========================================================================= (C) 1993 by Atari Corporation, GEnie, and the Atari Roundtables. May be reprinted only with this notice intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie are *official* information services of Atari Corporation. To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt.Type XTX99437,GENIE and press [RETURN]. The system will prompt you for your information. ========================================================================== ************ Topic 43 Thu Sep 03, 1992 B.BILLJONES2 [BILL JONES] at 18:38 EDT Sub: PowerDos??? The benefits of... I recently download PowerDos, a GEMDOS replacement for the ST. Indications are that it is a serious program indeed, and warrants discussion. 166 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 1 Thu Sep 03, 1992 B.BILLJONES2 [BILL JONES] at 18:38 EDT So far, my impression of PowerDos is that the program is easy enough to install and the user does gain notable IO speed in many areas. However, the documentation is sparse and leaves the user with some extremely valid questions such as : "HOW DO I MULTITASK???" The accompanying task display accessory provides a teasing view of real-time running processes. Try to "wake" a process, such as the GEM desktop, and your're presented with a nice little row of bombs. Well, I guess _that_ avenue will remain uninvestigated for a while... One glaring problem with the utility program PDEXPERT is it's inability to correctly write the proper configuration file to disk. After using PDEXPERT to change internal defaults I noticed that PowerDos was trying to install itself twice in the AUTO folder. Hmmmmm.... One glance at the file length of the configuration file showed it to be significantly smaller in size, MUCH smaller than my casual setting change should have produced. So, I extracted a fresh copy from the PowerDos main archive, popped it in the PowerDos folder, and rebooted. No problems this time. From now on, I will use a text editor to change my defaults. Since I have a unGodly slow hard drive (208 KPS), I see a significant increase in file intensive operations. I'm curious to what other users (experimenters) have discovered about this GEMDOS replacement, and HOW TO MULTITASK!!! Bill Jones ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 2 Thu Sep 03, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 23:49 EDT About all I discovered about PowerDOS is that it won't work with my reset- proof ramdisk, and seems not to like HotWire (at least I never could get both loaded). That's all I needed to know. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 3 Fri Sep 04, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 07:02 EDT Bill, PowerDOS is suposed to try to install itself twice in the AUTO folder, from what I can tell. My compalins center around the CONFIGUR file. The two examples supplied don't match each other, and it's not at all clear how you're supposed to put environment variables into the CONFIGUR if you can't touch the first 21 lines. (I went ahead and put the "env-" stuff in there anyway.) It's also not clear that you apparently must have a POWERDOS folder in the root directory of A: or C:; the CONFIGUR did not pass the env settings to PowerDOS until I put it in that folder. The docs are inadequate, to be kind. But the I/O is much faster than what I get from TOS 1.04. I could not get any drives past C: to be recognized, however. Al ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 4 Fri Sep 04, 1992 D.BOWMAN9 [DAVE B] at 09:26 EDT Hello there, I have the newest version of HotWire and have no problems loading PowerDOS. Did you put it at the very first even before the fixes? It seems to speed up somethings but does not get along DMJ Gif version 3. Therefore I do not use it at this time. later, dave b ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 5 Fri Sep 04, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 11:59 EDT We did not Get this into the PowerDos application but you may disable PowerDos at bootup by pressing the left shift and Control key at the same time. Multitasking: To multitask any .TOS/.TTP program, simply place it into the PowerDos folder and add its name and command line to the configur file. Try it you'll like it! Chris. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 6 Fri Sep 04, 1992 A.VALENT [Mike] at 19:11 EDT Al, I've installed PowerDOS (Mega 4, TOS 1.04, ICD HD, T-16, Moniterm) and it appears to work just fine - recognizes drives A-H with no problem. I un-LZHed the files to a POWERDOS folder on drive C since the docs hinted that such a folder was necessary. It does seem to speed up disk access by quite a bit. Would be nice to have some real documentation for it. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 7 Fri Sep 04, 1992 S.GARRIGUS [Scotty] at 21:20 EDT I tried PowerDos and it definitely _does_ speed things up but it doesn't seem to work with MultiDesk Deluxe. Well suffice it to say, I'm sticking with MD.. I gotta have my MD! :-) Scotty S.R.G. Software ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 8 Fri Sep 04, 1992 J.NESS [Jim] at 22:12 EDT PowerDOS takes a real bite out of BIOS I/O speeds. That would be RS232, MIDI, parallel port and keyboard/screen (TOS screen). I guesstimate about a 20% slowdown, with only a single program running. The parallel port is no big deal, since no printer is fast enough to keep up, anyway. Likewise the keyboard. The TOS screen slowdown is very noticeable in text readers, etc. RS232 is noticeable if you are trying for a 9600 or higher connection. No real change in floppy drive speed. Hard drive is much faster, partly due to better FAT code, and partly due to a nice big disk cache. -JN ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 10 Fri Sep 04, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 23:20 EDT Well, after some more work, I finally got PowerDOS to load with everything except the CodeRam ramdisk. But I noticed something strange. Even though Warp 9 and the Warp 9 CP are loaded, and everything SEEMS to work, QuickIndex reports SEVERELY degraded performance of the TOS String speed test. It seems to disconnect Warp 9 from that vector or something. Any suggestions about that and the ramdisk? ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 11 Fri Sep 04, 1992 S.SCHAPER [Meneldil] at 23:33 EDT I had a message that was supposed to be forwarded here, but I haven't seen it. I installed PowerDOS in my auto folder, with the result of recurring massive numbers of orphan files and some lost clusters on my boot partition. I can't say for certain that it was PowerDOS, but there is a chronological coincidence involved! Check your boot drives, especially your auto folders for hidden files! Run checks for orphans, etc. It _could_ be something else. I do run a lot of stuff in my auto folder, although I disabled what I thought I was supposed to. I have a TOS 1.0 system. I had not installed a folder POWERDOS. I may try that, but I'd like to see what results the rest of you get from running the above tests first. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 12 Fri Sep 04, 1992 B.BILLJONES2 [BILL JONES] at 23:41 EDT Hello Al, Hmmmm... I don't know about the running twice bit. Since it displays the prompt "PowerDOS already installed" I tend to think that's a no no. I tried renaming CONFIGUR so it wouldn't be seen and supposedly everything set itself up to defaults. It didn't run twice then. I lucked out on the PowerDOS folder being in the root of C:. I't a nice addition to TOS 1.6.2.. Dave Bowman, It doesn't work with DMJ?? Too bad... that would have been really nice to "run in the background". I'm still going to give it a whirl. What TOS version are you using? DRAGONWARE, Hi there, and it's great to have you here! What a nice littlel program, but as you see we are having some problems. Thanks for the bypass hint. But, I tried your multitasking suggestion and have had no luck. First of all, there are three different places to add a line in CONFIGUR. In the Network driver space, the alias drive space, and lastly the autoexec auto folder space. Now... what space are you talking about, and what_exactly_ is supposed to happen to allow your entered program to multitask? Is there a key combination? Do you "wake" it with the accessory? Is the program thrown into a buffer from bootup waiting to be executed? Does PowerDos simply keep track of it's location until you need it? Is it only possible to activate the multitasking program via execution from a parent program? As you can see, so many questions. One more.... why does PowerDos run itself twice in the auto folder after using PDEXPERT to configure the config file? Is this a bug? Bill Jones ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 13 Sat Sep 05, 1992 EXPLORER [?] Travis [?] at 00:42 EDT All, At present, the only proper way to launch more than one task at a time is from the CONFIGUR file. Why? The GEM Desktop\HotWire\GoGo\etc., can only run ONE program and until that ONE program terminates, the launchers are "in limbo." These launchers were not written with multitasking in mind. In theory, a simple shell (properly modified) could launch task after task. (PowerDOS adds new PEXEC modes to "fork" child processes, etc.) Also please remember that 99.9999999% of the programs in the field always expect to be the ONLY task running and so expect to be the ONLY task that writes to the screen, reads from the keyboard, etc. It's not hard to write a program that is well behaved (e.g., "teacher, may I write to the screen now?"), and that is what programmers need to do no matter what OS they plan to run under. We all are taking our first steps in multitasking (on Ataris), and we should expect to fall down and skin our noses for a while. Don't give up too soon - multitasking holds great promise. BILL, Yeah, don't send a "wake" or a "kill" to the Desktop. If you wake the Desktop (or any shell or launcher), the AES and VDI won't understand why there are suddenly two tasks trying to access them, and will suffer a breakdown. If you kill the Desktop, well... most of TOS will die along with it. Your ST/TT won't run properly without TOS. Killing TOS is not advised. (except by turning the power switch off.) But seriously, only programs that expect to get a "wake" or a "kill" will treat the signals properly. This feature was something I added to a DA of mine long ago so Chris and I could wake up or kill rogue network processes (back in the days of yore). Ignore the "send a signal" feature now - it will only come in handy _way_ later down the road. Ron, Does your RAMdisk perform a reset when you first run it? I don't know if that's the problem or not. About HotWire: I have seen Version 2 (eeek, old SW) run under PowerDOS. I'll have to get these to Chris L. and see what he says. Al, Yes, you need to put the CONFIGUR file in a folder named POWERDOS (which should be in the root of your boot drive). Really!?! You can't see any partitions past C:? What HD boot software are you using? This obviously shouldn't happen, and has never happened before. Dave, I'll try to get a copy of DMJ-GIF here off of GEnie. I have used PowerDOS with DMJ's SPC-3375 with no trouble. What problems is PowerDOS giving you? Mike Valent, Glad you like it. Chris L. is working on some network stuff for Dragonware to have at Glendale. When that's done, he should finish some docs (system call list, background info and the like). They should be uploaded to GEnie after next week. Scotty, Hmmm. I believe Chris L. uses MDD. (or MD at the least.) What happens when they conflict? Jim, Ow! 9600 baud modems! Hmmm. I'll pass that along to CL. This may be tricky. Good point. There was some good reason why PowerDOS didn't try to speed up the floppies, but it escapes me for the moment. I'll ask again. Joey, Yes. PowerDOS will run on any TOS machine ST-STe-Mega STe-TT. Falcon maybe. (Darn! I seem to have misplaced my Falcon so I can't test it. ) I'll try to get back up here after the long weekend. Take care all! Drive safe! Enjoy the holiday. --Travis ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 14 Sat Sep 05, 1992 D.FLORY [ALERTsys*Cop] at 00:57 EDT Sadly I could only get PowerDos to work when I disabled Fast RAM in my SST which means I actually ran slower. Gives me 4 bombs as soon as the Fast ram initialization program runs. Seems to run ok in the STacy tho'. Dave Flory, ALERTsys*Cop 21:43 PDT - 09/04/92 ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 15 Sat Sep 05, 1992 ST.REPORT [Ralph] at 08:09 EDT hmmmm. I'm using PowerDOS with great success. The "priority" setting was too low I upped mine to 200 and now the RS232 is actually faster. I am using a TT with 10mb ST Ram and 16mb TT Fast Ram. I am using PowerDOS with Warp-9 with no problems at all. Ralph @ STReport International Online Magazine ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 16 Sat Sep 05, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 08:50 EDT Travis, Thanks for the response. I'm using ICD software and I'm sure it's an oddity that my drives past C: are not being recognized. I'll play around with things a bit more. Bill, PowerDOS doesn't really run twice. It gives you a message saying it is already installed when it goes back to the auto folder to run the programs there. In fact, it intentionally avoids running itself twice. Neoload does the same thing, as do other auto programs. Al ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 17 Sat Sep 05, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 09:53 EDT Ralph, Run QuickIndex and see if you get your accustomed numbers in the TOS string test. Without PowerDOS, it is 3289% and with, it is 250%! Still doesn't seem to work with CodeRam ramdisk... I COULD live without that, but any slowdown to the screen output is a no-no. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 18 Sat Sep 05, 1992 SANDY.W [sysop] at 10:52 EDT Sorry, Meneldil. It looks like I did a typo during the move. There are too many sick sysops in this RT at the moment. :] ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 19 Sat Sep 05, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 11:43 EDT Ron the "slowdown" you may see is the way that PowerDOS implements Multitasking. if you want faster screen redraws increase your priority to 200+ and this will increase your screen speed. I will be gone for a day or so as I am moving down the coast on my way to Glendale. Later Christopher W. Roberts DragonWare Software Inc. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 20 Sat Sep 05, 1992 J.NESS [Jim] at 11:48 EDT Ralph, that's a good point. Processes that need high-speed RS232 can set their priority higher. I had forgotten that. I'll have to make that change. -JN ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 21 Sat Sep 05, 1992 C.HERBORTH [-Chris-] at 12:32 EDT How does PowerDOS compare to MiNT? From the sounds of things, there are problems... :-\ -Chris- ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 22 Sat Sep 05, 1992 MYECK.WATERS [myeck] at 14:36 EDT I haven't tried any benchmarking programs yet, but I have had no problems since I got it set up correctly (LHARC created the POWERDOS folder in the _root_ of the drive I was using instead of in the folder I was unarcing to...). I'm using NeoDesk, Warp9, Multidesk, Selectric, and a whole pile of AUTO prgs and DAs. TEMPUS II bombs when I call the Process Monitor DA, but so far that's the only problem. Chris; I saw your instructions on getting a TOS or TTP to multitask. My question is: does this cause them to multitask _when I run them_ or does that run them whenever I boot? ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 23 Sat Sep 05, 1992 J.GNIEWKOWSK [GE-Lamp ST] at 14:44 EDT Bill, That was my one question... How DO you multi-task with this? John E. Gniewkowski GEnieLamp ST Co-Editor Friday, September 4, 1992 -- 12:15:18 am ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 24 Sat Sep 05, 1992 R.JONES82 at 19:52 EDT Speed up Does Power DOS speed up mega STe Tos 2.06?? And is it best to disable ICD's HD cache & use power dos cache or use both together? Some disk reads register as being slightly faster than Mega STe Tos, but the cache does not seem to be as fast as ICD's. Or is this program intended for older Tos versions. The Docs were very limited. Bob... ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 25 Sat Sep 05, 1992 S.GARRIGUS [Scotty] at 20:49 EDT Travis, When I try to load an accessory into MDD and it has to resize the buffer, my ST just locks up. I have TOS 1.0. I also had a problem with Maxifile. When I tried renaming a folder, the folder was renamed but was empty and the files that were in the folder were in the root directory of the drive instead.... I would really like to use PD but I can't give up MDD and MF.... :-( Scotty S.R.G. Software ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 26 Sat Sep 05, 1992 J.BRITTAIN [John] at 21:19 EDT I noticed someone was having a problem using the Codehead Ramdisk with PowerDOS. I am having a similar problem with the HRAMDSK2.PRG, written by John Eidsvoog. Other than that I'm up and running and am indeed experiencing improved hard drive access. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 27 Sat Sep 05, 1992 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 21:30 EDT Well, I downloaded PowerDos and played with it some. Very nice. I ran the benchmark test and all the results were pretty much the same. I did suffer about 1% loss in most categories. The real gain was in Disk I/O. The test were on a Mega STE with TOS 2.06 and a 200 sector cache along with my normal ICD cache. I was in 16 mhz with cache mode. The disk test was done on my D: partition which for some reason always gives me lower rates. I also had Warp 9 installed. | Powerdos | Without | NBM Disk I/O | 3.2 (468%) | 6.01 (249%)| QI 2.2 DMA 64K | 9053% | 8277% | " " Gemdos | 18423% | 4202% | " " TOS String | 252% | 2003 | As you can see, TOS string really suffered. As I said, all other catergories (CPU stuff) only suffered a 1% loss. That is minor. If you could do something about the TOS String though, then it would be great. I ran Cleanup after my testing and found no orphan files or anything wrong with the drives that I used during the test. I also did not suffer any loss in download speed when logged on at 12000 baud. I got my normal transfer rates. It takes 30 seconds for PageStream to load and be ready for use without PowerDos. With PowerDos, it only took 4 seconds. Quite a difference. I couldn't believe it. I turned off (0 sectors) the cache and GEMDOS files dropped to 11890%. That is still a big difference from 4202. Just from the test programs I ran, I found no conflict. That doesn't mean there are none though. My auto folder execution was cut in half if you do not include the reboot time when using PowerDos. If you include the reboot time, it only took 2 seconds less than normal. The program execution was quicker though. Warp 9 is still in effect. I definately could tell the difference when it was turned off. As I said, the only side effect was the TOS String speed. If this is returned to it's normal speed, then it would be great. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 28 Sat Sep 05, 1992 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 22:07 EDT If you are having problems with MD loading in other ACCessories, try setting your TOP of ram settings and all to 0 and max memory to the max available memory you have. Mine is 4 meg. I ran the MD demo and had the same problem and played with the setting and it would load ACCs fine when I zeroed out the 2 settings for TOP of ram, etc. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 29 Sat Sep 05, 1992 J.HAYDEN [JOHN] at 22:16 EDT I thing I like about PowerDos is that I can change screen resolution fast. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 30 Sat Sep 05, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 23:20 EDT Chris, Thanks, I will give that a try. Ron ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 31 Sun Sep 06, 1992 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 04:08 EDT Well, I found my first incompatability. When using GFA's Menu program and I select a file to use. When going to the editor, I get a dialog box saying 'File Not Found'. GFA's Menu program passes the name of the file to load when it executes the Editor. After using it some more, XZY quit working. I don't know what I done but, there does seem to be some more work that needs to be done. I run XZY from within Flash and it now will try to upload instead of download for some reason. Yes, I know what I am doing. It is the same setup I always use. I guess I will have to play with the settings some more and try and figure this thing out. You fix one thing and something else breaks. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 32 Sun Sep 06, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 08:57 EDT I sure wish I cold log on at 12000 baud. I'm still using 2400. :) Al ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 33 Sun Sep 06, 1992 B.STOREY [Billy B.] at 15:12 EDT Preliminary report: I have been playing with Power DOS for a while, and I found a couple of problems: I have a 1040 STe w/4 Mb RAM and TOS 2.06, an SC1435 (color) monitor, and an SM124 (Hi Res) monitor. I created a new AUTO folder and a POWERDOS folder on drive C. I placed PowerDos in the auto folder alone. I placed all the other PowerDos files (including the utilities) in the POWERDOS folder. I removed all my .ACC's. When I boot up, everything appears to proceed smoothly. When boot-up is completed, the normal TOS 2.06 Screen is frozen. The mouse moves, but nothing responds to any clicks, and nothing responds to any keypresses. In order to get it to work, I must re-boot, holding down the key. When boot-up stops, I am in LOW res, with drives A, B, and C shown on the desktop. I then must change res to medium. After the reboot into medium res, I have the normal screen and everything seems to work properly. I tried high res, but the screen is frozen, and I don't have the option of changing res to free it up. I checked with PDEXPERT, and found a total ram size set for 2.5 Mb. I changed that to 4 Mb, but there was no improvement. The menu screen for PDEXPERT is messed up a little, with the lettering for the options written 1 line lower than wanted, and overwriting the lines drawn to separate the options. Some of the lines are overwriting the lettering, so the lettering is unreadable. I copied some of my AUTO files into the new AUTO folder, and rebooted, using the control key and changed res. I use DC_RT_DC, which makes the right mouse button create the left double click. It doesn't work. The rest seem to work OK. I returned my .ACC's, and bootup still goes smoothly (and Quickly!). All the .ACC's seem to work OK. I intend to remove PowerDos until these problems are solved (I use my Hi Res mode for most of my music applications), but it looks like there will be a winner here. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 34 Sun Sep 06, 1992 B.STOREY [Billy B.] at 15:28 EDT Whooops! I just discovered I had missed removing my MultiDesk Deluxe. When I removed it, everything works correctly on the first boot! RatZ! Now I have to decide which I prefer - MDD or PD. (I'll bet it isn't long before somebody fixes that!) ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 35 Sun Sep 06, 1992 AD-VANTAGE at 16:17 EDT Bill, Hmmm, I'm using PowerDOS with MultiDesk Deluxe and all my other CodeWare. Maybe something else in your software combo is knocking MultiDesk out? -- Ron ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 36 Sun Sep 06, 1992 NTACTONE [Ron Hunter] at 18:28 EDT Billy, Something is still amiss. MultiDesk Deluxe seems fine on my system. Try taking all the .ACCs out of MultiDesk. One of them may be conflicting with PowerDOS. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 37 Sun Sep 06, 1992 J.WILES1 at 23:10 EDT I'm having a few problems with PowerDos and was wondering if anyone else was experiencing them. I have PowerDos as the first program in the auto folder and POOLFIX92 runs right after it. Everytime I boot, PowerDos installs and then says "Something linked into the GemDos trap without following the XBRA rules". This only happens when I have POOLFIX92 in the auto folder. Do we not need the Poolfix with PowerDos or is this a problem? Also, is anyone else using Data Diet? For some unknown reason, Data Diet displays on screen that it installs after PowerDos is loaded but it doesn't work. Any files that are compressed will not uncompress for usage. Chris L. said he would look into this and even suggested putting Data Diet in the config file and PowerDos directory but this did not help. Does anyone have Data Diet working with PowerDos? One more thing. Has anyone gotten into multitasking? If so, PLEASE explain exactly how it is done. I haven't figured it out yet. Thanks for any help, Jeff ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 38 Mon Sep 07, 1992 B.STOREY [Billy B.] at 07:14 EDT OK, on further and more extensive testing, I find that Edit track won't work with PowerDos, either. Still happy with the speed-up of the system, but I must stand back and wait for a few compatibility problems to be solved. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 39 Mon Sep 07, 1992 N.HARD [Nick] at 09:46 EDT >questions such as : "HOW DO I MULTITASK???" Hi Bill.. I was wondering the same.. >your're presented with a nice little row of bombs. Well, I guess _that_ avenue >will remain uninvestigated for a while... I bomb in TEMPUS. >correctly write the proper configuration file to disk. After using PDEXPERT to >change internal defaults I noticed that PowerDos was trying to install itself >twice in the AUTO folder. Hmmmmm.... One glance at the file length of the The TWICE load is explained in he dox.. hidden... it installs.. then you set auto=0 (default) that will continue to look for auto load programs until it runs into itself again.. if you set auto=2, then it will just load the first 2 auto's after it loads Powerdos.prg.. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 40 Mon Sep 07, 1992 J.MOSES2 [moses] at 09:55 EDT Ok... I have a definite incompatability. The ABIO.ACC for the Supercharger IBM emulator doesn't seem to like PowerDos. Although the boot seems to go OK, I get 2 bombs just before the the Hotwire screen should come up. Any ideas?? Also, I clearly don't understand the fastload setup as I get a warning message if I put PinHead before PowerDos. Also, the boot seems decidedly slower with PowerDos vs. Pinhead (compared by using the ctrl-Lshift PowerDos abort). BTW, I trieds to reach you guys to check on your price for the midi hardware as my office seems to have put the SGSnet box in permanent storage (read lost!). Would like to ship that with the Powernet new version and manual you were sending if this message catches you before it goes out! Thanks,Chris - enjoyed talking to you the other day and thanks for what promises to be a great networking solution as well as GDos replacement! Jim ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 41 Mon Sep 07, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 11:48 EDT Jeff, Poolfix isn't needed with PowerDOS. PowerDOS is a rewritten GEMDOS that doesn't have the problems that Poolfix fixes. Al ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 42 Mon Sep 07, 1992 B.BILLJONES2 [BILL JONES] at 17:27 EDT Jeff Wiles, Something you might want to try is running PDEXPERT (the PowerDos config utility) and tickling some of the options. I don't have Data Diet so I can't make any real guesses. Maybe someone else has had this problem too. Nick, Yeah, I eventually ran across that section in the dox. At first I misunderstood it to mean that it somehow would prevent it's own double execution but later resigned to the truth . I tried DMJ GIF 3.x the other night with it, and it indeed won't work. It seems to maybe have a problem with file handles??? There was another program whose name I can't remember that refused to load a selected file. These have been rare occurences for me. 99% of everything I've used has been compatible. This is the first time DragonWare software has had the opportunity for the public to subject PowerDos to the hundreds of applications they don't have access to. The fact they have been working on it for four years is rather impressive to me. One other fact that strikes me is that I actually _trust_ it! These guys know their stuff (even if they do need to hire a documentation writer!). ;-) Bill Jones ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 43 Mon Sep 07, 1992 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 21:54 EDT I fixed some incompatabilities by setting the RAMTOP K = 0, RAMTOP Blocks = 0, Bios Force = NO, Neg Force = NO. I aslo have my Max Malloc, etc. set to 4 meg. (the amount of memory I have). These settings seemed to clear up quite a few problems. It even fixed the problem I was having with GFA's Menu program. So, if you are having problems, play with the settings. One problem I seem to be having with PDEXPERT is that is merges the maxmalloc size with the comments out beside it in the CONFIGUR file. It looks something like this after saving the configur file. maxmalloc=4000aximum ...... It doesn't like this at all and I have to go into a text editor to fix it because PDEXPERT crashes when it tries to read it. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 44 Mon Sep 07, 1992 N.HARD [Nick] at 23:19 EDT BILL.. I understand about starting a program.. but how does one 'flip' between them.. if at all?? Are you MULTITASKING?? What benifit is it to asign programs to other drives?? I have sent entire partitions to 'aliasdrv' but really dont know WHY.. More documentation would be nice! ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 45 Mon Sep 07, 1992 P.GRIFFITH2 [PGRIF] at 23:30 EDT I would strongly suggest that you do NOT use the program "AUTOSORT" if you are using "POWERDOS" or if it is even in your AUTO folder. I just did this and now have several hundred invalid subdirectories, according to HD Sentry. All of them are in my auto folder. Nothing can be deleted from there at this time. Paul ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 46 Tue Sep 08, 1992 R.KOHORN at 01:55 EDT I've been playing with PowerDOS, runing PHA$AR, using a floppy. I have noticed that the search and edit function are much quicker with PowerDOS than without. 37 seconds to complete a search with, 99 seconds without. However since I don't understand what PowerDOS does, is it possible that my data can be damaged by this. Hope someone can answer this as I would like to use this with PHA$AR. Thanks*S A C C C C C C C C C C ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 47 Tue Sep 08, 1992 A.VALENT [Mike] at 18:14 EDT Mega 4, TOS 1.04, T-16, Moniterm: PowerDOS indicates on Qindex that I'm getting a tremendous increase in GEMDOS response at a cost of .1% of speed on the processor response indexes and .1% loss on text string index. Scroll and dialog (Moniterm) are unchanged. I upped the Priority setting to 200 - and the default RAM setting of 2.5 meg to 4 meg. All HD access is considerably faster, and I'm seeing particular benefit with Calamus SL, where virtual memory operation is much improved. My thanks to Dragonware for this little GEM! (Poolfix, TOS14FX, and FOLDRXXX auto prgs aren't needed with PowerDOS) ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 48 Tue Sep 08, 1992 GSCOTT-MOORE [Gerry] at 22:06 EDT \\\--- I hit a snag with PowerDOS: I usually run a hotwire item that loads a MLT file for MultiDesk in which there is the S.I. Ramdisk from ST Informer. Then it runs the program that calls for a ramdisk or a spooler. This guy crashes every time. STe/Tos 1.62. Otherwise no problems yet. \\\--- Gerry ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 49 Tue Sep 08, 1992 E.SMITH10 [Eric Smith] at 23:40 EDT For those of you who are particularly interested in multitasking TOS/TTP programs: You might want to check out MiNT (the current version is 0.95, available as MINT095B.ZOO in the libraries). It comes with a desk accessory that can be used to launch TTP/TOS programs in windows and leave them running in the background. It's not as fast as PowerDOS, because this is still a development version of MiNT (it has debugging code enabled -- actually, this can be quite useful if you're a programmer, since it allows you to trace GEMDOS calls as they execute). But it does have proven multitasking, and a lot of Unix applications (e.g. CLI's like tcsh and bash) have been ported to MiNT. There are extensive developer's docs available, and the source code for MiNT is also available (see MINT095S.ZOO). ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 50 Wed Sep 09, 1992 L.ROMERO6 [Lindle] at 04:45 EDT Wayne, Your not alone when it comes to problems with PowerDOS and XYZ. I'm using The Freeze Dried Terminal and can't upload or download while I'm using PowerDOS! This seems to be the only problem I've had with it though....everything else (minus Multi-tasking) works fine.....I really like not having to use FATSPEED or FOLDERXXX anymore!! Bill, I want to multi-task! I really want to experiment with running my BBS (Binkley, ///Turbo Board ST) as a background task. Do you know or does ANYONE know how this could be accomplished?!? P.S. Are you the same Bill Jones who runs "The Zoo"? Ron, Just wanted to wave my hand at ya. I've been sending out test messages in the Atari ST echo.....have you seen any of em?!? See Ya, Lindle Romero *s *S M475;1 BYE Wayne, Your not alone when it comes to problems with PowerDOS and XYZ. I'm using The Freeze Dried Terminal and can't upload or download while I'm using PowerDOS! This seems to be the only problem I've had with it though....everything else (minus Multi-tasking) works fine.....I really like not having to use FATSPEED or FOLDERXXX anymore!! Bill, I want to multi-task! I really want to experiment with running my BBS (Binkley, ///Turbo Board ST) as a background task. Do you know or does ANYONE know how this could be accomplished?!? P.S. Are you the same Bill Jones who runs "The Zoo"? Ron, Just wanted to wave my hand at ya. I've been sending out test messages in the Atari ST echo.....have you seen any of em?!? See Ya, Lindle Romero Wayne, Your not alone when it comes to problems with PowerDOS and XYZ. I'm using The Freeze Dried Terminal and can't upload or download while I'm using PowerDOS! This seems to be the only problem I've had with it though....everything else (minus Multi-tasking) works fine.....I really like not having to use FATSPEED or FOLDERXXX anymore!! Bill, I want to multi-task! I really want to experiment with running my BBS (Binkley, ///Turbo Board ST) as a background task. Do you know or does ANYONE know how this could be accomplished?!? P.S. Are you the same Bill Jones who runs "The Zoo"? Ron, Just wanted to wave my hand at ya. I've been sending out test messages in the Atari ST echo.....have you seen any of em?!? See Ya, Lindle Romero ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 51 Wed Sep 09, 1992 ST.REPORT [Ralph] at 07:40 EDT After careful testing and comparing, I regret to inform those interested that PowerDos, while enhancing a good percentage of TOS functions, does not like to cooperate at all in the world of Telecommunications. The problem is obscure to me, but the effect is is quite clear. Using Stalker (3.02), and a USR Dual Standard 16.8/Fax modem I found that transferring a file from another identical Dual Standard modem there is a significant drop in the CPS between using and not using PowerDos. Transferring a 100k file: With PowerDos: 1394cps No PowerDos..: 1774cps The priority setting has been upped to first 200 and then 300 with no appreciable increase in performance. In the other functions I use, PowerDos was able to provide a substantial improvemnt. But in the RS232..... I also tried different serial ports and two different machines in the process of elimination. Ralph @ STReport International Online Magazine ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 52 Wed Sep 09, 1992 S.SCHAPER [Meneldil] at 08:47 EDT PGRIF, Sounds very similar to the problem that I had with PowerDOS and AUTOSORT, except that I got a lot of hidden files, including two in the root directory, and hundreds of orphan files, with new ones appearing after fixing with ST TOOLS. It does appear fixed now, (It took multiple runs with ST TOOLS) although I haven't checked for orphan files in the last couple of days, and I should. I just about lost all the data on my boot drive . . . :-( ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 53 Wed Sep 09, 1992 P.GRIFFITH2 [PGRIF] at 21:56 EDT Meneldil, I've still got the hidden files and can't seem to unhide them. XBoot doesn't show them, so it"s very difficult to change my bootup configuration. The PDEXPERT program seems to crash my system almost every time I use it. I run it and try to load Configur(the default) and, it may load or not, but I always end up getting a "This is not a valid path" message or something like that. Return gets me back to the desktop, and the next thing I try to do locks up the computer. From what I've seen of PowerDos, I think I'll stick to 2.06. Paul ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 54 Thu Sep 10, 1992 S.SCHAPER [Meneldil] at 08:38 EDT PGRIF, I deleted the hidden files either with UIS or with ST TOOLS (PD here in the libraries). I couldn't unhide them, though, I had to delete them and replace them with back-ups. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 55 Thu Sep 10, 1992 GSCOTT-MOORE [Gerry] at 21:07 EDT \\\--- Sounds like PowerDos was responsible for what seemed an inordinately long download(s) from GEnie via ST-Aladdin in the past couple of days. Could this be so? \\\--- Gerry ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 56 Thu Sep 10, 1992 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 23:49 EDT If you have crashes when you try and run PDEXPERT, look at the CONFIGUR file in a text editor and check to see if any of the comments are next to the settings. I have one instance where there is no space between the comment and the setting. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 57 Fri Sep 11, 1992 B.STOREY [Billy B.] at 08:35 EDT There was a glitch on GEnie which caused a very long topic to be repeated. It didn't have anything to do with PowerDos. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 58 Fri Sep 11, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 13:17 EDT RS232 slowdowns: Is being fixed as I type! Poolpatch/1.4fixes etc. These have no function under PowerDOS as all of that code is fixed by PowerDOS Look for a NEW PDEXPERT in the lib that fixes some bugs. The Ramtop and Block sizes are not needed unless you are running some verry special (unreleased) PowerNET protocols. Just a note: PowerNET is based on PowerDOS and is as compatible! Chris typing from Califorina! (I may tell the story some day of the delay but not now!) ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 59 Fri Sep 11, 1992 J.WILES1 at 21:51 EDT Been playing around with PowerDos and here are a couple observations: Data Diet will work with PowerDos but not if NeoDesk is loaded. Only if run from the Gem desktop. Why? I don't know. Some insight here would be helpful. Touch Up ver 1.82 will load under PowerDos but if you load a picture file, you get kicked back to a froze up desktop with four bombs. The same thing happened with Touch Up ver 1.61. Still have no idea how to multitask. After you put the program in the PowerDos folder and its name in the config file, what do you do? I've tried it with a couple different programs and they don't even show up on the PMONITOR status. Any help here? Thanks, Jeff ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 60 Fri Sep 11, 1992 S.SCHAPER [Meneldil] at 23:11 EDT Chris, When is your follow-on to UIS III coming out? I am really looking forward to it. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 61 Fri Sep 11, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 23:34 EDT TouchUp will not work with PowerDOS if you have the Process monitor active. Process monitor is a Debugging tool and helps confirm that a process is still working (or idle). TOS and TTP programs that boot from the CONFIGUR file must not terminate themselves or what is the use? After the show We will upload the background copy utility and the serial port configuration program. Both of these will multitask in the "background" The PowerDOS programmers manual will be uploaded here by SEP 29. You may get a hard copy by Writing us at: PowerDOS Manual DragonWare Software Inc. P.O. Box 1719 Havre MT 59501 there is a $3.00 fee for the bound manual (our cost Honest!) has any one tried this? Run ALIASDRV.TTP and type Z,C:\AUTO\ make your Auto folder into a drive Z! Chris oH yea FLEXoR (the flexible item selector) with all Chris L. is doing with PowerNET and ViewTouch and other projects (sorry no hints!) FLEXoR will be out by christmas no more firm date can be given at this time. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 63 Sat Sep 12, 1992 GSCOTT-MOORE [Gerry] at 11:32 EDT \\\--- Using PDos in conjunction with CodeHead's MultiDesk, I find that if I load CardFile as a resident DA my STe locks up. I also find that if I go to the MultiDesk configuration options and shrink my configuration it locks. I've done both of these repeatedly. Then I dumped PowerDos and retried. No problems. \\\--- Gerry ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 64 Sun Sep 13, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 11:12 EDT Gerry thank you for the bug report ! We are on it now look for a new powerDOS version in the next few days that will address the problems that we have seen so far so keep those reports comming! Chris Roberts ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 65 Sun Sep 13, 1992 A.VALENT [Mike] at 14:04 EDT I kinda feel left out - using PowerDOS and NOT having any of the problems I keep seeing described here. MultiDesk apparently conflicts with PowerDOS, but I've never had MultiDesk so no problem. No hidden files have shown up. Qindex indicates that I'm losing .1% in both cpu operations and the text test (no difference in scroll or dialog). Hardware: Mega 4, TOS 1.04, T-16, Moniterm, ICD mini host/software. In my setup, particularly using Calamus SL, I'm taking an imperceptible "loss" in screen and computation speed in exchange for an incredible improvement in hard drive access speed. PowerDOS may indeed not be for everyone, but Dragonware has done this computer junkie a great service by releasing PowerDOS as freeware. