SpartaDos Tools : Best List

[ebiguy]

Hi,

 

I would like to "prepare" a partition with all tools needed to program, edit, draw,... on the A8 under SpartaDos (or RealDos or BW-DOS).

I am not talking about "SpartaDos toolkit". Everyone using SpartaDos already know it.

 

I guess I am not the only one to come back to the A8 having been away from the A8 world for many years.

And I feel that there exist a lot of tools out there but not available in a central repository.

And even when you dig into repositories, there are many softwares not compatible with SpartaDos (taking control of the whole memory and destroying OS, no option to return to DOS, not startable from SpartaDos, ...)

I wish I could get feedbacks from A8 users about the software they use.

 

The only condition for software to appear in the list is to be compatible with SpartaDos (at least can be run from SpartaDos and does not destroy/overwrite OS when running)

The "tools" can be of any kind (programming, graphics editor, disk tools, editors, ...), but no game please.

 

Thank you for your suggestions !

 

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

I am most likely the wrong person to ask (or to answer), because I do not use SpartaDOS nor SDX. Nevertheless, I have some Sparta PD tools in my collection. You have to find out yourself which of these tools are usefull (most are quite old and/or outdated), if any...

 

Besides, I do have "some" painting programs and text editors (as well as word processors) in my collection. For Sparta you may want to try "The Last Word" or one of the many text editor files from my collection. (Textpro is not included, since each of the Textpro versions 1.x, 2.x, 3.x, 4.x and 5.x comes with lots of add-ins, macros and other stuff and therefore fills a whole disk). Attached are also some painting programs, some of them very old, some of them newer - not sure if you want to paint/draw in standard Gr.7, 8,9,10,11,15 or in one of the newer gfx modes, like HIP, RIP, TIP, CIN, etc. The text editor and painting programs are in DOS 2.x format however, you have to copy them onto SDFS first and test which programs will still work under Sparta...

 

-Andreas Koch.

 

P.S.: RealDOS and BeweDOS also use the SDFS (Sparta DOS File System) and come with a lot of tools...

sparta_tools.zip

painting_pgms.zip

txt_editors.zip

Edited April 17, 2014 by CharlieChaplin

[flashjazzcat]

Current versions of The Last Word don't work with Sparta 3.x (although they do work with BeweDOS) because of shadow-RAM usage. The old version 2.1 does work with Sparta 3.x, however, and you can find it at the foot of this page.

 

While I'm here: all the APT Hard Disk Partitioning Tools work with Sparta 3.x (and most other DOSes). Sometimes it's assumed they require SpartaDOS X, but this is not the case at all.

[ebiguy]

Thank you for all these software.

I tried a lot of them but need more time to discover all the tools.

 

Are there any other software working gracefully with SpartaDos X ?

 

And are there any programming tools for SpartaDos or SpartaDOs X (still on A8, not on PC) like assemblers, disassemblers, debuggers,...

[bbking67]

I am also interested in this... I stopped using SpartaDOS around 1988 or so and there must be tone of great utilities out there. It would be interested in the following, with the emphasis on performance:

 

Text Editor

Archiving tools (disk and file compression)

80 column handler (I`ve seen references to these but never used them, is there one that is the best)

menuing programs

file manager

[576XE]

2CharlieChaplin

-->

At first I believe that you are THE FAMOUS AND EXHAUSTIVELY INFORMED SOURCE in Atari Software Area.

I can't anything to add and subtruct too.

 

All of us awaiting 80 cols ED from Konrad.

The Last Word is perfect WORD PROCESSOR. (Thanks to FJC!)

We are awaiting simple Editor80.

E8.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Hello,

 

Thank you for all these software.

I tried a lot of them but need more time to discover all the tools.

 

Are there any other software working gracefully with SpartaDos X ?

 

And are there any programming tools for SpartaDos or SpartaDOs X (still on A8, not on PC) like assemblers, disassemblers, debuggers,...

 

I do not know of any programming tools that were made *especially* for SpartaDOS (but since I do not use Sparta, there could be some), most programming tools were made for any/all DOS versions around. I am currently working on a collection of PD assemblers, disassemblers, debuggers, monitors, disk/sector-editors (use DISKRX.COM as disk/sector-editor for Sparta), etc. To get you started, search for BBK software (Bryan Schappel and Barry Kolbe) from Antic and Analog, they had many great type-in listings, including disassembler, debugger and monitor. Not sure though, if they do work alright under SDFS... will post these tools here soon.

