What was TOPDOS?

[DavidMil]

I was looking through the two full shoeboxes of floppies I have when I came across a disk that had a hand

written label on it that said:

 

TOPDOS

Eclipse software

 

Anyone have any idea what it was about?

This disk won't boot so I set it aside to see

if the data can be recovered/repaired later.

 

DavidMil

[Rybags]

Not in my Doses folder and no image @ Atarimania.

 

I'm just about certain I've got one or two on real floppy but my memory it was another unremarkable Dos. Unsure if it was only 2.0S compatible or could also deal with 2.5 ED disks.

Or maybe it was one of those breakaway ones that used a partially compatible layout for ED disks.

 

I never thought much of it and only had it for the sake of "if I ever need it".

[scotty]

Top Dos 1.5.ATR

[FULS]

This might be the last version of it.

Top-Dos Pro! v1d (1986)(R.K. Bennett)(B & C Computervisions).atr

[larryleffaovell]

Anyone have any idea what it was about?

 

Have a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_DOS#Top-DOS and https://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n3/AboutDOS.html

[Timothy Kline]

Found this discussion from days past:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/254642-top-dos/

 

--Tim

 

 

[+Larry]

The simple answer is that TOP-DOS is a large and generally complicated replacement for Dos 2.0.

 

It started its life as "DOS-MOD" which patched Dos 2.0 and added some features. Then came TOP-DOS, TOP-DOS 1.5, TOP-DOS 1.5A, TOP-DOS PLUS, and finally TOP-DOS Professional. It does have lots of features if you are tolerant of the learning curve and have need of them. The manuals are large and "full-featured" with good explanations. IMO, it's interesting, but not worth messing with.

 

There is several downloads at the Internet Archive, including these docs to DOS-MOD:

https://archive.org/details/DOS-MOD

 

-Larry

[Guest]

here's all I have:

 

Top Dos 1.1.ATRTop Dos 1.5.ATRTop Dos 1.5a with help files.ATRTop Dos 1.20.ATRTop Dos DOS-MOD manual.pdfTop Dos Pro v1d 2D.ATRTop Dos Pro! v1d (1986)(R.K. Bennett)(B & C Computervisions).atr

 

 

[+Larry]

It would be cool if the original Dos-Mod turned up -- it would be interesting to look at and see what differences there are between it and Dos 2.0. I've looked several times over the years, but have never found it.

[Farb]

According to the manual, there were also a TOP-DOS 1.3 which contained new features and 1.4 which was only a bug-fix release.

[Guest]

here's as complete a list as I can make:

 

► DOS-MOD [patched Dos 2.0]

► TOP-DOS

► TOP-DOS 1.1

► TOP-DOS 1.2

► TOP-DOS 1.3

► TOP-DOS 1.4

► TOP-DOS 1.5

► TOP-DOS 1.5A

► TOP-DOS PLUS

► TOP-DOS Professional

 

green = attached in my post above

red = can anybody locate/iupload these?

[Gunstar]

I've had a copy of Top Dos sitting in one of my floppy holders for years, along with a few other 2.0/2.5 compatibles. I've never bothered to look at it, and recently even thought about deleting a lot of these DOS's I never use to write some new software to the disks of which I have a shortage of available floppies atm. I guess I'll give it a load, see if the disk even boots, and see what version it is...I'm strictly a SpartaDOS guy myself, if I use a DOS 2 compatible menu DOS, it's usually MyDOS, the two late-day "standards" (Sparta/MyDOS) we use for our new high-capacity drive solutions.

Edited December 16, 2018 by Gunstar

[576XE]

Hello, Friends!

 

Top DOS is very flexible system.

It's unbelievably modular and powerful.

 

You can load any module with L command and use it

(For example RAMDISK or SUBDIR or VTOC). VTOC is for Harddrives up to 16Mb.

DOS itself has very low MEMLO.

 

The ONLY problem is that any version of Top DOS Pro here on AtariAge is MODIFYED!

After installing 130XE module someone save dos to disk with H command.

I mean that 130XE module is already appended to DOS SYS and can not be UNINSTALLED without disassembly and cracking.

 

zen

[+Larry]

It's been several years -- has anyone come up with the Dos-Mod file(s)?  I suspect that it is a file that patches Dos 2.0s (extensively).  I've never seen one, but I keep looking.  Note the manual is here, but not the file(s).  Atarimania has an ad which is informative.  Is says that there were separate Dos-Mod versions for single and double density.