how tiny source code used to be, even for entire operating systems. I took a look at the 1976 'basic-e' code, just a perusal - very interesting

debs3759 wrote on 2021-03-22, 16:54:

I just found a web site that legally shares the source code and lots of apps and documentation for CP/M, including stuff the pre […]
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I just found a web site that legally shares the source code and lots of apps and documentation for CP/M, including stuff the predates Digital Research. I'll be making good use of it (mostly the x86 ports, but to a lesser extent also the Z80 code and apps). Thought some of you might find it useful.

The sources are at

http://www.cpm.z80.de/source.html

The root (http://www.cpm.z80.de/index.html) includes internal links to Tim Olmstead Memorial Library (DRI Manuals) , DR binaries, and a lot of other resources.

Thank you very much for your thread! 😎
I really appreciate it - I browsed that site along time ago, thanks for the flashback..

gerry wrote on 2021-03-23, 10:47:

how tiny source code used to be, even for entire operating systems. I took a look at the 1976 'basic-e' code, just a perusal - very interesting

Yup. That reminds me of my father's old Popular Electronics magazines from the late 1970s.
At the time, they covered the basics of good old Control/Program Monitor.
That's how it was being called before it became popular.

Anyway, most people likely continue calling it by its commercial name,
Control Program for Microcomputers, which gives me a teary eye sometimes. 😢
Because, the term "monitor" (monitor program) is almost forgotten nowadays.

A monitor program is a miniature OS, even simpler than a BIOS. It contains a minimal command prompt, like that of BASIC interpreters.
Sometimes, it has a little hex editor or debugger built-in. The term "monitor" was used in Sharp's line of 8-Bit computers (Sharp MZ series)., for example.
And the original Tron movie. There's also a program that's being referred to as "monitor" by the Master Control Program (MCP.. CPM.. Hm..).

Apropos, BIOS.. In latin, it also means 'life'. The BIOS of CP/M-80 was the low-level part, which later on also inspired the IBM PC's firmware, the PC-BIOS.
The PC-BIOS literally gave life to the machine. 😄

Edit: Minor edit.

Jo22 wrote on 2021-03-23, 18:15:

Yup. That reminds me of my father's old Popular Electronics magazines from the late 1970s. At the time, they covered the basics […]
Show full quote

gerry wrote on 2021-03-23, 10:47:

how tiny source code used to be, even for entire operating systems. I took a look at the 1976 'basic-e' code, just a perusal - very interesting

Yup. That reminds me of my father's old Popular Electronics magazines from the late 1970s.
At the time, they covered the basics of good old Control/Program Monitor.
That's how it was being called before it became popular.

Anyway, most people likely continue calling it by its commercial name,
Control Program for Microcomputers, which gives me a teary eye sometimes. 😢
Because, the term "monitor" (monitor program) is almost forgotten nowadays.

A monitor program is a miniature OS, even simpler than a BIOS. It contains a minimal command prompt, like that of BASIC interpreters.
Sometimes, it has a little hex editor or debugger built-in. The term "monitor" was used in Sharp's line of 8-Bit computers (Sharp MZ series)., for example.
And the original Tron movie. There's also a program that's being referred to as "monitor" by the Master Control Program (MCP.. CPM.. Hm..).

Apropos, BIOS.. In latin, it also means 'life'. The BIOS of CP/M-80 was the low-level part, which later on also inspired the IBM PC's firmware, the PC-BIOS.
The PC-BIOS literally gave life to the machine. 😄

Edit: Minor edit.

that 'old' language of computers, such as the term Monitor, those old computer periodicals - serious and technical - and the mention of the sharp MZ series plus Tron reference was a nostalgia hit! That era, roughly late 60's to early 80's had a different 'culture' around computers, somehow more awed and more hopeful

gerry wrote on 2021-03-24, 09:47:

Jo22 wrote on 2021-03-23, 18:15:

Yup. That reminds me of my father's old Popular Electronics magazines from the late 1970s. At the time, they covered the basics […]
Show full quote

gerry wrote on 2021-03-23, 10:47:

how tiny source code used to be, even for entire operating systems. I took a look at the 1976 'basic-e' code, just a perusal - very interesting

Yup. That reminds me of my father's old Popular Electronics magazines from the late 1970s.
At the time, they covered the basics of good old Control/Program Monitor.
That's how it was being called before it became popular.

