Diamond Operating System

[Gury]

Diamond Operating System by Reeve Software was good attempt to come close what C64 had for graphical DOS interface. Diamond seemed to become good environment for new Atari 8-bit software with great word processing and graphics paint capabilities. Too bad it was dropped.

 

http://www.atarimagazines.com/v8n2/diamondsystem.html

http://www.atarimagazines.com/v9n1/interview.html

 

Greetz,

Gury

[Mindfield]

I tried Diamond GOS back in the day. I must say it was a bit of a cool idea, but it was relatively limited in its capabilities and really needed a 128k machine to be of any use.

 

I stuck with SpartaDOS X. I loved SpartaDOS X.

[DracIsBack]

I thought DIAMOND GOS was cool too (I rented it from the local user group for a month) but not all that practical. There wasn't really a lot of software for it ... I remember a word processor, a paint program and a desktop publishing type program. Any others?

[Goochman]

I have a Diamond GOS 2.0 cart - I was hoping to get one of the HD solutions to work with it so I could use my mouse to run software - alas, no go - and opening a drive window with more than 16 entires takes a long time so its not practical.

 

If more progs couldve been written for it then it wouldve been great - alas no

[areeve]

For those interested, Diamond GOS was 'dropped' when ICD informed us that we had one, last chance to order their cartridges. Being dependent on their platform and not loaded with cash to purchase a large quantity of cartridges made for one quick decision...

 

I did read in another post yesterday, and I can't find said post for the life of me, where someone claimed Atari didn't bundle it with their systems because we (Reeve Software) wanted too much money. Perhaps I minterpreted that given Shelley Merril's involvement in the whole picture, but Atari could have had Diamond GOS to bundle with their systems for pretty close to nothing. Atari NEVER pursued such an option. I'm not taking a stance on whether that was good or bad for them, but it does make it clear that they didn't want to sell more Atari 8-bit computers... they wanted to sell Atari ST computers.

 

I was about 19 at the time and not quite as wise to the ways of the world :-)

 

- Alan

[Gury]

Hello, Alan!

 

There is another link about Diamond GOS: http://www.atarimuseum.com/articles/diamondgos.html, the list of products was very promising.

 

Anyway, you rocked with News Station, not bad for its time.

 

Greetz

[MEtalGuy66]

I'd sure love to clone those and make them available for the cheapest possible price. I wonder if ICD still reserves the rights to it.

 

ATARIMAX clones BASIC XE and sells it on EBAY, so...

[mos6507]

I'd sure love to clone those and make them available for the cheapest possible price. I wonder if ICD still reserves the rights to it.

 

ATARIMAX clones BASIC XE and sells it on EBAY, so...

1022353[/snapback]

 

There is no more ICD. You should refer to this thread for info on the guy who bought out the rights:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=70698

 

I'd say as a result of all this that the ICD stuff is in virtual public domain since the rights-holder is 'on-the-lam'.

[walter_J64bit]

I have a Diamond GOS 2.0 cart - I was hoping to get one of the HD solutions to work with it so I could use my mouse to run software - alas, no go - and opening a drive window with more than 16 entires takes a long time so its not practical.

 

If more progs couldve been written for it then it wouldve been great - alas no

933982[/snapback]

Do want your Diamond GOS 2.0 cart? I would love to take your hands.

[doctorclu]

For those interested, Diamond GOS was 'dropped' when ICD informed us that we had one, last chance to order their cartridges. Being dependent on their platform and not loaded with cash to purchase a large quantity of cartridges made for one quick decision...

 

I did read in another post yesterday, and I can't find said post for the life of me, where someone claimed Atari didn't bundle it with their systems because we (Reeve Software) wanted too much money. Perhaps I minterpreted that given Shelley Merril's involvement in the whole picture, but Atari could have had Diamond GOS to bundle with their systems for pretty close to nothing. Atari NEVER pursued such an option. I'm not taking a stance on whether that was good or bad for them, but it does make it clear that they didn't want to sell more Atari 8-bit computers... they wanted to sell Atari ST computers.

 

I was about 19 at the time and not quite as wise to the ways of the world :-)

 

- Alan

1022345[/snapback]

 

Thanks for the insite on this.

