From: joe@user.com   
      
   "thewises"  wrote in message   
   news:Xns999EB60D435F8gonospam@198.186.192.136...   
   > > SOFTWARE   
   > >   
   > >   
   > > 5.     Tandy was somewhat reluctant to publish many technical details   
   > >      of the Model II/12/16/16B/6000 hardware, and highly resistant   
   > >      to releasing details about the TRSDOS/TRSDOS-II operating   
   > >      systems.  There were a number of reasons for this and few   
   > >      made sense even back then, but the result was a chilling   
   > >      effect and the number of third party add-on hardware devices   
   > >      and software applications not specifically contracted by Tandy   
   > >      was low compared to what existed on the Model I/III/4/4D/4P   
   > family.   
   >   
   > Yes, a lot of the early microcomputer companies didn't want to release   
   > any programming information for their machines. That was what   
   > contributed to the popularity of the Apple II (and later the IBM PC),   
   > having an open architecture.   
   >   
      
   Actually, the Model II Tech Ref manual, once it came out, was great.   
   Actual up to date schematics, and chip datasheets.  That, and the   
   service manuals that were available for the options were great, and   
   had everything (well, almost everything) you would need.   
      
   But I have to agree about the internals for TRSDOS for the Model II.   
   There seemed to be a fit from management about the disk access   
   interrupts that made making programs like SuperZap incredibly easy to   
   write.  So much so that the interrupts were DELIBERATELY taken   
   out of TRSDOS 4.x   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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