Anyway, most people likely continue calling it by its commercial name,
Control Program for Microcomputers, which gives me a teary eye sometimes. 😢
Because, the term "monitor" (monitor program) is almost forgotten nowadays.

A monitor program is a miniature OS, even simpler than a BIOS. It contains a minimal command prompt, like that of BASIC interpreters.
Sometimes, it has a little hex editor or debugger built-in. The term "monitor" was used in Sharp's line of 8-Bit computers (Sharp MZ series)., for example.
And the original Tron movie. There's also a program that's being referred to as "monitor" by the Master Control Program (MCP.. CPM.. Hm..).

Apropos, BIOS.. In latin, it also means 'life'. The BIOS of CP/M-80 was the low-level part, which later on also inspired the IBM PC's firmware, the PC-BIOS.
The PC-BIOS literally gave life to the machine. 😄

Edit: Minor edit.

that 'old' language of computers, such as the term Monitor, those old computer periodicals - serious and technical - and the mention of the sharp MZ series plus Tron reference was a nostalgia hit! That era, roughly late 60's to early 80's had a different 'culture' around computers, somehow more awed and more hopeful

You're welcome! ^^

By the way, MP/M and CP/Net were really interesting, too!
I really recommend having a look at them.

MP/M is akin to what, say, PC-MOS/386 later was for MS-DOS..
CP/Net essentially is a network addon for MP/M II, I believe.

MP/M can handle up to 8 eight glass terminals and CRT devices and 512KB (or 2MB ?) of memory via bank-switching.
Because of the latter, it takes up 16KB to 32KB of the end of the Z80 address space.
The first 32 to 48KB can thus be seen from applications each. It's the memory that get's swapped in and out.
What astonished me the most is that MP/M apparently can detect new terminals. Not bad for 1979.

If you're curious, just run ZEMU, the Z80 emulator. It's for Win32 and well written.
Z80pack is also a fine piece of software, IMHO.

Some useful links!
https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/scr … shots/mpm2.html
http://cpmarchives.classiccmp.org/cpm/Miscellany/cpnet.html

https://hackaday.io/project/163683-the-thing- … -mpm-experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXc8Imz-w-A

http://www.z80.info/z80emu.htm#EMU_CPU_W32

thanks Jo22! MP/M sounds quite advanced and ZEMU is something I'd not seen before

gerry wrote on 2021-05-17, 15:23:

thanks Jo22! MP/M sounds quite advanced and ZEMU is something I'd not seen before

It's really fascinating, IMHO. It can run CP/M programs just fine.

If you like to build your own Z80 computer, have a look at AVR CP/M..

It's a little microcontroller that emulates a Z80 and boots CP/M from an SD card.
All it additionally needs is an old SRAM chip..
Edit: http://spritesmods.com/?art=avrcpm

PS: There's also GSX (aka GSX-80) - that's was the standard graphics API for CP/M.
It was completely hardware-independant.

A CP/M program that uses GSX could run on different plotters and displays without changes.
All it needed was that the target system had a GSX runtime/library loaded.

GSX was the successor of GKS, an early graphics standard.
Both later inspired VDI, the graphics core that GEM used.
VDI is similar to GDI in Windows, simply said.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_Kernel_System

https://www.seasip.info/Cpm/gsx.html

Anyway, I've just found out abour this recently.

There are some screenshots online:

http://toastytech.com/guis/gsx.html

https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/scr … hots/gsx80.html

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0B83zJQbpNM

A bit about Digital Research and CP/M http://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/

If you want to build your own CP/M systems you could do a lot worse than look at retrobrewcomputers.org - there are loads of designs and PCBs available to make your own systems, backplanes, serial to VGA terminals, sound and graphics hardware etc.