11 May
2008
11 May
'08
12:23 p.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
Well I wasn't talking about a diskless system...only one in which
CP/M itself was in ROM.
I dunno
Chuck...the only reason more CP/M systems weren't ROM-
resident back in the day was due to convention, not technical
restrictions. I (personally) don't think there's anything
non-"period" about ROM-ing CP/M.
It's not the ROM-ing of CP/M that disturbs me, but rather the
"disklessness" of the thing. Wasn't the whole idea of CP/M
originally to give you something to manage files on your floppy
drives? I mean, that's what the bulk of the code in CP/M is for--
heaven knows, the support for other I/O is nothing to write home
about.
If one wants to enjoy a "vintage" experience, what sense is there in
being diskless? At any rate, even something as simple as a WD1770-
type controller added to the design would give that capability with a
minimum of support "glue".
Alternatively, one could stay diskless and add a sound-effects module
to emulate the "chunk" and "grrr" of a head-load and seek--and the
"thunk-click" of a drive door being opened and a floppy inserted. I still don't have the hang of this
"vintage" thing yet, probably
because I'm vintage myself. Please forgive my density...
I often suffer from the same problem. I think very few of us, even
here, actually used stuff like CP/M and PDP-11s when they were
considered current technology.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL