Apps & Utils You'd Like To See For: Atari DOS

[+MrFish]

I know there are people who like to do things with their Ataris besides play games.

 

What apps & utils would you like to see for Atari DOS?

Also, what features would you like to see, or what apps & utils already exist that you would like to see upgraded with particular features?

[Note: There are separate threads for Atari GUI & Cross-Platform apps & utils.]

---------------------------------------

I'd Like To Create:

- ToDo / Calendar
There are features I've had in mind for many years, which I haven't found in any PC app (maybe I haven't searched hard enough). I think it'd be great to have on my Atari.

Edited July 9, 2017 by MrFish

[Joey Z]

I know there are people who like to do things with their Ataris besides play games.

 

What apps & utils would you like to see for Atari DOS?

Also, what features would you like to see, or what apps & utils already exist that you would like to see upgraded with particular features?

 

[Note: There are separate threads for Atari GUI & Cross-Platform apps & utils.]

 

---------------------------------------

 

I'd Like To Create:

 

- ToDo / Calendar

There are features I've had in mind for many years, which I haven't found in any PC app (maybe I haven't searched hard enough). I think it'd be great to have on my Atari.

how about a nice RPN desk calculator? see unix dc for inspiration

[Brentarian]

Did anyone ever make a command line interface for Atari DOS or MyDos (to replace DUP.SYS)? I really dislike using DOS menus since switching to SpartaDos in the mid 80's.

[+David_P]

I seem to recall BBK from ANALOG putting one out - maybe the "BBK Command Processor" or some such thing.

 

EDIT: A quick check with my friend Google found two:

 

BBK CP: http://www.rts-software.com/8bit/scp.php

 

And from Antic, the Super COmmand Processor: http://www.atarimagazines.com/analog/issue72/command_processor.php

[+CharlieChaplin]

Did anyone ever make a command line interface for Atari DOS or MyDos (to replace DUP.SYS)? I really dislike using DOS menus since switching to SpartaDos in the mid 80's.

 

Turbo-DOS XL/XE by Reitershan (Germany) also uses a command line interface. They got the source of DOS 2.5 from Atari Deutschland and created a DOS for them, that is widely unknown: DOS-XF (DOS 2.5 compatible, for the XF551 drive, with 90k-360k formats, XF speeder, etc.).

 

Then they created Turbo-DOS XL/XE (DOS 2.5 compatible, formats up to 360k, Ramdisks up to 256k, supports various floppy speeders, Batchfiles and uses a CLI)... use the Help key to see all available commands, Start to display a DIR of the current drive, Select to switch between drive 1 and drive 8 (ramdisk), Option to go to Basic or cartridge, etc.

 

http://ftp.pigwa.net/stuff/collections/holmes%20cd/Holmes%201/ATR%20Programs/Applications%20A-Z/Turbo%20Dos%20XE%202.1.atr

 

Of course there is also DOS XL, Happy-DOS / DOS II+D and XDOS that use a CLI and no DUP at all. (Hehe, in the SpartaDOS disk-version, there exists DOSMENU.COM, to have a similar menu like DOS 2.0 / DOS 2.5)

Edited July 10, 2017 by CharlieChaplin

[+CharlieChaplin]

how about a nice RPN desk calculator? see unix dc for inspiration

 

Something like this:

http://www.atarionline.pl/v01/index.php?ct=utils&sub=B.%20Rozne&tg=Atari%20Rechner%20Simulation%20mit%20UPN&PHPSESSID=d1bf6855f71b1dd3549a62fc9b22d608#Atari%20Rechner%20Simulation%20mit%20UPN

 

(UPN = german for "umgekehrte polnische Notation", which means "reversed polish notation" - RPN in english)

 

The program supports various controllers, there are drivers for Joystick, ST-Mouse, Trackball, Touch-Tablet available (rename the one you want to use to *.EXE)...

