Newsgroups: comp.os.os9
Date: Thu,  5 Nov 1992 09:24:09 -0500 
From: "Russell E. Hoffman, II" <rh2y+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Information on OSK

Folks, here is the 4th FAQ edition, which was posted some months ago. Please
inform me of changes or additions. Thanks.

----

Well, time for the fourth revision of the OS9/68000 faq. A few
changes, mostly to update addresses and such. Also, a slight format
change: Addresses will be referenced by number (e.g. [1]) and the
address will be listed at the bottom of the file. This (hopefully)
will make for easier reading. 
	In addition, a complete list of the questions answered here is
given at the top of the file. Upon compiling the faq, this time, I
noticed that there aren't many questions answered here. If you feel
there is a question often asked that you don't see answered here, let
me know. Supply the answer, also, if you can; otherwise I'll see if I
can't track it down.

Again, if there are any additions, corrections, suggestions, comments,
flames, or contributions, please respond in kind to me, Russell
Hoffman, rh2y+@andrew.cmu.edu
                              
----------[cut here]----------
         The New and Improved OS9 Frequently-Asked Questions List

 			   Updated 9/4/92

-------------- Section One: List of answered questions ---------------
Q: What is OS9?  
Q: What is OSK?
Q: Where can I get OS9?
Q: What machines run OS9?
Q: Where do I get OS9/68000 for the Macintosh?
Q: Where do I get OS9/68000 for the Commodore Amiga?
Q: Where do I get OS9/68000 for the Atari ST?
Q: What is OS-9000?
Q: What software is available for OS9?
Q: Where can I get public-domain/shareware/freeware software for OS9?
Q: What is the TOP package? 
Q: Are there alternative shells for OS9? 
Q: Can one read/write MS-DOS format disks under OS9?
Q: What sorts of communications software is available?
Q: What about usenet and news?
Q: Is gcc available for OS9?
Q: Can I run X11 on OS9?
Q: What other graphics alternatives are there?
Q: What is a Real Time system?
Q: Does OS9 support multiple threads within a program?

--------------- Section Two: Q & A ---------------------

Q: What is OS9?  

A: OS9 is a real-time, multiuser, multitasking operating system
developed by Microware Systems Corporation.  It was originally
developed for the 6809 microprocessor, in a joint effort between
Microware and Motorola.  The original Level I 6809 OS9 OS was capable
of addressing 64 kilobytes of memory.  The Level II 6809 OS9 took
advantage of dynamic address translation hardware, and allowed a
mapped address space of one megabyte on most systems, and up to two
megabytes on others, most notably the Tandy Color Computer III. 
	In the 1980's, Microware ported OS9 to the 68000 family of
microprocessors, creating OS9/68000.  Code is mostly portable from
OS9/6809 to OS9/68000 at the high-level-language source code level.
Code is compatible within either OS9/6809 or OS9/68000 at the binary
level. 
	OS9/68000 provides synchronization and mutual exclusion
primitives in the form of events, which are similar to semaphores. It
also allows communication between processes in the form of named and
unnamed pipes, as well as shared memory in the form of data modules.
	OS9 is modular, allowing new devices to be added to the system
simply by writing new device drivers, or if a similar device already
exists, by simply creating a new device descriptor. All i/o devices
can be treated as files, which unifies the i/o system. In addition,
the kernel and all user programs are ROMable. Thus, OS9 can run on any
680x0 based hardware platform from simple diskless embedded control
systems to large multiuser minicomputers.

Q: What is OSK?

A: OSK is an abbreviation for OS9/68000. This is probably due to the
common abbreviation '68k' for the 68000 microprocessor. Also sometimes
called OS9/68k.

Q: Where can I get OS9?

A: Generally the hardware vendor will ship a version of OS9 with the
product upon which OS9 is intended to be run.  Alternatively, OS9 can
be purchased from Microware [1] itself, for certain hardware platforms.
In addition, several software vendors sell customized and enhanced OS9
packages.  Ultrascience [2] and ELSOFT AG [3] are examples of such vendors.
Note that ELSOFT is in Switzerland.

Q: What machines run OS9?

