27 Jul
1999
27 Jul
'99
8:45 a.m.
Looking at the
BIOS level implementation, it
seems that CP/M doesn't have a native format
command?
That final statement sums it up. CP/M was not 'hardware aware' beyond the
very basics needed to read/write data to an existing file system. Keep in mind that in the time of CP/M, direct access
to the hardware was a
common thing the neither the operating system or the hardware attempted to
prevent this. ...with the occasional exception of the disk controller
This whas discouraged as it made for non portable software. also due to
the limits of 8080/z80 there was little you can do to prevent direct
hardware access (no prived instructions in the cpu or hardware to enforce
it).
Allison