Superior DOS?

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Superior DOS?

I'm pretty noob to 8-bit a2 goodness and what experience I do had came from using my buddy's //e w/ DOS 3.3 back in the day. It seems with a GS you got system 6, contiki, or ProDOS8/16, unless messing about with DOS3.3Launcher.

I'm now getting into playing with a IIcPlus and a hot rod IIe. It seems there are even more choices out there (ProDOS, DOS3.3, AmDOS, DavidDOS, etc..) Besides the obvious contiki for my IIe's uthernet, is there a 'Holy Grail' of DOSs?

If not? What/which is a good starting point?

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Re: Superior DOS?

I don't believe there is any one single holy grail of DOS. I keep all the major variants around in disk images for emulation and on real-life floppies.. Switching between them whenever it suits me, or when I'm looking for a specific capability or feature.

DOS 3.3 & 3.2
ProDos
David-Dos II
Hyper Dos
Pronto Dos
Fast Dos
Diversi-Dos
Pig Dos

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Re: Superior DOS?

I don't believe there is any one single holy grail of DOS.

So, you're an AgDOStic then.

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Re: Superior DOS?

The software titles for the Apple ii had to have some kind of dos in order to run.

If you're playing a game, for example you could be using something written in Pascal.

I am certain that if someone were to look hard enough and with a bit of programming knowhow there can be a new dos created which can be used in modern day devices (assuming that one has not been made yet).

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Re: Superior DOS?

Sean said:

"So, you're an AgDOStic then."

Yes. Yes I am. lol

Steven Smile

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Re: Superior DOS?

Of these different flavors (DOS 3.3 & 3.2
ProDos
David-Dos II
Hyper Dos
Pronto Dos
Fast Dos
Diversi-Dos
Pig Dos)

What differentiates them? I know AmDOS can use 800K 3.5 and I have heard DavidDOS is faster than DOS 3.3? Any comments? Kinda just looking for the most usable place to start.

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Re: Superior DOS?

Of these different flavors (DOS 3.3 & 3.2
ProDos
David-Dos II
Hyper Dos
Pronto Dos
Fast Dos
Diversi-Dos
Pig Dos)

What differentiates them? I know AmDOS can use 800K 3.5 and I have heard DavidDOS is faster than DOS 3.3? Any comments? Kinda just looking for the most usable place to start.

These DOSs are from Apple Computer.
DOS 3.3 ( and DOS 3.x ) ( Limited to 400K, basically 5.25" )
ProDos ( 5.25" or 3.5" Disks )

Modify's Apple DOS 3.3
Pronto Dos: Faster Disk Access and Load Times

3rd Party DOS 3.3 like
David-Dos II: Faster Disk Access and Load Times, Error Messages are Numbers
Diversi-Dos: Faster Disk Access and Load Times

I haven't tried these:
Hyper Dos
Fast Dos
Pig Dos)

MarkO

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Re: Superior DOS?

In fact HyperDOS, FastDOS and PigDOS are later versions that have been "created"
in the end of the 80´s beginning of the 90´s. Can´t tell mush about them, because i´ve never used them.....

ProDOS was the follower / update od the regular DOS targeting to break the barrier limitations
of DOS and enableing the use of 3,5 disks and harddisk devices changing the organisation from
track and sector mode to block-mode and altering organisation of the content tables ( catalogs ).

Pronto Dos was released from Beagle Bros to add speed in general use of DOS ( up to 3,5 times faster )
and customizing some features.... for example it used less space at disk and in memory and it cusomized
use with textfiles and arrays.

David DOS and Diversi Dos both have been created to speed up the loading and saving of
graphic pages targeting to the use with games. Diversi DOS also was able to handle
loading and saving text and tables fast than normal DOS while David-DOS was realy
"specialized" to utilize games.

speedyG

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Re: Superior DOS?

David-Dos and Diversi-Dos come with good documentation. Suggest a read!

Hyper-DOS shows the track/sector in realtime in the lower righthand corner.

cjs
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DOS 3.3 vs. ProDOS

DOS 3.3 and ProDOS were essentially entirely different, and incompatible, operating systems. It would be good when mentioning variants to say which one of those two it's a variant of (and presumably compatible with), or whether it's yet another, incompatible operating system (like UCSD Pascal).

 

And no, you don't really need a DOS for something like a game. You just need enough code to be able to load the game from disk, which may not even require any concept of files or anything like that: just load data straight from sectors. And if you've got copy-protection on your game, those load routines will be significantly different from the standard Apple DOS RTWS (read/write track/sector routines) anyway.

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