the OS space is most desirable. RealDOS (and SpartaDOS 3.x) don't work with my word processor - which I use regularly - because they fight over the Shadow RAM, so a DOS which lives there makes no sense for me. However, I shoulder part of the blame for this myself, of course, since a version of The Last Word is required for those who prefer Sparta 3.x and RealDOS. However, that one will absolutely require a 130XE, so you can't win really.

 

Since you're discussing ideas for RealDOS enhancements, I'll drop a few ideas in:

 

1. The ability to read the path to the current working directory on a given drive, and display it as part of the prompt. Also an XIO function for this (if it's not already there: I apologize if it is). I find this essential for finding my way around complex folder hierarchies in SDX.

2. Some sort of provision for environment variables.

3. Quad density support.

 

They are just three of the things which make using SDX a no-brainer for me. Naturally, SDX will never be equalled by a DOS which loads from disk. The advantages of running from a cartridge, of having relocatable, dynamically-linking binaries, a symbol library, a virtual disk on ROM, bags of space for banked code, are unique to that delivery media. But the functionality listed above is doable, and I bet RealDOS users would welcome it.

 

While I'm about it, another thing which troubles me about Sparta 3.x and RealDOS is the speed of the disk directory listing to the screen. I reckon the formatted output function in RealDOS could do with an overhaul.

 

I don't say any of this to be critical - they are just suggestions from the point of view of another developer who loves to code up DOS stuff!

Hi Jon, Everything you made note of is things I have plans to do.

 

Want to speed up the directory text driven to the screen? I have some code to do that too. Must of the support files have a high speed screen handler in them.. I do need to add them to the dosshell

 

Steve

[flashjazzcat]

Hi Jon, Everything you made note of is things I have plans to do.

 

Want to speed up the directory text driven to the screen? I have some code to do that too. Must of the support files have a high speed screen handler in them.. I do need to add them to the dosshell

That's great Stephen. I'm probably talking out of my ass most of the time, since I just haven't had time to give the registered version you kindly sent me proper analysis.

 

Regarding directory listing, however: I noticed a big jump in speed between Sparta 3.x and SDX, both using the default screen handler. To be honest, I don't know how much this is down to differences in the way the directory read routines are fetching data off the disk, or efficiency improvements in what constitutes SDX's PRINTF function. The Last Word uses a custom written PRINTF routine which works rather blazingly quickly with a software emulated 80 column display.

[sloopy]

The 130xe is a very hard machine to solder on. Do this MOD at your own risk! or have a very quilified person do it for you. Solder one Leg to pin 3 of the GTIA and the other leg to Pin 10 of the Gtia. When this switch is closed it will ALWAYS force RealDos into using the Rom Present Siov.

That is an interesting feature. I did not know about it (till now)... and I'm definitely going to try it. I have one more question about that: will this produce incompatibility on other parts, or is that just a never-used connection?

The Multiplexer has code in its slave rom that uses the same switch to turn off/on the Multiplexer Buss. Because there is no hardware mapped to pin 3 & 10 of the GTIA no commercial program for the xl/xe uses it.

True! And I'm happy with this possible workaround. My suggestion is still that an external configuration tool for realdos would be awesome. Dos 2.5 has such a thing too. A tool that let you 'tweak' settings like these. I understand completely you don't want to make that, because REALDOS is detecting everything by itself, and that is extermely cool. But even then... a tweak-tool would still an awesome extra.

 

Have a great Day!

Stephen J. Carden

*above snipped for brevity/clarity*

 

 

Or you can get a XE Game Machine, Pin 10 of GTIA is used to determine if the keyboard is attached ( pulled low for no KB, the KB pulls the line high) and if the kb isnt installed, the machine boots to Missle Command if a cart isnt installed... So installing the keyboard will pull Pin 10 high and you will be golden :')

 

but a 130XE/600XL/800XL you will have to make a switch...

 

sloopy.

