177 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
177 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
MSDOS 2.0 RELEASE
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The 2.0 Release of MSDOS includes five 5 1/4 double density single sided
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diskettes or three 8 iinch CP/M 80 format diskettes.
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The software/documentation on the five inch diskettes is arranged
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as follows:
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1. DOS distribution diskette. This diskette contains files which
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should be distriibuted to all users. This allows the DOS distri-
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bution diskette to meet the requirements of users of high level
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language compilers as well as users running only applications.
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Many compilers marketed independently through the retail channel
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(including those of Microsoft) assume LINK comes with the DOS, as
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in the case of IBM. How you choose to distrubute BASIC (contracted
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for separately) is up to you.
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2. Assembly Language Development System diskette. This diskette
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contains files of interest to assembly language programmers.
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High level language programmers do not need these programs unless
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they are writing assembly language subroutines. IBM chose to
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unbundle this package from the DOS distribution diskette (except
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for DEBUG), but you do not have to do so.
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3. PRINT and FORMAT diskette. This diskette contains .ASM source
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files which are necessary to assemble the print spooler, which you
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may wish to customize for greater performance. .OBJ files are also
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included for the FORMAT utility.
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4. Skeltal BIOS and documentation diskette. This diskette contains
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the skeltal BIOS source code and the SYSINIT and SYSIMES object
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modules which must be linked with your BIOS module. The proper
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sequence for linking is BIOS - SYSINIT - SYSIMES.
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A profiler utiliity is also included on the diskette, but this
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is not intended for end-users. This is distributed for use by
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your development staff only and is not supported by Microsoft
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If you do decide to distribute it, it is at your own risk!
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5. Documentation. Features of 2.0 are documented on this disk.
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The user manual contains some significant errors. Most of these are
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due to last minute changes to achieve a greater degree of compatibility
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with IBM's implementation of MS-DOS (PC DOS). This includes the use
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of "\" instead of "/" as the path separator, and "/" instead of "-"
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as the switch character. For transporting of batch files across
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machines, Microsoft encourages the use of "\" and "/" respectively
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in the U.S. market. (See DOSPATCH.TXT for how you can overide this.
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The user guide explains how the end-user can override this in CONFIG.SYS).
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Both the printer echo keys and insert mode keys have now been made to
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toggle. The default prompt (this may also be changed by the user
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with the PROMPT command) has been changed from "A:" to "A>".
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We apologize for any inconveniences these changes may have caused
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your technical publications staff.
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Here is what you need to do to MSDOS 2.0 to create a shipable product:
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(see "Making a Bootable Diskette" below)
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1. BIOS. If you have developed a BIOS for the Beta Test 2.0 version
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You should link your BIOS module to SYSINIT.OBJ and SYSIMES.OBJ.
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You must modify your BIOS to accomodate the call back to the BIOS
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at the end of SYSINIT. If you have no need for this call, simply
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find a far RET and label it RE_INIT and declare it public.
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An example of this can be found in the skeletal BIOS. In addition
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please add support for the new fast console output routine as
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described in the device drivers document. We strongly recommend
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that you adapt the standard boot sector format also described in
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device drivers. Once again, please refer to the skeletal BIOS.
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If you have not yet implemented version 2.0 please read the device
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drivers document. Microsoft strongly recommends that machines
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incorporating integrated display devices with memory mapped video
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RAM implement some sort of terminal emulations through the use of
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escape sequences. The skeletal BIOS includes a sample ANSI
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terminal driver.
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2. Please refer to DOSPATCH.TXT for possible changes you might wish
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to make. We strongly recommend that you not patch the switch
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characters for the U.S. market. Your one byte serial number
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will be issued upon signing the license agreement. Please patch
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the DOS accordingly. If you wish to serialize the DOS, this is
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described in DOSPATCH.TXT. Please patch the editing template
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definitions. Please note the addition of the Control-Z entry
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at the beginning of the table. Also note that the insert switches
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have now both been made to toggle.
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3. Utilities. FORMAT must be configured for each specific system.
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GENFOR is a generic example of a system independent format module,
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but it is not recommended that this be distributed to your customers.
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Link in the following order: FORMAT, FORMES, (your format module).
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The print spooler is distributed as an executable file, which only
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prints during wait for keyboard input. If you wish with your
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implementation to steal some compute time when printing as well,
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you will need to customize it and reassemble. Please note that
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you can use a printer-ready or timer interrupt. The former is more
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efficient, but ties the user to a specific device. Sample code
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is conditionaled out for the IBM PC timer interrupt.
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The following problems are known to exist:
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1. Macro assembler does not support the initialization of 10-byte
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floating point constants in 8087 emulation mode - the last two bytes
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are zero filled.
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2. LIB has not been provided. The version which incorporates support
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for 2.0 path names will be completed in a couple of weeks. The
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1.x version should work fine if you cannot wait. Because the library
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manager acts as a counterpart to the linker, we recommend that it
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be distributed with the DOS distribution diskette as opposed to the
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assembly language development system.
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3. International (French, German, Japanese, and U.K.) versions will be
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available in several months.
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4. COMMAND.ASM is currently too large to assemble on a micro. It is
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being broken down into separate modules so it can be asembled on
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a machine. Source licensees should realize that the resultant
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binaries from the new version will not correspond exactly to the
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old version.
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5. If you have any further questions regarding the MSDOS 2.0 distribution
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please contact Don Immerwahr (OEM technical support (206) 828-8086).
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Sincerely yours,
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Chris Larson
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MS-DOS Product Marketing Manager
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(206) 828-8080
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BUILDING A BOOTABLE (MSDOS FORMAT) DISKETTE
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1. In implementing MSDOS on a new machine, it is highly recommended
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that an MSDOS machine be available for the development.
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Please note that utilities shipped with MSDOS 2.0 use MSDOS 2.0
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system calls and WILL NOT not run under MSDOS 1.25.
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2. Use your MSDOS development machine and EDLIN or a word processor
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package to write BOOT.ASM, your bootstrap loader BIOS.ASM and
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your Format module.
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3. Use MASM, the Microsoft Macro-86 Assembler, to assemble these
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modules. LINK is then used to link together the .OBJ modules in
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the order specified.
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4. Link creates .EXE format files which are not memory image files
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and contain relocation information in their headers. Since your
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BIOS and BOOT routines will not be loaded by the EXE loader in
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MSDOS, they must first be turned into memory image files by
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using the EXE2BIN utility.
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5. The easiest thing to do is to (using your development machine)
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FORMAT a single sided diskette without the system. Use DEBUG
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to load and write your BOOT.COM bootstrap loader to the BOOT
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sector of that diskette. You may decide to have your bootstrap
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load BIOS and let the BIOS load MSDOS or it may load both. Note that
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the Bootstrap loader will have to know physically where to go on
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the disk to get the BIOS and the DOS. COMMAND.COM is loaded
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by the SYSINIT module.
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6. Use the COPY command to copy your IO.SYS file (what the
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BIOS-SYSINIT-SYSIMES module is usually called) onto the disk
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followed by MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM. You may use DEBUG
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to change the directory attribute bytes to make these files hidden.
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CAUTION:
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At all times, the BIOS writer should be careful to preserve the state
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of the DOS - including the flags. You should be also be cautioned that
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the MSDOS stack is not deep. You should not count on more than one or
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two pushes of the registers.
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