 

Strikes me as a good idea, but being a bit fan of the 8-bits, if I want a graphical interface I hace IBM based and Macintosh computers for that.

 

The 8-bit interface of text is a nice striking difference to what I have to work with.

 

That said, I was really looking forward to trying to trying Tom Hunt's ATOS graphical interface for the 8-bit. But his site seems to be down. (Picture of ATOS attached.)

Edited February 22, 2006 by doctorclu

[Gunstar]

For those interested, Diamond GOS was 'dropped' when ICD informed us that we had one, last chance to order their cartridges. Being dependent on their platform and not loaded with cash to purchase a large quantity of cartridges made for one quick decision...

 

I did read in another post yesterday, and I can't find said post for the life of me, where someone claimed Atari didn't bundle it with their systems because we (Reeve Software) wanted too much money. Perhaps I minterpreted that given Shelley Merril's involvement in the whole picture, but Atari could have had Diamond GOS to bundle with their systems for pretty close to nothing. Atari NEVER pursued such an option. I'm not taking a stance on whether that was good or bad for them, but it does make it clear that they didn't want to sell more Atari 8-bit computers... they wanted to sell Atari ST computers.

 

I was about 19 at the time and not quite as wise to the ways of the world :-)

 

- Alan

1022345[/snapback]

 

Thanks for the insite on this.

 

Strikes me as a good idea, but being a bit fan of the 8-bits, if I want a graphical interface I hace IBM based and Macintosh computers for that.

 

The 8-bit interface of text is a nice striking difference to what I have to work with.

 

That said, I was really looking forward to trying to trying Tom Hunt's ATOS graphical interface for the 8-bit. But his site seems to be down. (Picture of ATOS attached.)

1022574[/snapback]

I love ATOS, and there is another site where you can download it, I'll post it later when I'm at home and have the bookmark. It's everything I'd hoped Diamond was back in the day, I use to have Diamond, lost it someplace, anyway, it takes an HD or SIO2PC to run ATOS though, since it takes up 16MB of disk space, so there was little chance that if ATOS had come out back in the day that it would have been much different from Diamond.

[ijor]

I'd sure love to clone those and make them available for the cheapest possible price. I wonder if ICD still reserves the rights to it.

 

ATARIMAX clones BASIC XE and sells it on EBAY, so...

 

There is no more ICD ... I'd say as a result of all this that the ICD stuff is in virtual public domain since the rights-holder is 'on-the-lam'.

 

Please be careful with these kind of statements. This is not exact.

 

A few months ago the MAC/65 author described some legal details about OSS software that weren't previously known (at least not for me). Remember that BXE, MAC/65 and Action were OSS products. They (OSS) didn't sell whole rights to ICD in the first place. They just gave them limited permission for specific versions. I don't remember the exact terms he posted. You should be able to find his posts in the USENET newsgroup.

 

In any case, he specifically noted that MAC/65 is not in the public domain. And kindly asked to not remove the copyright notice. He didn't explicitely gave any permission for public distribution, but you might imply it because he never compalined about that.

 

He is not the copyright holder for the other OSS products. But apparently the situation is more or less the same for all of them.

[Gunstar]

Diamond Operating System by Reeve Software was good attempt to come close what C64 had for graphical DOS interface. Diamond seemed to become good environment for new Atari 8-bit software with great word processing and graphics paint capabilities. Too bad it was dropped.

 

http://www.atarimagazines.com/v8n2/diamondsystem.html

http://www.atarimagazines.com/v9n1/interview.html

 

Greetz,

Gury

932488[/snapback]

 

The problem was that it came along too late in the Atari 8-bit's lifespan. If it had been released a couple years earlier, it might have gotten some support from 3rd parties or even Atari, back when Atari was still actively developing for the XE, with releases like the XEP80. IIRC the first Diamond disk version came out around '89 and then the cartridge a year or so later. By then, not only was the 8-bit finished commerically, but The ST was waining quickly itself. GEOS came out years earlier and was fully supported by Commodore and therefore 3rd parties too. Diamond could have been all GEOS was under similiar circumstances (at least the cartridge version). I ordered Daimond after seeing an ad for it in Antic, but it wasn't until Antic's last, or close too last edition that Diamond got any coverage in it. I still have the mag, and it was a shred of it's former self about a tenth it's original length, in the issue That Alan&Reevsoft is interviewed. Soon after, Antic became a section in th ST's Start magazine ans about six months after that, Start stopped publication. It was just the end of everything for the 8&16-bit lines(in the U.S.A) with the failing TT, under (non) supported Falcon and last gamble with the Jaguar. Diamond never had a chance. Of course, if Alan could make it available again today, (Alan?) with the current community on the net, I think it could fair much better with homebrew Diamond App support. I'd by an updated or even re-release of the final version.