[Stephen J. Carden]

Hi All,

 

I want to thank each and every one of you for the RealDos testing, Bug reports, suggestions and your time. I have a bunch of code I want to put in RealDos and the Support files. At this time I am going to focus on the Dos Core. I want to have a separate Command Line Processor. I want to boot of RealDos to be like this.

Computer Load the entire RealDos core into the computer’s memory.

Code move through re-locatable code into it memory based on the Atari Computer.

Set Dos up to run.

Load IO.sys

Load Siov.sys

Read Config.sys to load other drivers that are needed.

Read Command.com

Execute Autoexec.bat for setup.

Now RealDos is booted giving you a command line Prompt.

 

When you type a program into the cli you want to run. Command line takes the filename into a buffer. Saves out the command line interface into an overlay.dat file and runs the file in the buffer. When that files exits back to dos prompt the overlay vector will reload command line interface.

This is what I am going to work on right now. If you find a bug in the current build let me know and I will fix it post haste. Keep your RealDos suggestions coming!

When I was working on the ABBUC version of RealDos *WASEO* kept telling me my code was not working. Come to find out we had two different Atari Devices we were calling the same thing. So I am going to attach Small pictures of the Hardware that was used to test RealDos.

Thanks for your Time!

Stephen J. Carden

[Shawn Jefferson]

[/i]But yes - in some ways you're right. I've chosen to take issue with a situation which may be more circumstantial or implied than any kind of intentional or deliberate slight on yours truly.

 

I remember feeling the same way a bit when I started writing some tools for MyIDE, which I did almost from day one (I have an original Mr.Atari cart, a proto of the Steve Tucker design, and a production Tucker cart). I came to the conclusion that Mr.Atari wasn't actually trying to slight me or my software in any way, and in fact, he did provide me with a lot of help in the beginning, and added some things to the MyIDE OS that helped me later on too. I think he was more ambivalent about it, and didn't want to support someone else's software when people are asking questions about how to get things to work. There is also a language issue which I believe tends to get in the way of understanding the emotions behind the text.

 

Please don't give up on your SDX driver! I think that SDX should be supported via loadable driver, and NOT a modified OS. However, you will have to realize that some people will want to use their devices in both situations (the MyDOS/MyIDE way and with SDX). These people may not be users of your driver in the end.

 

If Sijmen is doing some work to support SDX, it may mean that you will have to change the driver to get in line with the "standard" (or not, it's up to you!). I had the same problem with the MyIDE Image Manager. I had image description support (done in my own way that had some definite advantages, IMO), and then Sijmen created his own system. I was forced to either conform or not. I conformed, even though it caused the image manager to perform slower than it used to (due to all the seeking to get the image names in the new Mr.Atari system.)

 

 

The hardware itself:

 

It's an extremely low-cost hard drive solution for the Atari. It's not a PBI device-it was designed to be simple, and lower-cost than other hard drive solutions for the Atari. For what it does and is, it does it pretty well, IMO. That said, opening it up to more programmers is only good for everyone, and I still hope to see that happen in a colloborative way.

 

Oh, and I had some trouble with finding hard drives that work with MyIDE, but I didn't go through more than 3 or so old drives. I tend to use a couple setups:

 

External 2.5" drive in an old Mac CD case with external/internal MyIDE.

CF card/IDE adapter with external MyIDE.

Transcend 512MB with external MyIDE.

 

No problems on any of my Atari setups, and others I've tried it on. One issue is power though... with so much stuff in my Atari, the PS needs to be rock-solid. Most of my old PS are the crappy ingot ones and they were always causing me problems. I have the "black brick" now, and everything just works. It's great having 2000+ disk images on a MyIDE hard drive that can be searched and loaded in 30 seconds or so.

Edited May 14, 2011 by Shawn Jefferson

[flashjazzcat]

[/i]But yes - in some ways you're right. I've chosen to take issue with a situation which may be more circumstantial or implied than any kind of intentional or deliberate slight on yours truly.

