by virtualaltair » March 2nd, 2014, 2:15 pm
I'm still learning!
>Disk Basic v300-5-F runs on Altair DOS, and therefore, is incompatible with CPM2.2
Altair BASIC is standalone and does not use an Operating System.
Altair DOS is for ASM Developement. DOS was made obsolete by CP/M. DOS is MITS history, but not as useful as CP/M because of limited software availability. The Altair started desktop computing. CP/M made shareware and portable software popular.
Disk Basic v300-5-F is the last of MITS BASIC Interpreters. The language processor/Interpreter/Compiler should not be confused with the Altair BASIC Lannguge. Altair BASIC is almost identical to the CP/M BASIC interpreted by CP/M MBASIC4. The CP/M BASIC Compiler parses the MBASIC4 language with the /4 compiler switch. The MBASIC5 BASIC Language allows more blanks in the language than the older BASIC. The spaces take memory in an interpreter. Compiled Programs don't add compiled code for spaces. In interpreters, a space is part of the code that is stored in memory to be ignored during execution.
Altair DOS does support a Fortran 66 Compiler written by Paul Allen of MITS/Microsoft.
Disk Basic v300-5-F does not run under DOS or CP/M. A Disk Basic v300-5-F program would require little change to compile on CP/M or even a PC MSDOS Basic Compiler. Parts of the language survived into Window Visual BASIC.
> I imagine porting applications (such as Kermit) from CPM2.2 to Altair DOS is anything but trivial or quick.
Exactly! Altair DOS likely has few users. Fortran may be useful and the MITS MTST Memory Test runs on DOS.
>As such, one has to chose how to allocate the 3 virtual floppies provided with the Altair Clone.
Welcome to floppy disk programming! A typical Altar user might only have two drives. A hard disk version of CP/M runs on an emulator. It may be useful to hold a large set of development tools. Programs developed could be moved to the Clone or an original Altair with smaller disks.
> For most users, it may be as such:
> A-CPM (and system tools, such as Kermit)
> B-Languages (possibly 3: C, Lisp and Basic or something like this, that's my personal choice.)
> C-Applications (Spreadsheets, wordstar, etc.)
This looks good for development. Production might remove tools to make room for data or more applications.
>This leaves little to no room for AltairDOS, without having to upload a new set of floppies.
My Opinion is to forget about DOS except for Fortran and memory testing. DOS is not needed in the CP/M world. DOS, CP/M, and Altair BASIC all use the same System Area on disk, so they are mutually exclusive. They also overlap in memory.
>Is there any easy option that I omitted without having to upload floppies?
I haven't tried it yet, but I expect emulated hard disk CP/M is useful for development. The serial port emulation still needs work.
You can also develop on a different CP/M physical machine with larger drives. The serial ports are still an issue because the IO chip is likely not a Motorola 6850.