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 66 Mon Sep 14, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 00:50 EDT I talked with the codeheads at glendale today about the MultiDesk problem and they said " GET an Upgrade to Delux!" The older Card file "was Buggy" acording to John E. the new one works with PowerDOS no problem. I checked it myself at the show. Re: warp 9 Warp9 must run after PowerDos and will work fine if it is the FIRST program after PowerDOS. Chris Roberts ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 67 Mon Sep 14, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 04:58 EDT Chris, Correction: I didn't say anything about CardFile being "buggy". Perhaps you were talking to someone else about it. John ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 68 Tue Sep 15, 1992 C.NICHOLLS [BILL] at 00:13 EDT I had considerable difficulty in making the new v.2 of PDEXPERT work. It always crashed with a differing number of bombs until I put it in a folder of its own. Otherwise, I am pretty impressed with Powerdos, and it certainly speeds things up. Let's hope programmers will write stuff that takes advantage of it, especially as MultiTOS is not going to be available for 68000 machines, including MEGA STE, which is what I have. I have been able to run MDD and DataDiet without obvious problems. No problems with Warp 9 either. Bill ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 69 Tue Sep 15, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 01:20 EDT John Sorry may have been someone else but the newest card file will not crash under PDOS. Sorry for the mis quote. Chris ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 70 Tue Sep 15, 1992 GSCOTT-MOORE [Gerry] at 02:23 EDT \\\--- The only time I have a problem with my copy of MultiDesk Deluxe is when I am loading or manipulating a RamDisk as an ACC file. Oh, yeah: and shrinking the memory set-up. \\\--- Gerry ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 71 Thu Sep 17, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 23:01 EDT Becuse of the way that PDOS creates ALIAS drives it is best to load a ramdisk from Configur or at boot up from OUTSIDE of MDD. spelling errors (C) 1992 DWSI! Chris ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 72 Fri Sep 18, 1992 C.NICHOLLS [BILL] at 03:01 EDT Chris, Does that mean I can use CodeRam after all with PowerDOS if I load it from Configur? Great if so. I like that print spooler. This seemed to be one major drawback I had experienced. However, I am having so much trouble with Aladdin that I have given up using PDOS with it. I had failure to save messages, and Out of Memory messages that I would not have expected. How much memory does PDOS actually use? Do you know if the problem can be overcome? Otherwise, with readjustment of the parameters as suggested on line I have had no real compatibility problems. I did have some trouble with programs that are sensitive to being run through a shell. I had to spend about a couple of hours fixing a British data-base called SuperCard 2 that I use for research notes. The problem was it would no longer recognize its own files, saved without PDOS. Strangely, I could fix the problem by re-saving them without PDOS and then re-accessing them with PDOS in the system. I don't understand why this should have worked. In your message, I don't understand about booting up outside of MDD. Do you mean outside of PDOS? Bill ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 73 Fri Sep 18, 1992 GSCOTT-MOORE [Gerry] at 21:30 EDT \\\--- Bill: Chris means to "boot" the Ramdisc ACC outside of MultiDesk Deluxe just like a regular old accessory. (Can you imagine?) Incidentally can you EMail me info on the SuperCard program. If it is a tool for manipulating text I might well be interested. Is it PD or commercial, etc. Thanks. \\\--- Gerry ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 74 Fri Sep 18, 1992 C.HERBORTH [-Chris-] at 21:34 EDT Ok, so you need PowerDOS for PowerNET, right? Since you can't use PowerNET with a non-multitasking TOS... Can you use PowerNET with MiNT instead? -Chris- ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 75 Sat Sep 19, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 14:22 EDT Chris ... We are working with Atari to solve some problems that MiNT has with ALL network software. I will not go into the in's and outs here. Let just say that MiNT can not do "REALTIME TASKS" Aat present if you NEED Mint you can run it as a task of PowerDOS hopefully this will change soon. Remember that the MiNT file system is NOT multitasking in the same Way that PowerDOS is. We will continue to work with Atari to solve this problem. Bill... You might want to check your hard disk for dammage. Turn the MAX program ram OFF and that will fix all of the Out of memory errors . Remember that the MAX Program ram LIMITS applications to the ramsize indacated in MB in the OFF position there is no limit. This option was added to prevent "Menory HOG" programs from nabing all RAAM and disabling .ACC files and the like. EVERYONE...... PowerDOS takes 22K of ram MAX (assuming a 200 or less cashe). PMONITOR.ACC will cause Warp 9 to crash if used with Multidesk Delux. The PMONITOR.ACC is NOT required for PowerDOS to Run it is a DERBUGGING tool to help us track down problems with our OS and neat to look at. Today we are going to release the first of a group of Multitasking programs for PowerDOS. This file is BACKCOPY.LZH This is a background copy utility that will let you do batch copies ofg files while in or out of any application that is TOS based. Christopher W. Roberts DragonWare Software Inc. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 76 Sat Sep 19, 1992 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 16:55 EDT I hoped I wouldn't have to do this. At present, we are attempting to address the problems that DragonWare has with the MiNT/MultiTOS combination. We have yet to receive any feedback from them (other than vague comments like you just saw). It has yet to be determined if what DragonWare claims is true. No one else seems to have problems with the speed of MiNT. As for how MiNT multitasks, I am happy with its implimentation of multitasking. -- John Townsend, Atari Corp. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 77 Sun Sep 20, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 00:53 EDT No ONE!?????? (double sigh!) and tisk tisk! What is the Quick index JOHN?? (triple tisk!) Nuf said I tried to keep this positive as I can but remember that YO U ATARI'ed first!. C.R. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 78 Sun Sep 20, 1992 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 03:27 EDT I am not going to debate this any further. I had hoped to see this handled on a professional level. Obviously, that isn't going to happen. If DragonWare has any further comments on this issue, please talk to Bill Rehbock about it. I am not getting involved any longer. -- John Townsend, Atari Corp. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 79 Sun Sep 20, 1992 ST.REPORT [Ralph] at 07:04 EDT Boing! And now back to our regular programming... PowerDos... A word of caution, after having performed further testing, I've found that PDos still slows down file xfers. Increasing the TICS to 200 helped somewhat but the difference between with and without is still far too high. With = 1480-1525cps * Without = 1750 - 1842cps. Also, while PDos was installed, I reorganized the auto folder using Auto Organizer. After doing so, I experienced rather strange and 'never before seen' happenstances. It was corrected by deleting the entire auto folder and re-constructing same. To make sure PDos was the catalyst, I then removed it and redid the auto folder again with Auto-Organizer, and all remained just fine. Ralph @ STReport International Online Magazine ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 80 Sun Sep 20, 1992 S.SCHAPER [Meneldil] at 09:09 EDT Ralph, look at that entire partition with UIS looking at hidden files. You may still have some. Then run a good disk doctor type program on it. You may have more problems than you realize. I came up with one and a half megs of orphan files on a normal TOS partion. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 81 Sun Sep 20, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 13:32 EDT Thank you John! ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 82 Sun Sep 20, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 17:54 EDT It has come to our notice that the phone # in our press release is Wrong! it is: _406_265-9609 Chris ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 83 Sun Sep 20, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 19:58 EDT Ralph, It is possible that PowerDos (or its cache) is not aware of Auto Organizer's alteration of the AUTO folder (even though a force media change is performed in Atari's documented fashion). I'd suggest that if you have PowerDos installed, you should do a reset after running Auto Organizer. I can't imagine how there would be a problem this way since Auto Organizer does not use GEMDOS calls to do its magic. John ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 84 Sun Sep 20, 1992 M.EVERHART2 [MIDIMIKE] at 22:54 EDT OK, I downloaded, now how about a plain English explaination of multitasking on this system? 1. Put PowerDOS #1 in autofolder 2. List programant you wat to run 3. *(Jump in anytime with more information here.) ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 85 Mon Sep 21, 1992 L.ROMERO6 [Lindle] at 06:41 EDT Is anyone having problems with XYZ.TTP?!? When I have PowerDOS installed, XYZ.TTP won't function correctly. Lindle ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 86 Tue Sep 22, 1992 S.SCHAPER [Meneldil] at 00:51 EDT Lindle, Aha! So that was what was going on. I had that problem too, but did not put two and two together. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 87 Tue Sep 22, 1992 M.SHANNON at 22:23 EDT Chris, ME and WILES1 on CAT2 TOP18 have the same problem: !DCDOET! files cant bee seen in their respective directories when POWERDOS is installed... What gives? (remember me I called you during dinner and got "sipport but still it's "no-go" with DIET installed and I WON'T give back DDIET so whats my alternative here... a refund!? or what Thanks MS ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 88 Tue Sep 22, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 23:34 EDT I have spoken to DC and to Chris L. and the problem will be solved hopefully in 24 to 48 hours! hang tough! ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 89 Wed Sep 23, 1992 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 00:10 EDT John.. If I remember right, the trick to force a media change will work on GEMDOS because it will cause a series of events to happen that causes GEMDOS to invalidate its internal buffers and then get new info from the disk. It could be that this trick.. eh, make that documented method of forcing a media change doesn't work on PowerDOS. That's my best guess.. -- John Townsend, Atari Corp. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 90 Wed Sep 23, 1992 C.NICHOLLS [BILL] at 01:51 EDT I still can't figure out how to run Code_Ram.prg under PowerDOS. I have tried putting both its file path and also the file itself in the configur file, which should cause it to multitask. But in neither case is there any indication during boot-up that it has installed. If I try to access it from the desk top in order to configure it, which must be done from the menu either during or after installation, I am told there is not enough memory even for the smallest size of ramdisk, and that I must reset. If I do reset, we end up each time in exactly the same place. This seems to happen no matter how I configure PowerDOS's memory usage. Does anyone have a solution? Also, if a program is multitasking, how do I get to it from the original program? MiNT apparently has an accessory for the purpose, but so far I can't find anything analogous in PowerDOS. Bill ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 91 Wed Sep 23, 1992 M.SHANNON at 02:12 EDT Chris, POWERDOS does NOT recognize ANY lower-case characters! Therefore ANY directory or program "renamed" into a lower-case stste would be unread by POWERDOS. I have a BIG drive and LOTS of folders and programs and makinf things "lower-case" makes identifying them MUCH easier than having to look through a list of names that actually SCREAM out at me, ie, lower-case is "quieter" and I don't want to give them up... PLEASE fix this on POWERDOS. PS I also run DCDiet and Mouseboot now with no problem as long as the folders\programs are UPPERCASE. Hope this helps as I need this FIX last week.... Thanks for the great programming effeort from Latham and the great marketing effort from you. KEP IT HOT! Best regards MS ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 92 Wed Sep 23, 1992 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 03:59 EDT Yes, I had problems with XYZ and PowerDos. It worked once before but, I forgot what settings I used as I changed them and found XYZ not to work. Since I use Flash and XYZ quite a bit, PowerDos had to go until I figure out what settings I used wehn it worked. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 93 Wed Sep 23, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 06:00 EDT MS, John Townsend may have a better reply on this, but I believe TOS (GEMDOS?) prefers upper-case names for files and folders. I know I have had some software that does not recognize lower-case letters. Al ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 94 Wed Sep 23, 1992 E.SMITH10 [Eric Smith] at 18:56 EDT Chris & John: I gather from Chris' reference to QuickIndex that his criticism of MiNT's multitasking stems from the slow speed of single character BIOS input and output under MiNT (since in other respects MiNT is similar in speed to TOS or faster). PowerDOS does BIOS output a lot faster than MINT, because (a) MiNT has more overhead because it allows arbitrary redirection of BIOS handles to GEMDOS (or loadable file system) files, devices, pipes, etc., and (b) the BIOS entry point in MiNT isn't as fast as it could be. (b) is something I'm working on; (a) is a desireable feature, and I don't mind "losing" on benchmarks in order to provide it. I'll note here that high speed networking is certainly possible under MiNT -- the key is to avoid single character at a time I/O. This is a good idea anyway, since it's always faster to make 1 system call to write a million bytes than a million system calls writing 1 byte each. Indeed, whether it's running under MicroRTX, MiNT, or PowerDOS, a program will multitask better if it buffers I/O -- something for programmers to keep in mind. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 95 Wed Sep 23, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 22:47 EDT I have discussed two specific problems with Chris Latham, author of PowerDos. We've sent him a copy of CodeHead Utilities so that he can test the Auto Organizer problem. The way he's handling the forcing of a media change should work fine and we couldn't figure out what could be wrong. We did determine the cause of a problem with the clearing or changing of the buffer in MultiDesk, however. He'll be resolving the problem in PowerDos. As for CodeRam, I must admit that it uses a trick which relies on the (undocumented) method GEMDOS uses for its memory blocks. PowerDos's memory blocks are different and it looks like there will not be complete compatibility until I make a modification to CodeRam to accomodate PowerDos. Since CodeRam admittedly uses a "shady" trick (it's the only way it could install and remove itself without rebooting), I feel obliged to support alternate DOSes. John ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 96 Thu Sep 24, 1992 R.KOHORN at 00:51 EDT Has anyone else had this problem? With Powerdos and Cal.2.6 running together, I get two bombs. Are they incompatable? Thanks, Ron ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 97 Thu Sep 24, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 15:37 EDT Ron CAL ???? ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 98 Thu Sep 24, 1992 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 18:22 EDT Thank you, Eric. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 99 Fri Sep 25, 1992 C.NICHOLLS [BILL] at 02:35 EDT SDS'S very useful Envelope program and accessory for the Desk Jet seems to have trouble running under PowerDOS. Does anyone else experience this? Bill ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 100 Fri Sep 25, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 20:22 EDT We have found that CASHxxx.PRG might cause problems with PowerDOS. we recomend deleting CASHxxx.PRG or renaming it to .PRX... Christopher W. Roberts DragonWare Software Inc. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 101 Sat Sep 26, 1992 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 02:46 EDT The program is called CACHEnnn.prg.. not CASHxxx.prg. -- John Townsend, Atari Corp. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 102 Sat Sep 26, 1992 S.SCHAPER [Meneldil] at 09:39 EDT Chris, Would that apply to other cashe programs? ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 103 Sat Sep 26, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 12:56 EDT Any READ cashe will slow PowerDOS but Atari's will Kill your FAT's under PowerDOS. PowerDOS has _ONLY_ a READ CASHE. If you use ICD software disable the READ cashe and you will get better speed out of PowerDOS. We have had some reports on other services of Fat dammage when using GDOS applications and have traced it to the Atari CASHE program. As this Cashe program is not any help when running PowerDOS we recomend you disable it. Christopher W. Roberts DragonWare Software Inc. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 104 Sat Sep 26, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 14:46 EDT The Background copy util for PowerDOS was just uploaded as well as the new PowerDOS v1.02! Christopher W. Roberts DragonWare Software Inc. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 105 Sat Sep 26, 1992 EXPLORER [!] Travis [!] at 17:37 EDT Well, I've got two bits to put in here.... I found what the problem with DMJ-GIF 3 is. Believe it or not, it is more common than one would think. First, there are three basic ways (modes) to open a file on disk. Mode #0: Open a file for reading only. Mode #1: Open a file for writing only. Mode #2: Open a file for both reading and writing. Current versions of TOS do not enforce these rules. (Why? I don't know.) Anyway, PowerDOS doesn't allow programs to violate these modes. Any attempt to read to a handle opened as write only, or write to a handle opened as read only will return an "Access Denied" error (Error #-36) under PowerDOS. DMJ-GIF 3 tries to open picture files it wants to read in WRITE ONLY mode. Nasty things could occur if programs could violate these and other file modes across a network. That is why PowerDOS prevents that. My suggestion is for the author of DMJ-GIF to clean his code. ---===---===--- I've ran XYZ.TTP under PowerDOS for months. The only problem I've seen occurs if the BIOSFORCE line in the CONFIGUR file is set to Y. If anyone is having trouble with XYZ.TTP, place an asterix (*) at the start of your BIOSFORCE line. That should fix your problems. If it doesn't, please describe the problems fully. --Travis ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 106 Sat Sep 26, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 22:24 EDT Tank you for the information Travis. Chris ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 107 Sun Sep 27, 1992 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 01:32 EDT I would like to point out that CACHEnnn.prg has no problems when used with Atari's TOS Operating System as shipped. It will not destroy FAT tables nor damage your hard drive in any way. In fact, it will enhance the performance of your system. -- John ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 108 Sun Sep 27, 1992 C.NICHOLLS [BILL] at 02:07 EDT I have downloaded the latest PowerDOS programs, and can't make the background copy utility work. I have followed the instructions, but when I invoke the accessory I get a measure saying that the background utility is either not installed or unable to instal its queue. I am using TOS 2.05 with Hotwire and Datadiet. I have accidentally found a work around which allows one to use CODERAM.PRG while John is fixing it. If you instal it when PowerDOS is not running and then re-boot (warm) with PowerDOS the ram disk will be retained, and will run before PowerDOS. PDOS doesn't like that and gives a warning message, but I don't see that any harm is done. Bill ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 109 Sun Sep 27, 1992 C.NICHOLLS [BILL] at 02:13 EDT Please disregard the part of my previous post that refers to the background copy utility. I re-saved the configuration file using PD Expert, having edited it with a text editor previously, and rebooted, and now it comes up as it should. Thanks for a useful utility and the first multi-tasking I will have the chance to try. Bill ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 110 Sun Sep 27, 1992 M.SHANNON at 02:54 EDT POWERDOS and POWERNET are FANTASTIC... between my two ST's... If you could just find your way clear to recognize lower-case] ASCII I HATE UPPER CASE SCREAMING FOLDERS AND FILES\APPLICATIONS>>> see??? Pleeeaaasssee do something for us POWER user's. Thanks for the continuing support. MS ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 111 Sun Sep 27, 1992 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 08:25 EDT Chris, It's "cache." It doesn't have an "S" in it. Al ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 112 Sun Sep 27, 1992 MYECK.WATERS [myeck] at 12:22 EDT With the new version of PowerDos, I get bombs whenever I try to use the ESCape key to re-read disk A. Haven't done any investigation yet to see if it's some odd conflict. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 113 Sun Sep 27, 1992 V.GARDNER1 [MIKE] at 14:29 EDT John & Chris, There is room for the two of you over in the Flaming Debates area. I do not care who started it, just do not let go on. Mike ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 114 Sun Sep 27, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 15:20 EDT Thank You Mike! I for one will NOT continue in any form with John as it is not why I am here! Chris Roberts Our Report on the Atrai CASHE is so users of PowerDOS will know and not have some of the reported trouble. As to Lower Case Support: GEMDOS is supposed to REQUIRE upper case and as that is the "STANDARD" we implemented it in PowerDOS. Chris Lataham will look into LC file/folder names and we will get back to you. Esc Key problems?????? If you could list your Auto and ACC files we may be able to trace it. I can say however, yours is the first report of it's kind. Chris ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 115 Sun Sep 27, 1992 M.SHANNON at 19:28 EDT Hi Ya Chris! Yes pllleeeaaaasssee look into LC as an option as does EDGE from Diamond Back... with HD's getting larger all the time we might take a cue from other platforms and communications sciences... Thanks ALSO!!! forgive my ignorance: I set up PIPE as "#pipe.dev $50" under the "#backcopy.prg" entry in the CONFIGUR file and "pipe" show up as a directory\folder on the other node when I look. I cannot access or save any files to the "pipe" folder however and I am wondering what if anything I am missing out on here by my ignorance or presumption... can both nodes access a file in "pipe"? Please give me\us an example of the benefits and usage\implementation of "pipe" after it's installed. Please hold my hand on this OK? thanks MS ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 116 Sun Sep 27, 1992 J.NESS [Jim] at 20:05 EDT Caches are, in general, good things. My company-owned notebook (386SX with 4meg ram and 65meg hd) has a 1meg (!) cache, which makes Windows nearly as fast as GEM. Pretty much like working from a ramdisk. The cache feature is certainly the main reason for improved performance with PowerDOS, and it would be reasonable to assume the same would be true using Atari's CACHEnnn. The difference is, you get CACHEnnn, FOLDERnnn, and PINHEAD capabilities, with a single file. -JN ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 117 Sun Sep 27, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 21:39 EDT Pipes are a way yhat programs that are written with pipes in mind can communicate with other. To use the pipe open a file on the Machine the pipe is installed on by addressing the following path: PIPE:FILENAME.EXT then write to the file the bytes you wrote rto the pipe are there for ANY program to retreve by reading the same NAME/path. I would love to see a REAL clipboard application use pipes for it's storage ! Chris ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 118 Sun Sep 27, 1992 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 23:16 EDT Mr. Gardner.. I was simply correcting a previous mistake. An incorrect program name could cause some new users to search for a program name that doesn't exist and miss the source of the "problem." -- John Townsend, Atari Corp. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 119 Mon Sep 28, 1992 S.SCHAPER [Meneldil] at 23:36 EDT I am going to give the new version a try. I am going to back up my auto folder, use DIR_SORT and not AUTOSORT, deactivate my cache program, AND BACK UP MY FATS! And I highly recommend that anyone else experimenting with this program do the same. The first freeware version was very dangerous, I nearly lost everything on my hard drive, if UIS hadn't shown all sorts of hidden files where there shouldn't have been anyway. According to the programmer, these problems to not occur if you use their entire business solution, if I understand that correctly. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 120 Mon Sep 28, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 23:39 EDT We have tested DIR_SORT and it works fine. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 121 Wed Sep 30, 1992 M.SHANNON at 02:23 EDT HI, CCHEETAH 3.0 won't run with POWERDOS... Keeps saying "ERROR GETTING BPB!" Whats a BPB? and why can't CHEETAH get it? Please help, Thanks MS*S ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 122 Wed Sep 30, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 21:13 EDT I will check into the problem and get back to you. Thank you for the Report! Chris ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 123 Fri Oct 02, 1992 C.NICHOLLS [BILL] at 01:51 EDT In my system (TOS 2.05) WordPerfect running under PowerDOS can't find its speller files, specifically LEX.WP, even when the correct file path is typed in. Otherwise it seems to run very well. But if I want to spell check or word count I can't run WP under PowerDOS. I hope it's fixable. Bill ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 124 Fri Oct 02, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 14:36 EDT Bill PowerDOS _MAY_ force you to use the \ after the Path befor the Filename. this should fix the problem. Chris ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 125 Fri Oct 02, 1992 J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 18:48 EDT >Bill PowerDOS _MAY_ force you .... I'd like to remind everyone of the advice we frequently receive from law enforcement officers in situations like this...don't resist...give them what they want, especially when dealing with someone as notorious as Bill PowerDOS. Nuff said. John ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 126 Fri Oct 02, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 20:01 EDT :-) ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 127 Sat Oct 03, 1992 P.LEFEBVRE [T.K.] at 18:52 EDT I get two bombs when I try to use ESC to reread drive A:, but it only occurs within NeoDesk. I am using a Mega ST2 with Supra hard drive software. I tried PowerDOS with absolutely NO other auto programs or accessories and I still got the bombs. Any ideas as to what could be causing the problem? -- Paul ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 128 Sun Oct 04, 1992 C.NICHOLLS [BILL] at 01:32 EDT Chris, As far as I know I did use the \ before the file name, but I'' try again. Bill ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 129 Sun Oct 04, 1992 C.NICHOLLS [BILL] at 04:46 EDT Chris, I tried WordPerfect again under PowerDOS with a different set-up, actually with more AUTO programs, and it worked beautifully for a while, with speller coming up very fast, but then everything went wrong on me, and especially the problem seemed to be that DataDiet, which had worked pretty well so far for me with PDOS, quit, and one of my partitions filled right up, instead of having 25% free space, which in turn seemed to screw up several other things. I have just spent two hours or more working on the problem, mainly by clearing out the DD work file and de-fragging and optimizing the partition, and suddenly for no reason I can fathom DD started to work again and everything for now appears to be normal. What is the current fix on DD with PDOS? Is it reckoned to work or not? If not, will the problem be corrected in future versions of PDOS (I have 1.2)? This was a bad experience, and I am getting to be a bit distrustful. Up to now I have really liked PDOS, and I really hope you will persist until all the bugs are out. I still have trouble with Envelope ACC and its PRG, as well as with WordPerfect (?) and apparently now with DataDiet. Bill ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 130 Sun Oct 04, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 13:56 EDT We ahve found that Data Diet has problems with Fragmented files under Pdos we are currently trying to find out why. We have recived many reports that after D-Fragmenting Data Diet works fine. Word perfect trys to load files with a preset path that is recorded in the INF file look at that file and make sure that the Path is recorded correctly no extra "\" this seems to be the problem with WP it is a lack of "\" or extra "\". Paul: Send Me GEmail with the versions of your Harddisk software and We will get on it! Chris ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 131 Mon Oct 05, 1992 C.NICHOLLS [BILL] at 02:12 EDT Chris, Thanks for the info about DataDiet. I look forward to a fix from one party or the other RSN. Sure enough, I have had no more trouble since de- fragging the drive, but I am keeping my fingers crossed. If the rest of yuor message referred to my troubles with WordPerfect, I am puzzled. My version of WP doesn't make an INF file; it apparently writes its data to WP Start.PRG. When the paths come up, they seem to have the right number of \'s. Again, I have had no more trouble today. I am now using RAM Baby.ACC for my virtual files instead of Drive E, which was the one that got munged, in view of the problems with CODERAM.PRG. Bill ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 132 Wed Oct 07, 1992 GRIBNIF [Dan] at 12:15 EDT The most likely reason for PowerDOS crashing when Esc is pressed in NeoDesk is that NeoDesk forces a media change, according to Atari's documented method. I read in a previous message that another program also caused a crash to occur when forcing media change. Dan ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 133 Wed Oct 07, 1992 M.EVERHART2 [MIDIMIKE] at 23:40 EDT OKAY, I'll admit it, I'm stupid. This program is supposed to multitask. How? The readme file says to list programs you want to multitask following a "#" - I did this and got two bombs on boot up. To be careful, I deleted all other prgrams from my auto folder. Can anyone provide more explicit instructions? ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 134 Thu Oct 08, 1992 P.LEFEBVRE [T.K.] at 23:17 EDT Forcing a media change could be the problem it crashes my Mega 2, but when I use PowerDOS and NeoDesk on my MegaSTe, I don't crash when I use ESC on drive A:. -- Paul ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 135 Sat Oct 10, 1992 EFS at 00:23 EDT Chris, I found the problem with version 1.1 of autosort. The file is corrupt. My source code shows the temp folder name as {1234567.89}. The program I downloaded from Genie has control characters in the folder name. The control characters are what is giving PowerDos fits. I have (will) upload version 4.1 of autosort that works fine with PowerDos and PowerNet. Gene F Sothan ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 136 Thu Oct 15, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 12:37 EDT Thank you Gene! I knew it could have not been your Code! Chris ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 137 Thu Oct 15, 1992 GSCOTT-MOORE [Gerry] at 20:39 EDT \\\--- I've been told that Diamond Back II's file paths are being messed up by PowerDos' desire to change pathnames. Any possiblity of a fix? \\\--- Gerry ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 138 Sat Oct 17, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 16:17 EDT Check the Path and delete the extra "\" and all will be well. Oregon Reasearch is going to add PowerDOS support in the next release of DB. Chris ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 139 Sun Oct 18, 1992 C.NICHOLLS [BILL] at 02:13 EDT As my experience with PowerDOS grows, I am beginning to notice some patterns. The interaction with Data Diet does not