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.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
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