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FutureOS

96 bytes removed, 14:34, 28 January 2009
The User Interface (UI) of FutureOS presents the user with three fixed sections: an icon section (upper half of screen), a file-name display and selection section (lower half of screen) and a message line (bottom). It appears directly after booting FutureOS, but can also be used from applications. The user can browse through directories of discs and hard-disc partitions. The size of the text window is fixed, so 64 different file names can be displayed at once (this equals one complete directory of a data of system formatted disc f.e.) A cursor arrow is used to select devices, functions or files; this cursor arrow can be controlled with nearly all of the pointer based HID devices (joystick, mouse, trackball, light-pen, grafpad) available for the CPC.
Applications do call the UI as a subroutine, and the user can return to the application via the OK button. The icons are fixed, so the layout remains stable throughout its use.
Files can be viewed on-screen (scroll up and down) or printed. File headers can also be viewed. When typing a text file it is possible to set the number of columns and lines of the window the text is displayed in.
== [[Image:CBM.png|thumb|right]]CBM ==
== Hardware ==
The OS supports many of the hardware available for the CPC. One of the ambitions of FutureOS is to support all hardware available. Hardware expansions usually need drivers that can be flexibly added to an OS. Contrary to this approach, a goal of FutureOS is to provide a monolithic architecture where all drivers are implemented in a hardcoded way.
*''Disc drives and hard discs:'' FutureOS supports up to eight drives and up to four hard disc partitions. It buffers the directories read from any mass storage device in the expansion RAM.
== OS supported Hardware ==
'''8 bit printer ports<br>'''
*8 bit printer port 6128 Plus
*8 bit printer port patch ([[8255|PIO]])
'''Drives<br>'''
*3" A, B, C and D drives (C, D need hardware patch)
*[[F1|Vortex disc drives FI-D, F1-S, F1-X, M1-D, M1-S, M1-X]]. Up to four drives 80 track, doublesided.
'''Expansion cards<br>'''
*CPC-Booster (only basic support)
*[[SYMBiFACE II|SYMBiFACE II]]
'''Hard-disc<br>'''
*[[Dobbertin Harddisc|Dobbertin HD20]] (72 KB/s data transfer rate)
*Low level support for the SYMBiFACE II IDE hard-disc (see IDE ROM).
'''Joysticks<br>'''
*Analog Joystick (6128 Plus)
*Digital Joystick 2
'''Memory expansions<br>'''
*[[Dk'tronics memory expansion|Dk'tronics]] 64-512 KB and compatibles ([[Dobbertin Memory Expansion|Dobbertin]], [[Inicron RAM-Box|Inicron]], [[SYMBiFACE II|SYMBiFACE II]])