For those who would say that 8-bit CP/M is dead, I present the following edited exchange of messages from CompuServe... --Keith Petersen ------------------------------------ Dt: 17-Sep-85 01:49:43 Sb: A Z-SYSTEM Testimonial Fm: Peter O.E. Bekker 74106,1430 To: All I have just now emerged from 10 grueling hours worth of eye-crossing (glossing) installation work - but am proud to report the SUCCESSFUL implementation of ZCPR3 and Echelon's ZRDOS on a Kaypro 4-84. In short, a fully functional Z-SYSTEM. Without qualification I can say the Z-SYSTEM is a MAJOR boon to 8-bit computing. Rick Conn, Joe Wright and the folks at ECHELON are quite definately pioneers who have picked-up the ball from Digital Research and run with it...far beyond the goal post. (At first blush this would seem silly - who would want to run much past the goal post? That's probably what DRI asked itself..lo those many years ago.) Well - had DRI only answered its own question with the same kind of vision that made it famous in the first place, BIG BLUE and its conspirators might not have muscled it out of prominence so quickly and completely .. but I digress. Initial "interfaces" with the Z-SYSTEM have shown a TREMENDOUS improvement over CP/M..most particularly in the areas of "friendliness" and functionality. (It's MS/PC-DOS .. for those of us who don't much care for the EXPENSE of 16-bit computing.) While I'd like to babble on & on about Z-SYSTEM - I can't..lest someone get the idea I'm enthusiatic about it..or (perish the thought) suspect I have an equity interest in the distributor. (Wish I did.) But to demonstrate my serious intent - I am preparing a comprehensive DOC file for installation of Z-SYSTEM on a KAYPRO 4-84 (for my own records) and will be more than happy to post it here should anyone express even the slightest interest. It's not a breeze by any means but, when all is said & done, it is well worth the effort. To paraphrase a once obscure music critic named Jon Landau who several years ago sat through a Bruce Springsteen performance at a small Boston club.. "I have seen the future of 8-bit computing.. and its name is Z-SYSTEM." Dt: 17-Sep-85 18:22:54 Sb: A Z-SYSTEM Testimonial Fm: Eldor Gemst 74116,2714 To: Peter O.E. Bekker 74106,1430 (X) Is there any HARDWARE installation required with ZRDOS or is it strictly software? There must be alot of disk space required just for the system files - do you really feel the advantages of the system outweigh the disk space required? I can see it on a hard disk system, but am less convinced with floppies. Dt: 17-Sep-85 23:29:29 Sb: A Z-SYSTEM Testimonial Fm: Peter O.E. Bekker 74106,1430 To: Eldor Gemst 74116,2714 (X) You're right. ZSYSTEM is a MUCH more noticeable boon on hard disks than floppies. But there are considerable advantages on the smaller drives too. As for file space..I've enjoyed a GAIN using ZSYSTEM. First of all, ZRDOS is a direct BDOS replacement and takes up no more space than a machine's stock BDOS (even though it contains several significant BDOS enhancements. Using ZCPR3, I no longer keep PIP or STAT on most disks, saving 14k right there. Z3, as you know, has CPY and PROT to do most of the things PIP & STAT do. The REQUIRED Z3 files that every disk should have are ENV (the environment), LDR (to load the environment..and other things) and RCP (the Resident Command Package.) They are 4k, 2k and 2k respectively. So you see -by removing PIP & STAT (14k) I've freed-up 8k of space per disk since the ZCPR3 residents total only 8k. No hardware changes of any kind are required. ZSYSTEM is strictly an operating system change...but as I mentioned to Charlie, I've just now gotten it running and will be reporting back periodically as advantages and disadvantages are observed. I must say, though, that throughout the installation process, it became clear to me that ZSYSTEM is an intriguing and damn clever implementation. Dt: 17-Sep-85 23:27:27 Sb: A Z-SYSTEM Testimonial Fm: Peter O.E. Bekker 74106,1430 To: Sysop Charlie Strom 76703,602 (X) The ZRDOS advantages that come immediately to mind are the extended function calls you'd heard about. These include calls to set and reset a warm boot trap - a call to GET the current DMA.....ZRDOS also supports file archiving and wheel protection...You even get a DELETE key that works for command line editing since ZRDOS eliminates the troublesome ^R function. The BIG convenience, of course, is AUTO DISK LOGGING (just like MS-DOS) no more repetative ^C's each time a disk is changed..just take one out, put another one in .. and go. The error messages are a lot friendlier (and more informative) too. ZRDOS directly answers the complaints of those who say CP/M is too "unfriendly" to gain wider accpetance. And for programmers, it's a dream come true..particularly teamed with ZCPR3. Haven't benchmarked..not really set up for it. ZRDOS is written in Z80 so it's got to be a little faster that CP/M..though because of disk access slowdowns, probably not noticeably so. But I guess a Ramdisk check could be made. As for the vast CP/M 80 domain of programs..no reason why they can't be run under ZRDOS... But I've just now gotten this running and I'll report periodically to the membership on what I find. Dt: 17-Sep-85 23:24:55 Sb: A Z-SYSTEM Testimonial Fm: Peter O.E. Bekker 74106,1430 To: John Deakin (CA) 74015,1624 (X) Since ZRDOS is primarily a straight BDOS replacement, I will be concentrating [on writing] mostly (and in excruciating detail) on the installation of ZCPR3 in the K4-84. Included will be memory locations, sizes and uses...cold start patches for the BIOS, a change to lower the BDOS, a warm start patch to protect the CPR, step-by-step instruction on intstalling ZCPR3's main functions (ie External Path, Wheel Byte, Multiple Command Buffer.....in short, all the info I've been UNABLE to locate in the many ZCPR3 DOCs I've read.) I hope to list all this info in such a way that even a total dolt such as myself would be able to make sense of it and even get Z-SYSTEM running while reading it. -------------------------------- Peter Bekker's K4ZSYSIN.DQC is now available on most RCP/M systems.