NewDos/80

"NEWDOS" redirects here. For the IBM and Microsoft PC operating system, see OS/2.
NewDos/80
Developer Apparat, Inc.
OS family DOS
Working state Historic
Source model Closed source
Initial release 1980s
Available in English
Platforms TRS-80
Kernel type Monolithic
Default user interface Command-line interface

NewDos/80 is a third-party operating system for the Radio Shack TRS-80 line of microcomputers released in 1980. NewDos/80 was developed by Apparat, Inc. of Denver, Colorado.

The operating system had additional commands and features that were not available in TRSDOS, the native operating system for TRS-80 computers. NewDos/80 allowed TRS-80 computers to take advantage of advances in floppy disk storage that went beyond the initial 87.5KB 35-track, single-density, single-sided format.[1] The system also corrected issues that early versions of TRSDOS had with arbitrarily losing data due to errors in how it communicated with the contemporary TRS-80 disk drives' 1771 disk controller.

NewDos/80 had many options for specifying specific low-level disk configurations. Settings such as diskette formats, disk drive types, track geometry and controllers could be configured using the PDRIVE command.[1] In version 2.1, Apparat added support for hard disk drives via an external bus adapter.

NewDos/80 was written by Cliff Ive and Jason Matthews. Ive was the primary author of NewDos in all of its incarnations, Matthews wrote "patches" for various applications such as Scripsit and VisiCalc. Ive later retired and Matthews went on to other projects in the software business.

Commands

Some typical NewDos/80 commands:

NewDos/80 commands and counterparts in other operating systems
Command MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows UNIX, Unix-like
APPEND type file1 >> file2 cat file >> file2
ATTRIB attrib chmod
AUTO AUTOEXEC.BAT ~/.profile or ~/.login or /etc/rc*
CLOCK prompt $t * in some shells: PS1="...\t..." *
COPY copy cp
DIR dir ls
FORMAT format mkfs
FREE chkdsk df
KILL del rm
LIST type cat
LOAD program program program
PRINT type file > prn lpr
PROT attrib chmod
RENAME ren or rename mv

Reception

While criticizing NEWDOS's "nearly incomprehensible documentation", Jerry Pournelle wrote in 1980 that it was "a much better operating system" than the "needlessly complex" TRSDOS and stated that "Tandy ought to be marketing NEWDOS+ themselves".[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 System 80 Archive Site - NewDos/80, version 2.0 and the JV1 Disk Image format, classic-computers.org.nz
  2. ↑ Pournelle, Jerry (July 1980). "Omikron TRS-80 Boards, NEWDOS+, and Sundry Other Matters". BYTE. p. 198. Retrieved October 18, 2013.


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