A: OS9/6809 runs on a variety of platforms, perhaps the most (in)famous
being the Tandy Color Computer.  Other systems include the SWTPC
SCB-69, the Gimix 6809, Smoke Signal Broadcasting's Chieftain 6809,
FHL's TC09, the Febe, and many others, most of which are SS-50 bus
machines. Note that OS9/6809 is no longer supported by Microware, but
many user groups, BBSes, and a handful of FTP sites offer help and
maintain software collections for OS9/6809.
	 OS9/68000 runs on quite a multitude of machines, including a variety
of systems from Hazelwood (such as the UniQuad I and II), the Gimix
Micro-20, the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Apple Macintosh, IMS MM/1,
FHL TC-70, and a large number of 680x0-based VME systems, manufactured
by such companies as Radstone Technology, Motorola, Heurikon, Inducom,
Force, Mizar, and others.  Gespac also makes a large number of platforms
based on their G-64 and G-96 bus. 

Q: Where do I get OS9/68000 for the Macintosh?

A: Ultrascience [2] (A division of Gibbs Laboratories) makes a version of
OS9/68000 for the Macintosh. According to their literature, it even allows
the Macintosh operating system to run as a process under OS9. 

Q: Where do I get OS9/68000 for the Commodore Amiga?

A: Digby Tarvin [4] , in Australia, has a port of OS9/68000 for the Amiga,
which cost approximately $600 US.

Q: Where do I get OS9/68000 for the Atari ST?

A: Cumana [5] and Dr. Keil [6] offer two different ports of OS9 to the ST.

Q: What is OS-9000?

A: OS-9000 is a portable version of OS9, written primarily in C.  It can
potentially run on any 68020 or higher 680x0 family member, and any
80386sx or higher 80x86 member.  Code is portable across OS-9000 platforms
at the source level.  Theoretically, OS-9000 can be ported to any modern
computer architecture, though 680x0 and 80x86 are the only supported
microprocessor families at present. 

Q: What software is available for OS9?

A: Nearly any user application can be found either commercially or in
the public domain/shareware/freeware.  Many word-processor,
spreadsheets, databases, and time management software packages are
available from a variety of vendors.  A list of much of the available
commercial software is available from Microware.  They publish the
"OS9 Sourcebook", a listing of hardware and software vendors who sell
both 6809 and 68000 software and hardware.  It is advisable to contact
the individual companies listed in the Sourcebook and request a recent
catalog, as the information in the Sourcebook is a tad outdated.
Microware's quarterly magazine Pipelines also carries new product
announcements. 

Q: Where can I get public-domain/shareware/freeware software for OS9?

A: There are many private bulletin boards around.  Hopefully, someone
will be publishing a list of all known BBSes which have OS9 software. 
In addition, there is the Princeton Listserver, which acts as a mailing
server that will mail requested software.  To begin using the
Listserver, send electronic mail to LISTSERV@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU, with
the single line

HELP

in your message. Also, the OS-9 User's Group [7] maintains a library
of public domain sofwtare, as well as distributes a newsletter.
Finally, there are a few anonymous FTP servers worldwide with OS9
software on them. 

Site				Operator	IP address
------------------		------------	-------------
hermit.cs.wisc.edu		CLOSED ---- moved to cabrales.cs.wisc.edu
cabrales.cs.wisc.edu		Jim Pruyne	128.105.2.70
wuarchive.wustl.edu		Steve Wegert  	128.252.135.4
lucy.ifi.unibas.ch		Marc Balmer	131.152.81.1

Don't forget the often overlooked mailserver on cabrales.  The e-mail address
is os9archive@cabrales.cs.wisc.edu, and a message with "help" as the body will
return some help text. This provides a way for those without FTP
access to snarf stuff from cabrales via mail.

Cabrales contains mostly OS9/68000 software, including the complete TOP
package, many EFFO disks, GCC and G++, (and many other GNU products),
ka9q, TeX, and quite a bit of 6809 software. 

Wuarchive has mostly 6809 OS9 software; Lucy is meant to be a european
duplicate of cabrales.

Q: What is the TOP package? 

