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CP/M source code (at least for 2.2 and earlier) was always pretty readily available because you often needed to make changes to it and the BIOS when adding new

CP/M source code (at least for 2.2 and earlier) was always pretty readily available because you often needed to make changes to it and the BIOS when adding new hardware. I remember when my Dad got a printer and serial card for his S100 bus system sometime around 1980. We spent hours making the necessary changes to CP/M and the BIOS so that it would work. We also had to wire up our own cable for the printer to make sure it matched the pin out for the serial card. It sure felt like an accomplishment when that darn printer actually worked.

pvg 9y ago
That doesn't sound right to me. There were config utilities for that sort of thing and even if not, that kind of change would take a small amount of disassembly - you could do it by hand in a pinch. How would you even compile CP/M's 'primordial' PL/M source?
AstroJetson 9y ago
I don't remember the source code being available. What was available was the BIOS (that you had to customize for your hardware), the boot loader to get stuff running, the CBIOS that did the disk reads and a cool program that let you patch your floppy drive parameters into your system. I worked on a number of systems and getting the BIOS to work with new hardware was an amazing feeling. One of my last CP/M systems was the Zorba, it's claim to fame was the ability for it to emulate lots of different floppy formats. So you could move data from one format of a floppy to another. It was a huge win since the only other way to move data was via a serial connection. The Zorba people would exchange formats as we figured out new ones. The other cool thing "back in the day" was replacements for the Command Line Processor part of CP/M to allow some new commands to happen. Like Busybox but 40 years ago. Now get off my lawn...
- pvg 9y ago
  One of my last CP/M systems was the Zorba That thing looks amazing as a machine, name and example of near-perfect market mistiming. I'd never heard of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorba_(computer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorba_(computer) most of the info seems to come from: http://www.zorba.z80.de http://www.zorba.z80.de
  - AstroJetson 9y ago
    Yea, it was the last (and best) of the luggable systems. It came out as the first of the MSDos lap computers arrived. You can still get working ones on EBay for about $500.
    - pvg 9y ago
      Out of curiosity, how did you end up with this beast at the time? According to that German site, only a few thousand were made and sold.

pvg 9y ago

That doesn't sound right to me. There were config utilities for that sort of thing and even if not, that kind of change would take a small amount of disassembly - you could do it by hand in a pinch. How would you even compile CP/M's 'primordial' PL/M source?

AstroJetson 9y ago

I don't remember the source code being available. What was available was the BIOS (that you had to customize for your hardware), the boot loader to get stuff running, the CBIOS that did the disk reads and a cool program that let you patch your floppy drive parameters into your system. I worked on a number of systems and getting the BIOS to work with new hardware was an amazing feeling. One of my last CP/M systems was the Zorba, it's claim to fame was the ability for it to emulate lots of different floppy formats. So you could move data from one format of a floppy to another. It was a huge win since the only other way to move data was via a serial connection. The Zorba people would exchange formats as we figured out new ones. The other cool thing "back in the day" was replacements for the Command Line Processor part of CP/M to allow some new commands to happen. Like Busybox but 40 years ago. Now get off my lawn...

pvg 9y ago
One of my last CP/M systems was the Zorba That thing looks amazing as a machine, name and example of near-perfect market mistiming. I'd never heard of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorba_(computer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorba_(computer) most of the info seems to come from: http://www.zorba.z80.de http://www.zorba.z80.de
- AstroJetson 9y ago
  Yea, it was the last (and best) of the luggable systems. It came out as the first of the MSDos lap computers arrived. You can still get working ones on EBay for about $500.
  - pvg 9y ago
    Out of curiosity, how did you end up with this beast at the time? According to that German site, only a few thousand were made and sold.