 

I am also interested in this... I stopped using SpartaDOS around 1988 or so and there must be tone of great utilities out there. It would be interested in the following, with the emphasis on performance:

 

Text Editor

Archiving tools (disk and file compression)

80 column handler (I`ve seen references to these but never used them, is there one that is the best)

menuing programs

file manager

 

- Text Editors: posted some attachments above, otherwise how about Textpro/Textpro+, Turboword 80 and similar things ?

 

- Archiving tools: on the A8 we don`t have a ZIP (only Unzip!), 7z or RAR program, but we do have Super-ARC, Super-Unarc and Diskcomm* by Bob Puff; Sparta also comes with Scopy.COM or something similar that creates (compressed?) archives of complete disks (where ATR = Atari/SIO2PC disk-image, XFD = X-Former disk-image, DCM = Diskcomm disk-image and SCP = Sparta Scopy disk-image); there are dozens of other archiving file(s) and disk(s) tools on the A8, but they are mostly old + non-standard programs and compression methods, like Alf, Scrunch, Mash, Squish, etc.

* named Archiver.COM, Unarchiv.COM and Diskcom.COM in Packers_Archivers.zip (on the Packer1.ATR) attachment...

 

 

- 80 column handlers: I already released some of them here at AA forum:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/204915-64-columns-screen-driver/?hl=80+column&do=findComment&comment=2634849

(especially posts 10 and 15).

 

- menuing programs: if you mean some sort of gamedos, for Sparta there is MS-DOS (Micro-Sparta-DOS, before M$ complains)

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/164418-microspartados-45-release/?hl=ms#8208dos=

and SD-Load: http://drac030.krap.pl/sdload.arc

if you mean a DUP-like menu however, Sparta and Real-DOS do include such a program, named DOSMENU.COM

 

To make the gamedos (MS-DOS, SD-Load) bootable, copy it onto a new disk, copy BOOT.COM from the Sparta diskette onto this disk, then execute BOOT.COM and type in the filename of the file you want to boot (BOOT.COM will boot any COM/EXE file)... at least, thats how I remember it.

 

- file manager: Menu.COM in SpartaDOS, Menu.COM in Bewe-DOS, Menu.COM in Real-DOS, Sparta-Commander:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/167610-spartados-commander/?hl=80%20column

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/210970-file-manager-for-atari-8-bit/?hl=80+column&do=findComment&comment=2731791

(posts 9, 11 and 13)

The Browser by Tom Hunt (post 13 + attachment in the above link), The [sparta-DOS] Wedge by Ed Bachmann and maybe a few others

 

Greetings, Andreas Koch.

 

P.S.: Also download Bewe-DOS and Real-DOS, they include a lot of tools that are not to be found on the Sparta disks...

textpro_turword.zip

packers_archivers.zip

[+bf2k+]

My HD Tools... for Sparta ONLY!

http://bf.amfband.com/hdtools.html

 

the tools are here: http://bf.amfband.com/files/hdt_0901.zip

Edited April 19, 2014 by bf2k+

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

here is a link to the old webpage of Bryan Schappel:

http://www.rts-software.com/8bit/

there you can find instructions for their monitor (BBK monitor), debugger (Debug+) and disassembler (disk-master). Not sure if any of these programs will load (and/or work correct) under SpartaDOS.

Edited April 20, 2014 by CharlieChaplin

[ebiguy]

Thank you for all you suggestions.

I started this topic to get tools for SpartaDos but It was to use them with SpartaDos X.

I thought suggestions for SpartaDos would be OK with SpartaDos X.

But now I am not sure anymore.

I tried some of the tools from the previous posts on SpartaDos X and many tools need to be run with the X command.

And I don't know if old tools dealing with disk are compatible with SDFS 2.1 with partitions using 512byte sectors.

Maybe it could destroy a directory or even the entire partition.

I should have stated SpartaDos X in the title (and recent SpartaDos X if it matters).

My fault. Or should I start a new topic ?

 

Now, I wish I could have feedbacks from people using SparaDos X and other tools.

Something like : I am using software XXX on SpartaDos X and it's ok but you need at least 1 bank of extended memory to run it

Or : I tried software YYY with SpartaDos X which runs fine but it is not compatible with partitions that uses 512byte sectors.

Edited April 20, 2014 by ebiguy