The result is that, in the 1616, many programs can be partly written by ‘pasting’ together a variety of commands and syscalls, rather than writing everything yourself. Although similar methods may be available in various languages for other computers, each language is different in how it deals with the machine. In the Applix, once you learn how to use some inbuilt facility in one language, you can generally use it in any other language. About the 1616/OS operating system 1616/OS waswrittenbyAndrewMortonofApplix. Thecodeinthe1616’sEPROMs is really a combination of a disk operating system, an input/output system and various small to medium sized application programs.
A partial list of what it does includes: Hardware test routines, used during construction, and to locate faults. Facilities to call external ROMS, for use as a dedicated controller in industrial applications. Drivers for input and output devices, including printer port, two serial ports, cassette port, stereo sound outputs, D/A and A/D converters, etc. System timer and interrupt support, time and date drivers. Floppy disk, SCSI hard disk, and RAM disk support, including hierarchical directory structures. Bit-mapped video drivers for 320 and 640 column displays, windows, and clippingsupportforgraphics,fullcursorcontrolviaescapecodes,plusdisplay character set.
A powerful line editor, with ‘history’ facilities, and function key re-definition for macros. WordStar-compatible full-screen editor with search and replace, block copy, move and delete, file merging, partial screen freeze, etc. A command line interpreter with over 60 commands, including machine code monitor, full I/O redirection, wildcard expansion, and access to over 200 internal system calls. It features many utilities, including an ASCII table, command help, and terminal facilities. Multi-tasking and multi-user facilities, to allow up to three users to simul- taneously run up to 60 programs.
1616/OS is described as a disk operating system because one of its major functions istomanagetheorderlystorageand retrievalofprogramsand data onblockstorage devices such as floppy disks and hard disks. Material relating to programming 1616/OS is found in the Programmer’s Manual and the Technical Reference Manual . Page 8 User Tutorial Manual Introduction