Neha Patil (Editor)

DOS XL

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Platform
  
Atari 400/800/XL/XE

Type
  
Atari DOS

DOS XL

Original author(s)
  
Paul Laughton, Mark Rose, Bill Wilkinson and Mike Peters

Developer(s)
  
Optimized Systems Software

Last release
  
2.30 / 1984; 33 years ago (1984)

License
  
Copyright © 1994 FTe Proprietary software

DOS XL was a Disk Operating System (DOS) written by Paul Laughton, Mark Rose, Bill Wilkinson and Mike Peters and produced by Optimized Systems Software (OSS) for Atari 8-bit microcomputers. It was designed to be compatible with Atari DOS which came shipped with Atari's disk-drives.

Contents

Features

A direct descendant of OS/A+, DOS XL provided additional features to Atari's equipped with floppy disk drives. These included single and double density support, a command-line mode (called the command processor or CP), a menu mode (an executable loaded in memory), batch file support, and support for XL extended memory and OSS SuperCartridge banked memory. Later versions included Axlon RamDisk support, Mosaic RamDisk support, BIT-3 support and BUG/65.

In addition to supporting auto-booting AUTORUN.SYS files, DOS XL's batch features provided an auto-booting batch feature. Naming a batch file to STARTUP.EXC would have it execute batch commands on startup (same as OS/A+). Unfortunately, this feature wasn't compatible with some programs (e.g. AtariWriter).

Distribution

DOS XL was distributed on a flippy disk. One side had the single-density version, the other had the double-density version. As more features and add-ons were included, these were placed on the double-density side only due to lack of disk space.

The manual for DOS XL was a subset of OS/A+. OSS considered the manual an "addendum" to OS/A+. Over 150+ pages, it was bound at the spine, not in loose-leaf form like the OS/A+ manual.

DOS XL came in two versions, 2.20 and 2.30 (2.20 users had to pay $20 to upgrade to 2.30). The last version was 2.30P. DOS XL originally sold for $30, but the price later increased to $39.

File writing verify was turned off in DOS XL. This was due to OSS's own experience that resulted in faster writes with virtually no risk of errors. The command file VERIFY.COM was included to reenable writes with verify. Atari DOS 2.0S by default verified file writes to disk.

Several Disk Drive manufacturers shipped DOS XL with their drives, including Trak, Percom, Astra, Indus, Amdek and Rana.

C - Copy Files P - Protect Files D - Duplicate Disk Q - Quit to DOS XL E - Erase Files R - Rename File F - Files on Disk S - Save Binary G - Go to Address T - To Cartridge I - Initialize Disk U - Unprotect Files L - Load Binary X - Xtended Command

Intrinsic Commands

@ - Begins execution of a batch file CAR - Runs Cartridge Dn: - Changes default drive DIR - Directory END - Tells DOS XL to stop batch execution (used in a batch file) ERA - Erase file(s) LOA - Load file(s) in memory NOS - NO Screen. Turns off command echo to screen PRO - Protect. Enables write-protect on file(s) REM - REMark. Used for user remarks in batch files REN - REName. Renames file(s) RUN - Jumps to run address SAV - Saves a portion of memory to disk SCR - Enables commands to be echoed to screen (for batch files) TYP - Displays ASCII or ATASCII text files to screen UNP - Turns off write-protect on file(s)

Extrinsic Commands

C65 DUPDBL MENU VERIFY CLRDSK DUPDSK NOVERIFY CONFIG INIT RS232 COPY INITDBL RS232FIX DO MAC65 SDCOPY

BASIC Extended Commands

CLOSE NOTE PROTECT (XIO 35) ENTER OPEN UNPROTECT (XIO 36) GET POINT RENAME (XIO 32) INPUT PRINT ERASE (XIO 33) LIST PUT LOAD SAVE

Patch

Version 2.30p was a newer version to 2.30 to fix two problems.

  • In previous versions of DOS XL, if you initialized a disk from the menu, the disk would not boot unless the file MENU.COM was on the disk. To alleviate this problem, type Q to quit the menu. Then type INIT or INITDBL from the command processor. Note: everything on the menu can be done manually from the command processor.
  • If you have a multidrive system and you initialized a disk in a drive other than one, when booted, the disk will always come up with the number of the drive on which it was initialized. To prevent this problem, use D1: as the destination drive.

    • The patch for DOS XL 2.30 to make it a 2.30p:

    OSS Disk Newsletter Fall 1986 Product News & Info DOS XL - New-found Bugs DOS XL Bugs and Fixes BUG: The patch to convert version 2.30 to version 2.30p in our Spring 1984 newsletter didn't work. FIX: Run the following program and then use INIT with the "Write DOS.SYS Only" option to write out the patched DOS. Make sure that you don't have DOSXL.SYS (either .SUP or .XL version) active when you do this. BUG: INIT does not work if you use drive numbers 4 through 8. FIX: Run the following program:

    Aftermath

    Plans for DOS XL 4 were scrapped due to low demand and competition. OSS reissued OS/A+ 4.1, mainly for double-sided support.

    DOS XL, along with other OSS products, became part of ICD's catalog of Atari products in January 1988. However, DOS XL was dropped in favor of ICD's SpartaDOS.

    References

    DOS XL Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA