Msg: 6261 *Conference*

01-30-96 09:53:11

From: RICHARD HANSON

To : PAUL WHITING

Subj: REPLY TO MSG #6259 (QUESTION ON VIEW80 IN CATALOG)

You've got it...

 > Too bad there ain't no such animal. _Somebody_ must have figured it 
 > out for the Coco. Maybe that was an easier format to deal with.

That's correct.  Back then (circa 1980s) many of the 5.25" disk formats wre
close enough, and the drives themselvees were the same, that it wasn't much of
a big deal to write a utility that would step the disk drive heads correctly to
read across multiple formats.  In fact, I have a program called XENOCOPY ($150
in 1987) that I use on a MS-DOS XT computer with 2, DSDD 5.25" drives to format
and read/write from the MS-DOS format to DVI.  It can move .DO files but not
.BA or .CO but that was enough, back in those days, for me to offer the Club
100 library (issues 1 through 9 ... if you'll recall) on DVI formatted disks.
Up to that point I offered the library on TPDD, Chipmunk, and tape, only.

XENOCOPY offers over 300 disk formats, mostly for CP/M ... and we all remember
CP/M ... the disk operating system by Digital Research (Gary Kildal) that would
NEVER DIE!!

That's right!  No way Jose!  That new-fangled MS-DOS crap made by that up-start
Microsoft, run by Bill "the geek" Gates for IBM (big "shine your shoes and
straighten your tie" blue) will never kick CP/M (God's gift to micros) off the
planet!!

You bet, man.  It's CP/M forever.  Yeah man ... it's me and my CompuPro,
Cromimco, KayPro, etc. and CP/M.  We'll be hack'n it out with WordStar (word
processing), dBASE II (fully relational database), SuperCalc (linkable
spreadsheets), PeachTree (accounting and more) ... all working in concert under
the mighty control of CP/M ... FOREVER and EVER and EVER!!  Yeahhhhhhhhh......

Everybody sing... Kill Ms-DOS, Kill Ms-DOS, Kill-Kill-Kill Ms-DOS
         Again... Kill Ms-DOS, Kill Ms-DOS, Kill-Kill-Kill Ms-DOS
         Again...

--

Note: Remind me not to answer e-mail before my first cup of coffee in the
morning.  -Rick-