 

I remember feeling the same way a bit when I started writing some tools for MyIDE, which I did almost from day one (I have an original Mr.Atari cart, a proto of the Steve Tucker design, and a production Tucker cart). I came to the conclusion that Mr.Atari wasn't actually trying to slight me or my software in any way, and in fact, he did provide me with a lot of help in the beginning, and added some things to the MyIDE OS that helped me later on too. I think he was more ambivalent about it, and didn't want to support someone else's software when people are asking questions about how to get things to work. There is also a language issue which I believe tends to get in the way of understanding the emotions behind the text.

 

Please don't give up on your SDX driver! I think that SDX should be supported via loadable driver, and NOT a modified OS. However, you will have to realize that some people will want to use their devices in both situations (the MyDOS/MyIDE way and with SDX). These people may not be users of your driver in the end.

No question of giving up, since it's nearly finished now and has surpassed the original design goals. The original spec didn't include the ability to use the same partitioned media with both the custom OS and the driver. That was never the target "audience", so I'm fine with that.

 

If Sijmen is doing some work to support SDX, it may mean that you will have to change the driver to get in line with the "standard" (or not, it's up to you!). I had the same problem with the MyIDE Image Manager. I had image description support (done in my own way that had some definite advantages, IMO), and then Sijmen created his own system. I was forced to either conform or not. I conformed, even though it caused the image manager to perform slower than it used to (due to all the seeking to get the image names in the new Mr.Atari system.)

I've said it before: Sijmen didn't previously support SpartaDOS X, so there was effectively no SDX/MyIDE user base. That's something which was generated by the SDX driver. In all fairness, I think Sijmen should adopt the LBA partition table format that myself and Hias have designed if he wants compatibility. He, after all, is playing catch-up where SpartaDOS X is concerned. He suddenly found himself in a situation where quite a few people wanted to use his hardware with SDX, but they weren't using his software. He has identified a way of getting that user base back, but those users will have to ditch the SDX driver's LBA partition table and reformat their disks again. Whether people are prepared to do that just to have the convenience of booting the drive remains to be seen. The sensible person would have realized they'd come to the party too late and adopted the LBA partition table Hias and I designed.

 

In any case, I've spoken to Sijmen, and there are no hard feelings. However, I've explained this exact situation to him and it's up to him to take heed or not.

 

The hardware itself:

 

It's an extremely low-cost hard drive solution for the Atari. It's not a PBI device-it was designed to be simple, and lower-cost than other hard drive solutions for the Atari. For what it does and is, it does it pretty well, IMO. That said, opening it up to more programmers is only good for everyone, and I still hope to see that happen in a colloborative way.

 

Oh, and I had some trouble with finding hard drives that work with MyIDE, but I didn't go through more than 3 or so old drives. I tend to use a couple setups:

 

External 2.5" drive in an old Mac CD case with external/internal MyIDE.

CF card/IDE adapter with external MyIDE.

Transcend 512MB with external MyIDE.

 

No problems on any of my Atari setups, and others I've tried it on. One issue is power though... with so much stuff in my Atari, the PS needs to be rock-solid. Most of my old PS are the crappy ingot ones and they were always causing me problems. I have the "black brick" now, and everything just works. It's great having 2000+ disk images on a MyIDE hard drive that can be searched and loaded in 30 seconds or so.

With the old IDE only cart (by far the best), I went through about 4 CF cards till I found one which worked. I also had a couple of HDDs which worked.

 

As for the IDE/Flash cart - I think any sane person would have RMAd mine by now. I've done two mods (sanctioned by Steve Tucker), tried it on many different machines, and with an endless list of media. It still doesn't work.

Edited May 14, 2011 by flashjazzcat

[Shawn Jefferson]

The sensible person would have realized they'd come to the party too late and adopted the LBA partition table Hias and I designed.

 

In any case, I've spoken to Sijmen, and there are no hard feelings. However, I've explained this exact situation to him and it's up to him to take heed or not.

 

Personally, I think it makes sense to adopt your partition scheme too. For one thing, you and Hias did all the hard work of designing it already, it would simplify all the third party software out there, and re-unite the MyIDE user base. All good things in my view.