 

I bought the first cartridge version of diamond, then upgraded to 2.0 or 3.0(?) chip. The desktop itself was great and really was like GEM. I also had Diamondwrite and Paint, I really liked Paint, but both programs seemed to be very buggy, Paint wasn't as bad as write though, write couldn't keep up with my typing (only about 20-25 WPM at the time) and would fall behind and crash, and even if I slowed down, it tended to crash on me quite often. I wanted the other Diamond programs like IIRC a database and a desktop publisher, but never did get them.

 

It was actually quite amazing (Diamond) when you consider it had one 19 year-old man behind it and GEOS had an entire company behind it's development and Commodore for support.

Edited February 23, 2006 by Gunstar

[Gury]

Another interview with Alan about Diamond GOS:

http://www.page6.org/pd_lib/special/pd_ds072.htm

http://www.page6.org/pd_lib/special/pd_ds073.htm

 

Check documents in ATR image disks.

[Curt Vendel]

Oh man...

 

Shelly Merrill... what a debacle with those guys. Electronic Cookbook was a neat project, but Shelly was playing both sides of the fence with Alan's Diamond GOS and Steve's TCS (Total Control Systems) desktop, Steve promised quite a bit in his OS, but other then the ASCII Gr.0 version, his never materialized in physical form.

 

I remember calling Alan the day of or after his meeting with the Tramiels, and as he said above, they just weren't interested in continuing the 8bit line, or more importantly giving the 8bit line an OS which essentially looked exactly like the color lo-res version of the ST computers TOS.

 

I gave Ken Van Mersbergen my set of GOS disks to make ATR's out of, I need to have him send them back, I have all of the rev's of Diamond Write, Diamond Paint and also Diamond Develop too. Alan sent me pretty much every version he had so I could beat test and give him feedback. I have the last version of Diamond OS rom, I think it was 2.1

 

 

Curt

 

 

Another interview with Alan about Diamond GOS:

http://www.page6.org/pd_lib/special/pd_ds072.htm

http://www.page6.org/pd_lib/special/pd_ds073.htm

 

Check documents in ATR image disks.

1022987[/snapback]

[doctorclu]

I love ATOS, and there is another site where you can download it, I'll post it later when I'm at home and have the bookmark. It's everything I'd hoped Diamond was back in the day, I use to have Diamond, lost it someplace, anyway, it takes an HD or SIO2PC to run ATOS though, since it takes up 16MB of disk space, so there was little chance that if ATOS had come out back in the day that it would have been much different from Diamond.

1022679[/snapback]

 

Could you please post that link? And where in the hell is Tom Hunt anyway?

[Gunstar]

I love ATOS, and there is another site where you can download it, I'll post it later when I'm at home and have the bookmark. It's everything I'd hoped Diamond was back in the day, I use to have Diamond, lost it someplace, anyway, it takes an HD or SIO2PC to run ATOS though, since it takes up 16MB of disk space, so there was little chance that if ATOS had come out back in the day that it would have been much different from Diamond.

1022679[/snapback]

 

Could you please post that link? And where in the hell is Tom Hunt anyway?

1023069[/snapback]

 

Below is the ATOS image. There is a site on the net where it can still be downloaded, but I've lost the bookmark apparently.