A: TOP is an acronym for "The OS9 Project".  It is a collection of
OS9/68000 software developed primarily in Germany.  Much of it seems to
be an attempt to make OS9 a little more UNIX-like.  Many standard unix
utilities are provided, as well as a complete UUCP mail implementation,
and a more secure password file and login program.  Many traditional
unix games are also provided.  The total package consumes approximately
16 MB of disk space, though much of this is source code. 

Q: Are there alternative shells for OS9? 

A: Yes, there are. Microware sells mshell, an enhanced shell. In
addition, there are several public domain shells available. The most
notable of which is the Bourne shell, sh, available in the TOP package
(OS9/68000). It supports aliasing, command-line editing, history,
environment variable replacement, shell scripting, the `command`
operator (which uses the output of the command as arguments to the
called program), and a startup file. A PD version of ksh is available
on cabrales.
	For OS9/6809, there is Shell+ and of course if you have a
Color Computer, there is always Gshell, a graphical shell.

Q: Can one read/write MS-DOS format disks under OS9?

A: Yes, there are several public-domain and commercially avaliable
utilities to accomplish this task, for both OS9/6809 and OSK. One of
the more interesting is the MSFM file manager which appears in
_OS9_Insights_, a book by Peter Dibble, available through Microware.
MSFM is an actual file manager, which allows you to mount an MS-DOS
floppy as part of the OS9 file system. 

Q: What sorts of communications software is available?

A: Many public domain utilities, available from your local BBS,
include terminal emulators and file transfer utilities (such as
xmodem, ymodem, zmodem, and kermit protocols.) Sterm, a non-commercial
package, also supports Compuserve B+ protocol. In addition, many
software vendors sell various equivalent packages. C-kermit is
available in source and executable form for OS9/68000 on cabrales.
	Also, Microware sells the NFM Network File Manager, which is a
local-area networking protocol for small networks of strictly OS9 based
computers. NFM runs on virtually any network interface, including
direct serial links, ARCnet, Ethernet, and others. 

	Microware also sells the ISP, or Internet Support Package, which is a
relatively complete TCP/IP package, including telnet client and server
apllications, and FTP client and server. It also provides a C BSD 4.2
compatible socket library. Closely related is the ESP, or Ethernet
Support Package. This is similar to ISP, but is for particular
Ethernet boards. ISP supports Ethernet and SLIP. 
	Microware also sells NFS, or Network File System, for
OS9/68000. This allows an OS9 system to share files in a homogeneous
environment (i.e. not all the machines on the network run OS9.) NFS
requires ISP or ESP.
	Finally, there is a port of the Phil Karn ka9q internet
software package, which supports a single-user interface to TCP/IP. It
includes a telnet client, an FTP client and server, and SMTP. Source
and executables may be found on cabrales. Note that the executables on
cabrales have a bug in the FTP server which causes it to bus trap
occasionally. Hopefully someone will take the time to find this and
correct it. 

Q: What about usenet and news?

A: Several ports of UUCP software are available for both os9/6809 and
os9/68k.  A port of C news and Rn are available on cabrales.  TOP has
ported Notes, which maintains Notesfiles. There is a program which
will transfer between Notesfiles and netnews. The TOP package in its
entirety may be found on cabrales.
	Rick Adams' UUCP port for the Color Computer may be found on
wuarchive, as well as on Delphi and Compuserve.
	
Q: Is gcc available for OS9?

A: gcc and g++ are available for OS9/68000, both in OS9 executable form
and cross-compiler form. Versions 1.37, 1.39 and 1.40 were ported to
OS9/68000 primarily via the work of Stephan Paschedag. Source and
binaries are available on cabrales.cs.wisc.edu via anonymous FTP. The 1.40
version supports 68040 optimizations.

Q: Can I run X11 on OS9?

A: Yes. Microware sells a port of X11R4 (client and server plus
optional Motif) , as well as do Eltek Electronik GmbH [8]

Q: What other graphics alternatives are there?