[+MrFish]

Something like this:

http://www.atarionline.pl/v01/index.php?ct=utils&sub=B.%20Rozne&tg=Atari%20Rechner%20Simulation%20mit%20UPN&PHPSESSID=d1bf6855f71b1dd3549a62fc9b22d608#Atari%20Rechner%20Simulation%20mit%20UPN

 

(UPN = german for "umgekehrte polnische Notation", which means "reversed polish notation" - RPN in english)

 

The program supports various controllers, there are drivers for Joystick, ST-Mouse, Trackball, Touch-Tablet available (rename the one you want to use to *.EXE)...

 

I think he means similar to the "dc" command-line tool for Unix/Linux.

[+MrFish]

BTW, when I said "Atari DOS" for this topic, I didn't mean Atari DOS specifically but just for any Atari DOS (MyDOS, SpartaDOS, etc.) as opposed to something written for the GUI, which will be totally dependant on it to run, and also to differentiate from other system DOS'es that command-line, cross-platform tools are written for, etc.

[Joey Z]

 

Something like this:

http://www.atarionline.pl/v01/index.php?ct=utils&sub=B.%20Rozne&tg=Atari%20Rechner%20Simulation%20mit%20UPN&PHPSESSID=d1bf6855f71b1dd3549a62fc9b22d608#Atari%20Rechner%20Simulation%20mit%20UPN

 

(UPN = german for "umgekehrte polnische Notation", which means "reversed polish notation" - RPN in english)

 

The program supports various controllers, there are drivers for Joystick, ST-Mouse, Trackball, Touch-Tablet available (rename the one you want to use to *.EXE)...

That is good, but if I'm going to get a graphical version, I'd like it to be an HP15C

 

EDIT: also, keyboard support is a MUST, though you didn't mention that, and I can't figure it out either.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Joey Z

[+CharlieChaplin]

Hmmm,

 

when you use the keywords "HP calculator" in the search, you find these two topics:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/228928-hp-calculator-for-the-atari-8-bit

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/231128-hewlett-packard-calculator-emulators-for-the-atari-800xl

 

Norbert Kehrer wrote emulators for the HP35, HP 45, HP55 and HP80, no HP15 or HP15C as of yet...

 

Another RPN calculator ? Carol Shaw's calculator uses RPN...

https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Atari%20Calculator

[+MrFish]

A couple of color tests -- obviously for a DOS based version only.

 

Aside from both of them having a different color for the LCD (done so I could more easily distinguish between them), the main difference is that the first one is able to have a separate color for the white area of the button (main/primary function) as a background color (different from the main, black background). I'm using dark gray for it here but any suitable color can be used. The only restriction is that the "f" and "g" keys cannot be fully painted their appropriated colors, using this scheme. There may be a way to do it, but I couldn't think of one off the top of my head (this was all just thrown together on a whim).

 

The second version has no separte color for the background of the white area of the button, but the "f" and "g" keys can be fully colored.

 

Personally I thought it turned out alright, but the highlighting for the functions above the buttons are inconsistent -- due to the varied height of the function texts. To me, it detracts from the design, but I don't think it would look right to have them at all the same height, because it would just be a lot of color splashed on nothing. Overall, it makes things a little more clear -- as the original.

 

 

Edited July 16, 2017 by MrFish

[576XE]

Personally I love polish DOS 2.5 CP. Fully compartible and very tiny DOS!

 

But it lacks of parsing parameters in command line.

Does anyone can remember Command line DOS with this feature but Sparta?

 

ez

[+MrFish]

Personally I love polish DOS 2.5 CP. Fully compartible and very tini DOS!

 

But it lacks of parsing parameters in command line.

Does anyone can remember Command line DOS with this feature but Sparta?

 

I guess BW-DOS is one such. I never used it, so I'm not familiar with it's memory usage, but low footprint is one of it's stated goals -- and SpartaDOS X compatibility.

[sanny]

Does anyone can remember Command line DOS with this feature but Sparta?

 

 

XDOS

[576XE]

Hi Sanny!!!

 

I love XDOS but...

Docs,Docs,Docs...

 

My history:

I'm constantly trying to investigate some of Atari Programming Langs!