 

Also, here is a link to the BOSS GUI/desktop which is another alternative that will run on simpler Atari setups. I haven't checked out BOSS myself yet, but I may end up using it myself with my 'MyIDE' HD setup becuase MyIDE is designed around MyDOS and ATOS is designed around SpartaDOS, and it's apparently difficult to get ATOS running with SpartaDOS and the MyIDE (though not impossible). I'm guessing that BOSS is MyDOS compatible: http://www.12move.de/home/atarixle/start.htm

 

There is also a link to the ATOS pages in the above site; go to downloads and under the different versions of BOSS is the link to ATOS. Of course here is the ATOS direct link, there's still a lot of important info there, and I think the manuals, but I couldn't get it to download the ATOS image: http://cth.dtdns.net/atos/index.html

 

Edit: I was just at the ATOS site again, and attempted to download the image and wallpapers&icons. It refused connection again at first, but I was using a download accelerator program. I shut it off and tried it with the regular Explorer downloader and it works fine. So I think some people that were attempting to download with a seperate download program had problems. So there it is...kind of academic with the attached .zip file though.

atos.zip

Edited February 24, 2006 by Gunstar

[Goochman]

I think the BOSS desktop uses some of the memory locations that MyIDE needs - therefore it wont work with it. I think I tried many moons ago when using the external cart version.

 

Some folks got ATOS working but had corruption issues with the 3.x MyIDE OS. MyIDE 4.2 is available now and it should work better - One of these days I will try

[doctorclu]

I think the BOSS desktop uses some of the memory locations that MyIDE needs - therefore it wont work with it.  I think I tried many moons ago when using the external cart version.

 

Some folks got ATOS working but had corruption issues with the 3.x MyIDE OS.  MyIDE 4.2 is available now and it should work better - One of these days I will try

1023573[/snapback]

 

MyIde 4.2? Really, where can I find this?

[Goochman]

Atarimax Forums at Classics site.

[doctorclu]

There is also a link to the ATOS pages in the above site; go to downloads and under the different versions of BOSS is the link to ATOS. Of course here is the ATOS direct link, there's still a lot of important info there, and I think the manuals, but I couldn't get it to download the ATOS image: http://cth.dtdns.net/atos/index.html

 

1023456[/snapback]

 

Thanks! Yeh got ATOS working on my XL OS enabled 800. Loaded up, spoke to me at the introduction, and came up to a neat screen with wolves as a backdrop and the options "Navigate", "Windows", and "Configure".

 

But how do you this from here? Keyboard? Joystick? An ST Mouse?

 

Bit confused using a graphical shell on a computer that does not normally have a graphical shell.

[Gunstar]

There is also a link to the ATOS pages in the above site; go to downloads and under the different versions of BOSS is the link to ATOS. Of course here is the ATOS direct link, there's still a lot of important info there, and I think the manuals, but I couldn't get it to download the ATOS image: http://cth.dtdns.net/atos/index.html

 

1023456[/snapback]

 

Thanks! Yeh got ATOS working on my XL OS enabled 800. Loaded up, spoke to me at the introduction, and came up to a neat screen with wolves as a backdrop and the options "Navigate", "Windows", and "Configure".

 

But how do you this from here? Keyboard? Joystick? An ST Mouse?

 

Bit confused using a graphical shell on a computer that does not normally have a graphical shell.

1024153[/snapback]

First off, the control is from port 2, to keep port 1 open for games and stuff. I'm pretty sure the default control is a joystick. you can use a trackball, ST or Amiga mice, and several other input devices IIRC, the full manual is available for download or viewing at the ATOS site, it has a nice tutorial to lead you through it all. It really quite simple to get started, and advanced enough for you to customize it to suit your needs. Programs clicked on through windows have to be installed into ATOS, but if you click on the navigator icon, it opens up directory menu window of all your drives and you just click on the drive and it lists the contents, click on the file to load, when you leave any regular atari program after loading it this way in ATOS, you are taken right back to the desktop. There are a TON of applications, utilities and music players, etc. installed in ATOS already, so there's a lot to check out in windows too (the calculator icon is NOT a calculator though, the icon is mis-designated).

[doctorclu]

First off, the control is from port 2, to keep port 1 open for games and stuff. I'm pretty sure the default control is a joystick. you can use a trackball, ST or Amiga mice, and several other input devices IIRC, the full manual is available for download or viewing at the ATOS site, it has a nice tutorial to lead you through it all. It really quite simple to get started, and advanced enough for you to customize it to suit your needs....

1024160[/snapback]

 

Yeh managed to figure this out before I read your message... ST mouse in joystick port 2 moved this light blue blurry arrow around the screen. From there it is point and click and really looks like NeoDesk (ST) in high resolution black and white, which is really amazing to me.

