From: mfolivo@sactoh0.sac.ca.us (Mark Newton-John)
Subject: Re: Still prefer DOS 3
Organization: Sacramento Public Access Unix
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 07:36:49 GMT

In <62254@cup.portal.com> Chris_F_Chiesa@cup.portal.com writes:

>Mark Newton-John writes:
>>There were a few things that I had become accustomed to with DOS 3
>>that single density DOSes did not have, like the XIO 254 command.

>If memory serves, isn't XIO 254 the "format disk" command?  That particular 
>XIO has been around forever, and is quite alive and well in DOS 2.


Well..... I was just pulling a number from memory. In any case, the
*reason* I liked some of the XIO commands, is that you *didn't have
to* go back into DOS to do certain things. Here are a few XIOs for
your information.

XIO 32   rename
XIO 33   erase
XIO 35   protect
XIO 36   unprotect
XIO 41   load a binary file
XIO 253  format disk in any format, any drive
XIO 254  format an 810 disk

>>I am pleased with DOS 3. It does the job.
>As long as you're willing to accept being incompatible with virtually 
>everyone else in the Atari world, yes.

Incompatible? Well, different format yes, but hardly incompatible.
Incompatible is trying to use a Commodore disk. When I could, I
just converted DOS 2 files to DOS 3. If not, oh well, I'd use DOS
2. I used to think of DOS 3 as basic copy protection. If I lost a
disk, hardly anyone would be able to copy, or use it. heh heh.


>>I remember the old DOS wars, especially with th primary "reason"
>>against DOS 3; the use of 1024 byte blocks, but then again, no one
>>complains about hard disks and the size of their blocks, do they?

>Hard disks' blocks are generally 512 bytes -- immediately HALVING the 
>"waste potential" per block compared to DOS 3 -- AND a hard disk is 
>much more capacious than a 5.25" floppy under ANY Atari density.  These
>two factors combine to make the individual block, sector -- even each 
>BYTE -- of storage MUCH more precious and "expensive to give up to wastage," 
>as a percentage of the available disk real estate, on an Atari floppy than
>on any hard drive.  I'd be much more sedate about wasting 1024 bytes of
>storage on even a small (10Meg) hard drive, than on even a double density
>(~180K) Atari floppy!
>

Still, there are hard disks that use larger blocks. And besides,
how many times does one need every single byte out of a cheap disk?
Look at some of your disks and look at some of the free space. But
in any case, I got disks extremely cheap, and used a ton of them-
like using folders on my Mega 4. Scripts on one disk, GIFs on
another, etc. Besides, floppy disks are still cheaper per byte than
any hard disk. Hard disks are though, faster and more convienient.

>>Another little feature about DOS 3, is that when you exit to BASIC,
>>and then want to get back to the DOS menu, boom, you're there. DOS
>>3 did not have to reload.

>For which you paid the price of having less RAM available for programs and
>data while in BASIC.  But if that doesn't bother you, I recall SmartDOS could
>be configured for exactly the same behavior.  SpartaDOS X does the same
>thing, for that matter, WITHOUT hogging up BASIC programming RAM!
So what if there was less RAM available, there was never any
instance that I got an ERROR-147 or ERROR-2 messages. ANd besides,
one reason I liked DOS 3, it was FREE! For the most part, I
preferred the DOS menu, and I did have some command line control
(with XIO) and I wrote a little three line directory program, so I
didn't have to go to DOS.

For the picky ones, if I REALLY needed RAM, I could configure
system buffers under DOS 3. Can you do that with other DOSes? Lets
have a look.

With BASIC, no DOS, 37,902 bytes
With BASIC, Atari DOS 4, 32,274 bytes
With BASIC, standard DOS 3, 32,274 bytes
With BASIC, DOS 2, 32,274 bytes  (no change here)
With BASIC, DOS 2.5, 32,274 bytes (no change here either)
With BASIC, MachDOS 2.1 XL, 30,478 bytes (DOS 2 compatible)
With BASIC, SmartDOS 6.1, RESDUP on, 22,633 bytes
Well, after loading six DOSes (I don't have SpartaDOS) and even
loading DOS 4, I saw no changes in free memory between DOS 3 and
DOS 2. How much free space do you get with SpartaDOS?

>BTW, your .sig misspells SACRAMENTO... ;-)  Unless you really do live in
>a place called SCARAMENTO...

I know, I haven't gotten around to changing my .sig. It was the
default .sig, and I haven't felt witty enough to change it.

How about.... Visualize whirled peas.  Life's abyss, then you dive.
              Read my MIPs, no new VAXes.

NAH!

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