SymbOS MSX multitasking operating system - help needed!

You're welcome

My only problem is with OpenMSX. With Blue everything is ok !

That's clear. What about an option to automatically ADD to Programs menù the .exe and .com found in a directory?

I've tried putting COMMAND.COM and MSXDOS.SYS in the disk replacing the COMMAND2 and MSXDOS2 version.
The symsetup says it need MSXDOS2 !!

I will try on my NMS 8245 upgraded to MSX2+ when I'll be able to run sysmsetup in DOS1 !!!
Talking about this. We see there is a V9938 and a GFX9000 version of symbos. What about a V9958 optimized version? Would this version have more performance then the v9938 one?

Yes, because of the subdirectory handling, SymSetup will not run in DOS1. This is what I will change now

A tool for scanning EXEs (and SymShell-COMs) in a directory and adding them to the desktop or startmenu is a cool idea! Thanks for the suggestion! I was already planning to provide an app installation tool. It will come with the next major release.

The 9958 doesn't provide any new screen modes, which are usefull for SymbOS. The 9958 also doesn't provide new blitter functions like the GFX9000 does.
SymbOS is currently limited to a maximum amount of 16 colours, and I guess this won't change in the near future, as the amount of additional code for e.g. 256 colours or more would blast the available memory space for the core part of SymbOS. SymbOS is plattform independant and already support 2, 4 and 16 colour screen modes. So it's necessary to display 4 or 16 colour graphics in all these different modes. Adding a new colour depth would require, that all supported platforms must be able to render such graphics as well - nearly impossible if you keep one of the "holy" requirements, that SymbOS still runs on original unexpanded Z80-computers from the mid-80ies (which is still a rule for SymbOS to demonstrate, that all that was already possible at this time).

Just a quick update for anyone wondering whats happened to symstudio since there's been little activity and the hosting of the project was removed. No fears I plan to release what I'm going to be calling symstudio alpha 2.1 a few days after symbos 2.1 final is released (which will be this month)

Symstudio is currently undergoing a reworking of the compiler to improve compile / run time speeds and a lots more internal improvements. Hopefully I will post a few benchmarks in a while as I start plugging functions into the new integer expression compiler.

Just done a test of in optomised SymBasic

	f=0
	While f<10
		rew=0
		While rew<2000  
			rew=rew+1
			If rew =390  Then
				f=f+1
			EndIf
		Wend
	Wend

This simple loop/logical took 1.3 seconds running in Symbos. Not bad compared to the 85 seconds the Amstrads Locomotive Basic took, which is considered a fast basic. Would like to know how long MSXBasic would take.

The new compiler even spits out an command by command dissassembly of the basic listing. In fact it should be possible to show the M/C for each command as you edit it in the SymBasic Editor

    ;//f = 0 
    LD HL,0                                       ;//Load Number Into HL
    LD (f),HL                                     ;//Put HL into Variable f
    ;//While f < 10 
    LD HL,(f)                                     ;//Load Number Into HL
    LD DE,10                                     ;//Load Number Into DE
    OR A                                          ;//Clear Carry Flag
    SBC HL,DE                                     ;//Compare HL/DE
    JP NC,SkipIf                                  ;//Set to False
    ;//rew = 0 
    LD HL,0                                       ;//Load Number Into HL
    LD (rew),HL                                   ;//Put HL into Variable rew
    ;//While rew < 2000 
    LD HL,(rew)                                   ;//Load Number Into HL
    LD DE,2000                                    ;//Load Number Into DE
    OR A                                          ;//Clear Carry Flag
    SBC HL,DE                                     ;//Compare HL/DE
    JP NC,SkipIf                                  ;//Set to False
    ;//rew = rew + 1 
    LD HL,(rew)                                   ;//Load Number Into HL
    LD DE,1                                       ;//Load Number Into DE
    ADD HL,DE                                     ;//Adds DE & HL into HL
    LD (rew),HL                                   ;//Put HL into Variable rew
    ;//If rew = 390 Then 
    LD HL,(rew)                                   ;//Load Number Into HL
    LD DE,390                                     ;//Load Number Into DE
    OR A                                          ;//Clear Carry Flag
    SBC HL,DE                                     ;//Compare HL/DE
    JP NZ,SkipIf                                  ;//Skip If if False
    ;//f = f + 1 
    LD HL,(f)                                     ;//Load Number Into HL
    LD DE,1                                       ;//Load Number Into DE
    ADD HL,DE                                     ;//Adds DE & HL into HL
    LD (f),HL                                     ;//Put HL into Variable f
    ;//Wend
    JP BackToWhile                                ;//Jumps back To corrosponding While
    ;//Wend
    JP BackToWhile                                ;//Jumps back To corrosponding While

@Edoz: The 16colour palette has to be fixed, as otherwise it's not possible to handle graphics and colours for multiple applications at the same time. At least SymbOS 2.1 allows you to change the standard colour definitions for windows, menus etc. (see control panel -> display -> colours).