MyDOS page

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These file all somehow relate to MyDOS. You'll find MyDOS 4.53/3 (including the source code) as well as all kinds of files that need, want or support MyDOS. Some of these files were previously on my 'some stuff I collected' page.

I added MAIN.DOC and TECH.DOC to the site. MyDOS 4.53/3 came without them. All files that were originally called *.DOC are still called *.DOC. On the Atari this does not mean anything, on the PC, it means Word gets loaded. Please be aware that Word will cut off pages at the dotted lines, which is not like Bob Puff and Charles Marslett had intended it. Be prepared.

This picture I found on http://atarixe.dotnet.lv/DOS/MyDOS.htm. The site was in Letvia. Thanks to Jerri K., Chris C., the wayback machine and Google we now know what the site said.

Here are two letters Charles Marslett, original author of MyDOS, once wrote to me. 1, 2

ANALOG Computing was a very nice magazin, but what they wrote on MyDOS was pure nonsense. Read what they published about MyDOS in August of 1986 and September of 1988.

• The "D0:" format bug is removed, so your "D1:" will no longer be formatted when MyDOS thinks there is no RAMdisk and the RAMdisk driver thinks there is.
• On cold boots, it now checks if there already is a valid RAMdisk. If a valid RAMdisk is found, it will skip formatting the RAMdisk, keeping the files in it save. This only works if the existing RAMdisk was created by MyRD(2). Pressing 1 will also skip the RAMdisk formatting.
• MyRD2 does an auto detect of the RAMdisk size when the computer is cold booted. MyRD does not.
• Eliminates the need for USPRAM9.AR0 (see above).
• Some bugs have been fixed.

The new and improved version of MyRD(2).

Lee Barnes has come up with a patch that will solve some of MyDOS's RAMdisk detect problems. The text explains what you should do, it's really easy.

You want to use a BATCHFILE with MyDOS?

Here's the text that explains it all in English or in German.
And the Batch utility in DCM format.

Other versions of MyDOS

MDB4_2ND.ZIP - Version 4.55 beta 4. <-- Currently latest version!

The difference between 4.53/3 and 4.53/4 is that the first uses three character sector counts if possible, where 4.53/4 uses a minimum of four characters in the sector count just like most versions of MyDOS. Some utilities can't handle the four character sector count that used to be characteristic of MyDOS. Other utilities check for MyDOS and expect a four character sector count. Version 4.55 doesn't need a "/3" and a "/4" version, since you can choose between three character minimum and four character minimum sector counts after choosing option "O".
Check out the "bugs and feature list" mentioned below to find out what Lee and I would like to see happen when it comes to sector counts.

All versions above - if they contain DOS and DUP - are DISKCOMMed, so that you can get a bootable disk, then ARC-ed so that browsers don't mess up the contents. Some are DISKCOMMed single sided single density disks, others are DISKCOMMed single sided double density. One disk has zero free sectors, but that's OK. Some *.DCM files are too long for a single density disk (until you UnDISKCOMM them).

MyDOS' bug and feature list

Here's a small list of bugs Lee and I would like to see removed and features we'd like to see added.

Here's the source code Lee was working on before he discovered that 4.50 is of a later date then 4.51.

BUILD.ASM
MDOS.ASM
MDOS1.ASM
MDOS2.ASM
MDOS3.ASM
MDOS4.ASM
MDUP.ASM
MDUP1.ASM
MDUP2.ASM
MDUP3.ASM
MDUP4.ASM
MDUP5.ASM
MDUP6.ASM
MDUP7.ASM
NOTE.ASM

Or the format Lee prefers:

BUILD.TXT
MDOS.TXT
MDUP.TXT

And here is the code Lee is working on at the moment.
This is the cleaned up source code to MyDOS 4.50. Please read the README file inside the ARC-file.

Cleaned up MyDOS 4.50

If you have any comments, please contact me.

How do you people think about the following:

There is an area of 2kB between dos.sys and dup.sys that is used as a 'resident driver's buffer'. This is the area where eight hard drives are supposed to be set up with all their percom blocks, sector skews, etc. But with the Black Box, there is nothing there, just empty space. It's never used for modern systems at all, and I wonder if it EVER was used in any system at all. I wouldn't know how to hook up a hard drive directly to an 8bit such that it would be detected by these hard drive routines and I wonder about reclaiming this area sometimes. Have you ever seen any documentation on hooking up hard drives without the BB, MIO, Supra or other device first, other than Woolley's IDE? How about floppies other than SIO units like the 810, 1050, rana, etc., and/or BB floppy board? If those days never really existed for the 8bit, then reserving 2kB between DOS and DUP seems rather stupid doesn't it? I'm not burning up to change this, yet I must ask the question, why do it?

Try English		oder Deutsch
of Nederlands		of Heljes/Dörps.
Please use "Feedback from my MyDOS Page" as the subject.

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