
Editor's note: Here is a sampling of the ASYLUM BBS messages from 
September.  They illustrate some chit chat; but more importantly, 
it gives us some information about the use of TDOS and maybe some 
frustrations also.   



From:  RON MITCHELL
Subject:  Exit Comment
Folder:  General
You Said:   "Was replying to a bunch of old messages  Bart,  from 
way  back  in May.  Then the mailpacket I downloaded  last  night 
ended up incomplete somehow.  Didn't get it all.  No matter.  Got 
the first part, and replied to a couple. If anybody has sent me a 
message over the past month or so that I haven't acknowledged, or 
that we didn't talk about at ADAMCON, perhaps they'll repeat it, 
and I'll reply again.
 
One thing I did read about in the heat of the battle somewhere...
was I think Dave Ruff talking about TDOS programs working on 
his main but not on his spare.
 
Now I don't know the precise answer to why that should be, but 
here's something to keep in mind. The spares would have to be 
configured EXACTLY the same as the main for the TDOS system 
to  react  properly.  What  he really needs to do is  to  have  a 
separate  TDOS boot disk for each of the spares,  as well as  the 
main..(assuming  that they don't have the same drives and  memory 
expanders). Otherwise, TDOS expects to see whatever it was orig-
inally  set up with.  It'll boot on another system with different 
peripherals (memory expanders,  disk drives,  etc...) but it  may 
not  recognize  them.  That might have an adverse effect  on  the 
running  of some programs.  I'd have to know exactly what he  was 
trying  to run,  and what the configuration is of each machine he 
was trying to run it on.
 
Just a guess... I may be way off, but that has happened to me 
too.
 
 -Ron Mitchell
" End Quote



From:  BART LYNCH
Subject:  differing tdos
Folder:  General
You Said:   "hmmmm....forsooth,  yon mitchell speak true.  hadn't 
thought  of  that myself.  while MY own two  systems  are  almost 
exactly  the  same as to periphreals,  that's not always true  of 
other  folks.  i have at had an absolute rock bottom  last  ditch 
bail  out tdos disk.  this is configured for just one disk drive. 
this is when i've made a royal mess of soemthing and need to  get 
SOME  sort of tdos up.  i noticed when i was getting thing  ready 
for  my ac session that this "basic" tdos sometimes wouldn't  run 
what  i  wanted  it  to run.  you could well  be  right,  all  in 
all....." End Quote



From:  RON MITCHELL
Subject:  differing tdos
Folder:  General
You Said:   "And that's the scary part.....  that I could well be 
right.   Think even Guy Cousineau was getting somewhat  concerned 
toward the end of his presence with us about the number of diff-
erent kinds of TDOS that had to be proliferated out there..... 80 
col for IDE, 80 col for Minnie Winnie, 40 col with hard drive, 
40 col without hard drive, 80 col with Orphanware Serial Port 
for PBBS use... 40 col for IDE for PBBS Use..... and on and 
on.
 
Not sure if that's really what they intended.... oh and then 
of course you have to add disk drives, or no disk drives to 
that, and if so how many, and what type ....  and what density.... 
and  eeeeechhhh!
 
LIke you, i have a stripped down, no-memory expander, semi-brain-
dead,  'stairs-go-all-the-way-to-the-top'  version  of TDOS  that 
sits in my "dont-touch-unless-you're-in-a-state-of-absolute-
panic" case.
 
 -Ron Mitchell
" End Quote



From:  BART LYNCH
Subject:  differing tdos
Folder:  General
You Said:   "yeah,in my personal opinion, i think this is part of 
what caused guy to throw in the towel.   His eyes REALLY  started 
bugging out at how many possible combinations of tdos there would 
have to be to cover PBBS!!
" End Quote


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