 

Really, NOT for using it, BUT to find it's abilities!

 

At the end of my attemps I've found that there are no sufficient buffers to compile CC8 program in XDOS.

 

YES!

I've added buffers and compiled them successfully.

 

I love XDOS (used it...) but I knew nothing about it!

ez

 

ALL THE BEST !!!

[576XE]

Hi there,MrFish!

 

I worked with BW DOS even in 90th.

I think that it's the version of Sparta for 800 mchines!

 

It's perfect too! But it uses special atari memory (not documented).

I never could launch LISP with it!

 

And I hate cwd stanzas.

Themselve the BW-DOS is perfect!!!

[+MrFish]

I love XDOS but...

Docs,Docs,Docs...

 

I'd like to see some English docs for this too.

 

 

Hi there,MrFish!

 

I worked with BW DOS even in 90th.

I think that it's the version of Sparta for 800 mchines!

 

It's perfect too! But it uses special atari memory (not documented).

I never could launch LISP with it!

 

And I hate pwd stanzas.

Themselve the BW-DOS is perfect!!!

 

What are "pwd stanzas"?

[576XE]

I'm crazy! It's cwd!

 

It's cwd in BW-DOS or cd in modern SDX means: - Change Working Dir

Are you surprized?

 

The only word GORAZIO... Here we are alone.

Here we are all Gorazios!!!

ez

[+MrFish]

Doesn't seem so bad, but they could have followed the standard.

[576XE]

Dear MrFish

 

There was not any standards at all!

BW-DOS has the same interface with Atari like any other DOS and like SDX 2xx.

ez

[+MrFish]

There was not any standards at all!

BW-DOS has the same interface with Atari like any other DOS and like SDX 2xx.

 

I'm talking about the standard of using "CD" to change directories rather than "CDW"... wasn't that what you were complaining about?

[576XE]

Yes. of course.

 

Old command line DOSes used CWD but modern use CD, being it SpartaDOS 3.3 or RealDOS.

BW-DOS is very good and have MENU program which is much more convenient IMHO then such in SpartaDOS 3.2x etc.

BW-DOS has very complete set of DOS tools.

 

I'm work with mostly SD3.3A on emulators. And of course I never can remember this intermediate W while I need another DOS with low MEMLO for example.

 

I think that it may be good idea to write somewhere "Best practices" concerning SDX.

SDX still enigma for me.

 

By the way, returning to theme, I'd like to see something like Shell for Command-line DOSes.

In Command-line DOSes we still lack of modern PATH tracking utility!

 

Shell can hold 3 PATHes beside root! But it affects E: device in VBL. It's hardcoded.

Shell is very useful!!! But slightly annoying with it's strange Path prompt.

 

Best wishes!

ez

 

P.S. By the way, MrFish. Your "Serious Computerist" is very good and clear site. No doubt!

[+MrFish]

Yes. of course.

 

Old command line DOSes used CWD but modern use CD, being it SpartaDOS 3.3 or RealDOS.

 

Really? Unix uses CD from ancient times...

 

 

BW-DOS is very good and have MENU program which is much more convenient IMHO then such in SpartaDOS 3.2x etc.

BW-DOS has very complete set of DOS tools.

 

Yeah, I just looked at the menu program for the first time. It looks lean and simple.

 

 

P.S. By the way, MrFish. Your "Serious Computerist" is very good and clear site. No doubt!

 

Thanks, it's languishing for planned additions (existing content is always updated though).

 

 

[sanny]

 

Really? Unix uses CD from ancient times...

 

It uses 'cd' to change the current directory, and 'pwd' print the current directory.

DOS/Windows use 'cd' for both. A 'cd' without arguments prints the current directory.

A 'cd' without arguments on Unix changes to the home directory of the user.

[+kheller2]

The fact PWD is still around and not shortened to PD tells it all.

pwd for present working directory, cwd for change working directory. cwd was from the old IBM DOS and Unix/AIX systems before that (perl still uses that routine cwd() ).