Oct 072017
 

Prodatron finally released version 3.0 of his multi-platform operating system SymbOS that is available for Amstrad CPC, MSX, PCW / Joyce and (new) the Enterprise. I won’t bore you with all the details of this release, because the Changelist is huuuuuuuge, so read it by yourself ;-). But there are some neat features like ZIP / GZ decompression and new applications e.g. for Telnet or IRC. If you have one of those computers, you definitivly should check the new version and we CPC users can enjoy the network stack and more supported hardware with this release.

You can download the latest version from the SymbOS homepage and discuss it in the CPCWiki forums.

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Nov 182016
 

SymbOS 3.0 RC1

Prodatron released a release candidate of his SymbOS system for the Amstrad CPC. After the network support, which was introduced in the last WIP version of SymbOS, the new version contains some bugfixes and support for widgets, which are little applications that can be placed directly inside the SymbOS desktop area. Like widgets for mobile phones they e.g. may show the time and date or the actual weather information. In the RC1, Prodatron currently provides a clock and CPU meter widget and a preview version of a weather widget.
The SymbOS ZIP archive also contains pre-installation files for the M4Board (Amstrad WiFi) and SYMBiFACE II compatible IDE interfaces now, so you can just copy them to the respective device and use SymbOS out of the box.

You can download and discuss the SymbOS 3.0 RC1 on the CPCWiki forums.

Changelog

  • fixed bug in the widget management of the extended desktop; the widget feature can now fully used as well
  • no FDC access during the startup phase; increased booting speed
Oct 122016
 

 

Prodatron released a new work in progress (WIP) version of his SymbOS, which is a multi-tasking cross-platform operating system for Zilog Z80 based computers like the Amstrad CPC, the Amstrad PCW or the MSX machines. This time, it contains the long awaited network support for the Amstrad CPC (well… there was no network hardware available for the last release) and also support for an USB mouse. To use those new features, you will need the Amstrad M4 Wifi expansion for the network support or the USB Albireo board.
On the software side, SymbOS comes with several network related programs, where the most important ones are an IRC chat client, which you can use to directly talk to other Amstrad CPC users on the #CPC channel at Freenode, and the telnet client. Prodatron also improved the SymbOS desktop. You can add unlimited start menu entries and desktop widgets to it now. To unpack your compressed ZIP files, you can use the new unzip tool in the SymShell console in the WIP, too.

If you want to test the latest WIP by yourself, you can download and discuss it on the CPCWiki forums.

Jun 292015
 

Prodatron released a beta version of SymbOS v3.0 – his operating system for the Amstrad CPC and the MSX. The main feature in the new version is clearly the network support. Currently it supports the DenYoNet network card on the MSX and a driver for localhost – which means no network support for the CPC at the moment. Here are some screenshots of the new version:

s3bn-cpc-netds3bn-cpc-battships3bn-cpc-wgets3bn-cpc-symtels3bn-cpc-symmsgr

You can download and discuss the latest beta version in the CPC Wiki forums.

Sep 022014
 

Prodatron just released the final version of SymbOS 2.1, his multitasking and multiplatform operating system for the Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW and MSX. Again, the changelist is long, so be sure to download the latest version and check the new features by yourself. You can download it from the SymbOS download page. You can discuss the new version on the CPCWiki forums as well.

symbos21cpc

Changes:

  • New multiline textinput control: The most complex control of the desktop manager has the functionality of a small text editor and is an exact copy of modern textedit-boxes. It supports features like auto-word-wrapping, support of any proportional fonts and colours, unlimited line length, text marking, copy & paste etc.
  • Improved singleline textinput control: This control has been optimized a lot and is now based on the new code of the multiline control. Editing is faster and doesn’t flicker anymore.
  • Interbank calls: The same application can now place code in multiple 64K banks and use the new interbank calls of the kernel to switch between the code areas in an easy and transparent way.
  • 64K cluster support: While the official specification of the FAT filesystem doesn’t allow clusters with sizes larger 32KB, SymbOS is now also able to handle FAT16 and FAT32 partitions with 64K clusters.
  • Settings autosave: Changes of the system settings will now be autosaved on shut down or when closing the control panel. This is optional.
  • Preselected system path: The file dialogue will preselect the system path, if no drive and path is specified
  • Direct low level sector access: The file manager now provides direct access to its low level sector read and write functions for the applications.
  • Optimized memory allocation: When an application is loaded the system now tries different ways of memory allocation. This minimizes the wasting of fragmented memory areas and makes it possible still to load programs even if the memory is nearly full.
  • Improved SymShell: The textoutput in fullscreen mode is again 20% faster. The TYPE command has been debugged.
  • and last but not least: a new nice looking system font

New applications (you can get them on the download page):

  • Notepad: With the availability of the new multiline textinput control a Notepad clone is now reality in SymbOS as well. It provides nearly the whole functionality of its Windows counterpart including search and replace, different formatting options and multiple font selection.
  • Conways Game Of Life: This application was mainly developed to demonstrate the multi threading ability in the multitasking environment of SymbOS. It also contains a library with hundrets of objects and supports all combinations of alternative cell rules.
  • 4-In-A-Row: The first official released SymStudio application has been developed by Edoz. It is the well known game “4-in-a-row”, which is developed 100% in SymBasic and is now available for SymbOS.
  • Tetris 2014: Tetris is another example that developing SymBasic-based applications and games with SymStudio is truly possible and easy to do. This second more advanced game by Edoz brings this classic to SymbOS.

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