 

With the old IDE only cart (by far the best), I went through about 4 CF cards till I found one which worked. I also had a couple of HDDs which worked.

 

As for the IDE/Flash cart - I think any sane person would have RMAd mine by now. I've done two mods (sanctioned by Steve Tucker), tried it on many different machines, and with an endless list of media. It still doesn't work.

 

I realize that I must have been lucky with mine... I found an IDE drive that worked right away, and only had trouble with some old laptop hard drives, but wasn't sure if they even worked in a PC anyway. The first CF card and adapter I bought worked, with all my interfaces and all my computers (like I said I had some flakiness with one of my 800XLs, but that was power supply related.) That could be part of the reason I was so happy with the MyIDE system. The only issue I had with it was the incompatibility with SpartaDOS, but you are fixing that problem.

 

I guess if the new MyIDE OS supports your partition format, I'll have to rewrite my Image Manager, and trashcan the MyIDE Config program-your FDISK completely replaces that. Not sure if the user base (me mainly!) will care though. There's such good PC side tools now for MyIDE anyway.

[flashjazzcat]

Personally, I think it makes sense to adopt your partition scheme too. For one thing, you and Hias did all the hard work of designing it already, it would simplify all the third party software out there, and re-unite the MyIDE user base. All good things in my view.

Yep - the ball's in his court now. There was no LBA partition table format to conform to in the first place until we designed one, so to deviate from the "standard" we have created now is sheer pig-headedness.

 

I guess if the new MyIDE OS supports your partition format, I'll have to rewrite my Image Manager, and trashcan the MyIDE Config program-your FDISK completely replaces that. Not sure if the user base (me mainly!) will care though. There's such good PC side tools now for MyIDE anyway.

Personally, I like setting up partitions on the Atari. MyIDETool and MyIDE Driver Manager are great for making PC backups, etc.

Edited May 18, 2011 by flashjazzcat

[BillC]

Afaik,

 

Turbo-Basic 400/800 and Frost Basic (which are actually the same) both do not use the RAM under the OS, but they both come as one file named "DOS.SYS". And this is a DOS 2.x DOS.SYS plus the Turbo-Basic appended to it (length approx. 180 sectors). So chances to use this version of Turbo-Basic with Real-DOS are zero...

 

BUT: Tom Hunt once created a pure/patched file version of this Turbo-Basic (without DOS 2.x DOS.SYS) and named it Turbo-Basic 3.2q. This is the file you should be searching for, because this file works with SpartaDOS and as long as it is not absolutely limited to SpartaDOS 3.2d, I guess it will also work with Real-DOS. However, if the TB32q program checks for SpartaDOS version 3.2d you can try to fool it, running a program first that sets a fake version number (and so let the TB program think it is running under Sparta 3.2d), e.g. FAKER.COM or SETVER.COM. But this will not always work...

 

Just try it out (I never did, since I don`t use any SpartaDOS versions)... -Andreas Koch.

 

 

I have Tom Hunts phone number I will give him a call and see what he can tell me about TB and SpartaDos. Thanks for the tip!

 

Steve

I know this response is a little late, but I just came across an ATR called TB32Q on pigwa.net

[flashjazzcat]

Personally, I think it makes sense to adopt your partition scheme too. For one thing, you and Hias did all the hard work of designing it already, it would simplify all the third party software out there, and re-unite the MyIDE user base. All good things in my view.

Yep - the ball's in his court now. There was no LBA partition table format to conform to in the first place until we designed one, so to deviate from the "standard" we have created now is sheer pig-headedness.

Of course I take this back now... Sijmen should use the APT partition table design, which has ample provision for floppy disk imaging - especially in a MyIDE BIOS written for the SIDE hardware (which would allow SIDE users to boot with MyDOS / Sparta 3.x without compromising compatibility with the existing partitioning tools). I can't be bothered to put the SIDE APT driver in ROM. Anyone who did so would command my instant admiration and respect.