seem to be completely cured by de- fragging the partition. I find now fairly consistently that the register file for Phasar (I think the version I have is 3.02)is not being unpacked when the program is called. I can fix this by doing a warm re-set, and then it comes up okay. Needless to say, this is a nuisance. I have sometimes had a similar problem with SuperCard 2, but it seems to be settling down. I no longer dare attempt to use Aladdin at all with PowerDOS and Datadiet (I am not sure which is the problem.) Several times I have had the CFG and other important files scrambled beyond recall. I hope that it will soon be possible to fix these problems, as I still enjoy the speed of PowerDOS and would be sorry to have to do without it. But the speed is often lost fixing these problems, and the disasters with Aladdin have cost me a LOT of time discovering what is wrong and restoring scrambled files from a back up which has become a bit out of date. Bill ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 140 Sun Oct 18, 1992 GSCOTT-MOORE [Gerry] at 12:48 EDT \\\--- Chris: Unfortunately, with the way Diamond Back works, access to path names is not quite so easy. It's semi-automated. Why is it necessary to put the unnecesary extra "\" there to begin with? I that, as some have indicated, not a bona fide method of "pathing" according to Atari? \\\--- Gerry ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 141 Mon Oct 19, 1992 L.ROMERO6 [Lindle] at 12:03 EDT Chris, I've asked a few times & even sent you E-Mail asking you why XYZ.TTP will not function under PowerDos & never got a reply. I LOVE PowerDos but would like to be able to D/l without dis-abling it. Thanks, Lindle Romero ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 142 Wed Oct 21, 1992 EXPLORER at 01:42 EDT Lindle, Please describe what happens when you try to run XYZ.TTP with PowerDOS. I use XYZ every day with PowerDOS, and have no trouble. The only way I have ever seen XYZ.TTP not work with PowerDOS is if the BIOSFORCE line in the CONFIGUR file is set to "Y". If set to "N" XYZ.TTP should work properly. --Travis ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 143 Sat Oct 24, 1992 R.GILBERT12 [RICHIE] at 18:42 EDT I'm new to this topic. Can someone explain to me what this program is about? ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 144 Mon Oct 26, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 11:40 EST Problem... We don't want no stinking Problems! ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 145 Thu Dec 24, 1992 M.SHANNON at 22:33 EST Chris, PDOS and the NET have worked flawlessly for me up to yesterday (and I don't know what I did!) Anyway, my system is 2 ST's (Unit1-4mb & Unit2-2mb) connected at this point with MIDI-NET. Unit-1 loads files with ease and speed from Unit-2 but when I try to load files from Unit-1 into applications on Unit-2 the loading moves like molasses. :^( Do you have any suggestions, (I hope so). Merry Christmas, MS ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 146 Sat Dec 26, 1992 DRAGONWARE [Chris] at 17:01 EST You have changed the system priorty in the INF files or the Configur files all these should be 128 for best speed. odds are if you copy the NM_MIDI.INF file from the good system to the bad system or Reinstall your software with your master disk's. and all will be well. Christopher W. Roberts the best of the Season to all! ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 147 Fri Feb 26, 1993 E.WISNIEWSK1 [Jeff - ST'er] at 07:30 EST Does anyone still read this topic?. Are there still user's of PowerDOS around?. Are there any more programs for PowerDOS than what is here on GEnie?. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Thursday, February 25, 1993 - 6:08:48 pm ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 148 Sat Feb 27, 1993 J.SNYDER7 [Cali-Co.] at 11:45 EST I Use PowerDOS on all my ST's because it's the only way to run the Network that links them all togeather. it REALLY speeds up the TOS 1.2 1040 that I am using right now. I wont make an Alladin Call to Genie without PowerDOS. Josh @ Cali-Co. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 149 Sat Feb 27, 1993 MYECK.WATERS [myeck] at 11:50 EST Jeff; Yeah, there are still PowerDos users around (well, I use PowerNet, which is the commercial release of PowerDos with networking). Thing is, the company handling commercial support of PowerNet doesn't seem to be on GEnie. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 150 Sat Feb 27, 1993 R.GREGORY4 [Rob] at 11:55 EST Jeff: I'm still PowerDossing, until something faSTer comes along... Has anyone found a screen-saver that properly reads only mouse/keyboard input when working under PowerDos? Rob ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 151 Sun Feb 28, 1993 E.WISNIEWSK1 [Jeff - ST'er] at 13:35 EST Rob, Have you tried the screen saver that is in the latest version of Warp-9?. Anyone get PowerDOS and Word-Up to work together?. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Saturday, February 27, 1993 - 11:36:54 pm ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 152 Sun Mar 07, 1993 M.SHANNON at 02:31 EST Josh, I downloaded MJ30DEMO.ZIP twice and can't get ZIP to decomress the demo.prg. Please fix the demo.prg and let me know when I can download it safely. Thanks... PS I download it twice to make sure. M.SHANNON Jeff, I'm using the commercial version of PowerDOS and the NETWORKing modules as well, I like it! M.SHANNON Rob, STARSAVER and PYRO work for me with PowerDOS M.SHANNON ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 153 Sun Mar 07, 1993 R.GREGORY4 [Rob] at 13:03 EST Jeff: No, I haven't. I'm a registered user of the Warp 9 version that preceded that fancy new screen-saver, but I neglected to update it when I found the cost to be a little high considering the improvements. Maybe I'll reconsider. Rob ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 154 Tue Mar 09, 1993 E.WISNIEWSK1 [Jeff - ST'er] at 07:32 EST Rob, Definitively reconsider as there are quite a few improvements... All, Does anyone have PowerDOS working with Spelling Sentry and Word-Up 3.00?. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Tuesday, March 9, 1993 - 2:57:08 am ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 155 Fri Apr 30, 1993 DRAGONWARE [Chris R.] at 18:26 EDT Mouse excellerator 3 from Atari works fine and the latest Warp 9 Word UP 3.0 will work with powerdos if you are using FontGDOS if not G++ Atari GDOS .xx and 1.xx are problematic with PowerDOS. I do not have Spelling Sentry so can not speak for it. The Public release of PowerDos and the latest release of MultiTOS is broken I will keep you posted. (they will not now co-exist Mint gives an error and exits) Hay folks if you liked PowerDos try our new D_GRAPH demo in the Lib! Chris Roberts DragonWare Software Inc. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 156 Sat May 01, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 23:01 EDT Chris, D_GRAPH looked very solid, and quite fast on my TT. Congrats! Al ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 157 Sun May 02, 1993 C.NICHOLLS [BILL] at 02:56 EDT Chris, I used the earlier version of PowerDOS for a while and thought it speeded things up a bit, but I ran into possible incompatibilies and decided it wasn't worth it. However, a simple multitasking program, for example one that only allowed one to run StraightFAX in the background, would be very useful for people who don't have Falcons or TTs -- i.e. the rest of us. Is development of PowerDOS continuing, and will future versions be available on line? Bill ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 158 Sun May 02, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 11:46 EDT Bill, That's what MultiTOS will do, when it comes out -- allow you to run STFax in the background, for example. Al ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 159 Mon May 03, 1993 DRAGONWARE [Chris R.] at 00:28 EDT Bill, PowerDos is made primarly for Networking and will remain so The benefit of speed is from its structure. As a multitasking OS it is FAST!!! compaired to some.... As PowerDOS is NOT a DragonWare product anymore I can not vouch for View Touch and what they want to do with the product. The Last I heard was that the latest Falcon bug was elemenated but beyond that I know not. However, DragonWare has just about finished a new NETWORK product that is MultiTOS friendly. AtariTalk2 is still ours and will be quite a product if the Market holds. Al, Thanks We worked for about two years on it so it Should be verrrrrry fast! I am still not happy with the Coin routine but that is the VDI (not my problem) Chris Roberts CEO DragonWare Software Inc. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 160 Tue May 04, 1993 C.NICHOLLS [BILL] at 01:47 EDT Al, Thanks. I was wondering if PowerDOS would be more suitable for a Mega STE than MultiTOS, which seems to need a 68030 to work well, from what I read. Bill ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 161 Tue May 04, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 07:14 EDT Bill, I can't say anything specific, but I can assure you that the multitasking horizon is a bright one. Al ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 162 Fri May 07, 1993 J.SNYDER7 [Cali-Co.] at 23:56 EDT Is thare a TRULY Falcon Compatable Version of Powerdos/net in the works? I have gotten the net running ONLY if I boot up into a ST Compatable Resolution and then I can't Change Resolution! This is without M-Tos instaled. Josh @ Cali-Co. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 163 Sun May 09, 1993 A.WARNER6 [Al Warner] at 16:26 EDT I use PowerDos and am extremely happy with the Hard Disk I/O speed. I am rather puzzled as to how and what to multitask with it. I really like this program and would like to inquire as to a developer's kit or other programming hooks and internal features for the system. Al Warner ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 164 Mon May 10, 1993 DRAGONWARE [Chris R.] at 02:53 EDT Josh The NEW powerDOS is avalible from ViewTouch and it is Falcon 030 compatible. The orignal PowerDOS worked with all but the Last version of the Falcon Roms. As Atari changed the screen memory alacation routines at bootup this messed up PowerDOS's lookup tables and other junk. Chris Roberts CEO DragonWare Software Inc. ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 165 Mon May 10, 1993 M.WEILERT2 [matt] at 23:36 EDT Al, RE: msg 163 Is yours a DragonWare or Viewtouch version of PowerDos? I'm becoming more interested in PDOS myself & am thinking of getting it. Any leads? Regards, Matt ------------ Category 2, Topic 43 Message 166 Tue May 11, 1993 J.THOMAS12 [JT] at 03:18 EDT Bob Brodie was at our DACE users group meeting last Thursday and told us that there is work being done on a PowerDos/PowerNet product for the Falcons030. ------------