 

But SWEET LORD this is slow over SIO2PC (normal speed.. don't have ultraspeed on the SIO2OSX just yet).

 

Goes something like this...

 

Right now I have the directory open, looking at some nice pictures. And they look awesome, don't get me wrong. Ok, I am going to view one of the pictures entitled "Saturn.mic" and time how long this takes to load... Click... 47 seconds later the picture is loaded.

 

A bit of a drugery getting through the pictures, but I KNOW this will be awesome if I can get this to work with the speed of a MyIde drive.

[Gunstar]

First off, the control is from port 2, to keep port 1 open for games and stuff. I'm pretty sure the default control is a joystick. you can use a trackball, ST or Amiga mice, and several other input devices IIRC, the full manual is available for download or viewing at the ATOS site, it has a nice tutorial to lead you through it all. It really quite simple to get started, and advanced enough for you to customize it to suit your needs....

1024160[/snapback]

 

Yeh managed to figure this out before I read your message... ST mouse in joystick port 2 moved this light blue blurry arrow around the screen. From there it is point and click and really looks like NeoDesk (ST) in high resolution black and white, which is really amazing to me.

 

But SWEET LORD this is slow over SIO2PC (normal speed.. don't have ultraspeed on the SIO2OSX just yet).

 

Goes something like this...

 

Right now I have the directory open, looking at some nice pictures. And they look awesome, don't get me wrong. Ok, I am going to view one of the pictures entitled "Saturn.mic" and time how long this takes to load... Click... 47 seconds later the picture is loaded.

 

A bit of a drugery getting through the pictures, but I KNOW this will be awesome if I can get this to work with the speed of a MyIde drive.

1024174[/snapback]

It is a lot better with A.P.E Warp+ at in ultraspeed mode, but even then it's just a bit slow. It really is mad for an HD setup, which is why I was hoping to get it working with MyIDE, but the MyIDE OS has to be the internal version, not on flashcart. that's why I WAS thinking of BOSS for the MyIDE on my XE, and ATOS with ultraspeed A.P.E. But since it's been said that BOSS is also incompatible with Mydos, I don't know what to do now. I can do it through my XL becuase I have the 32-in-1 OS internal, but I really wanted the HD for the XE, with ATOS. It's a shame that MyIDE wasn't designed around SpartaDOS which is much more compatible with different setups and GUI's, becuase it has so many versions for different needs and is much more accessible for customization to make things work. I'm hoping for better luck with the new MyIDE 4.2, but I don't think there is a flash version yet, just versions for burning to eproms. I think I would have just installed the internal MyIDE version if I had known about the added incompatabilities of the external MyIDE+flash version.

[doctorclu]

It is a lot better with A.P.E Warp+ at in ultraspeed mode, but even then it's just a bit slow. It really is mad for an HD setup, which is why I was hoping to get it working with MyIDE, but the MyIDE OS has to be the internal version, not on flashcart. that's why I WAS thinking of BOSS for the MyIDE on my XE, and ATOS with ultraspeed A.P.E. But since it's been said that BOSS is also incompatible with Mydos, I don't know what to do now. I can do it through my XL becuase I have the 32-in-1 OS internal, but I really wanted the HD for the XE, with ATOS. It's a shame that MyIDE wasn't designed around SpartaDOS which is much more compatible with different setups and GUI's, becuase it has so many versions for different needs and is much more accessible for customization to make things work. I'm hoping for better luck with the new MyIDE 4.2, but I don't think there is a flash version yet, just versions for burning to eproms. I think I would have just installed the internal MyIDE version if I had known about the added incompatabilities of the external MyIDE+flash version.

1024178[/snapback]

 

I'm a bit confused here.

 

The 1 mb flash MyIde will not work with ATOS? Why is that?

 

And the internal version does work?

 

I believe I have heard of adjustments that have been made to let SpartaDos work with MyIde. Haven't tinkered much with SpartaDos since I just entered the XL world fairly recently and only SpartaDos 1.1 worked on the normal beige 800.

 

Anywho, currently 1 mb flash MyIde will not work with SpartaDos/ATOS, but internal version will?