A: Several other organizations have various graphics packages for OS9.
Reccoware Systems [9] has a port of the Bellcore MGR window manager.
Gespac [10] produces G-windows, a portable windowing package which has
device windows and a very Motif-looking interface. For the MM/1,
Interactive Media Systems [11] is producing K-windows, window manager
similar to Multi-Vue, the OS9 window package for the Tandy Color
Computer III. Microware also sells RAVE, the Real-Time Audio Video
Environment. 

Q: What is a Real Time system?

A: A real-time system is any system whose correctness depends not only
on the correctness of the applied algorithms, but also in the timing of
the execution of those algorithms. Refer to the netnews comp.realtime
newsgroup for more information.

Q: Does OS9 support multiple threads within a program?

A: No, not directly like Mach does, but through the use of user
installed periodic interrupts or alarms, a user program can support
it's own threads. Consult a good operating systems book for more
details. (The author of this FAQ had to do something like this for an
OS assignment using periodic signals in Unix, which also does not
support multiple threads, so I know it can be done)


------------Section Three: Addresses, by reference number--------------

[1]--------------------
Microware Systems Corporation
1900 N.W. 114th Street
Des Moines, Iowa 50322
Phone: (515) 224-1929
Fax: +1 (515) 224-1352

Microware Systems Corporation
Western Regional Office
2041 Mission College Boulevard
Santa Clara, California 95054
Phone: +1 (408) 980-0201
Fax:   +1 (408) 980-1671

Northeastern Regional Office
One Crank Rd
Hampton Falls, NH 03844
(603)929-4107
(603)929-4233 fax

Southeastern Regional Office
P.O. Box 510358
Melbourne Beach, FL 32951-0358
(407)725-2840
(407)725-2487 fax

Microware Systems (UK) Limited
Leylands Farm, Nobs Crook
Colden Common
Winchester, Hants.
England, SO21 1TH
Phone: +44 703 601990
Fax:   +44 703 601991

Microware Systems K.K.
17-3, Sotokanda 2-Chome
Chiyoda-Ku
Tokyo 101, Japan
Phone: +81 3-3257-9000
Fax:   +81 3-3257-9200

Microware Systems France
Chateau de la Saurine
Pont de Bayeux
13590 Meyreuil
France
Phone: +33 42 58 63 00
Fax:   +33 42 58 62 28

[2]--------------------
Ultrascience
Box 847
Wheeling, Illinois 60090 USA
(708)-808-9060
FAX: (708)-808-9061

[3]--------------------
ELSOFT AG
Zelgweg 12
CH-5405 Baden-Daettwil

Tel. +41 56 83 33 77
Fax. +41 56 83 30 20

[4]--------------------
Digby Tarvin, Technical Director     
Tesseract PTY. Ltd
Computer Consultants
53 George St.
Redfern, New South Wales
Australia, 2016
Fax: 011-61-2-698-8881

Email: digbyt@runxtsa.runx.oz.au

[5]--------------------
Cumana Ltd.
The Pines Trading Estate
Broad Street
Guildford
Surrey
England, GU3 3BH
Phone: +44 483 503121
Fax:   +44 483 503326

[6]--------------------
Dr. R. Keil GmbH
Gerhart-Hauptmann-Str. 30
D-6915 Dossenheim

Tel. +49 6221 86 20 91
Fax. +49 6221 86 19 54

[7]--------------------
OS-9 User's Group
PO Box 465
Goshen, Indiana  
46526-0465

[8]--------------------
Eltek Electronik GmbH
Galileo-Galilei-Strasse 11
D-6500 Mainz 42
Germany
Phone: (6131) 588-0
fax: (6131) 588-199

[9]--------------------
  Reccoware Systems
  Wolfgang Ocker          
  Lochhauser Strasse 35a  
  D-8039 Puchheim         
  Voice: +49 89 80 77 02  
  Fax:   +49 89 80 29 67  

[10]-------------------
To contact Gespac, call toll-free 1-800-4GESPAC

[11]-------------------
Interactive Media Systems
238 Catawba Avenue,
Davidson, North Carolina 28036
704/892-6233  

or

   IMS SALES
   1840 Biltmore Street NW
   Suite 10  
   Washington DC 20009
   phone:(202) 232-4246