SymbOS 4.0 released

[Prodatron]

SymbOS CPC & MSX & PCW & EP & NC & ZNX & SVM 4.0 has been released.

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You can download it here:

http://www.symbos.org/download.htm


After three years of hard work, another major release is ready, containing the most extensive changelog ever.

Here is a quick overview, the full one is attached below:

* The Desktop Manager has received new controls, such as one for drawing large grids and the long-missing fully functional tree view with collapsible nodes. Lists, trees and pulldown menus can now contain icons thanks to the new inline support of the Advanced Text Control.

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* The Sound Daemon provides platform-independent sound services for multiple programs. With Arkos Tracker-based PSG and MOD-based Wavetable support, users can enjoy high-quality sound effects and music in apps and games. GUI events can be assigned to system sound effects, improving the interactive experience.
* The Printer Daemon acts as a spooler for multiple print jobs and supports unified formatting codes and network TCP/IP printing. It ensures seamless printing from different applications using a printer-specific driver.

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* SymbOS C Compiler (SCC) is the new ultimate developer kit for building SymbOS applications using the C programming language. Based on the Fuzix compiler, it features a proper libc port for plug-and-play compilation of existing code, extensive (Posix) wrappers and helper functions for SymbOS system calls, detailed documentation to help you get started with SymbOS programming, multithreading, graphics and sound support, and a complete sample application for reference. It can run on Windows as well as directly on SymbOS!
* SymbOS 4.0 supports kernel-level data compression to save disk space. Transparent file management allows compression of existing file formats, data blocks can be decompressed up to 63 KB at a time.


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* Many other improvements have been added, such as the famous Alt+Tab task switcher, Usifac II/Ulifac support, Nova RTC support and countless more things.
* Three (!) new supported platforms have been added to the SymbOS family, including Amstrad NC100/150/200, ZX Spectrum Next, and SymbOSVM, which allows SymbOS to run almost natively on modern 32- and 64-bit platforms.






Full changelog

Release 4.0 [31.01.2025]

DESKTOP MANAGER

- New Tree View control: With collapsible nodes and familiar key and mouse control
- Advanced Text control with inline graphics support: Inside a text line bitmaps can now be displayed of any size and Y-alignment
- Lists and trees with advanced text: These controls can optionally display bitmaps and use different text styles
- Bitmap column type: For lists and trees
- Pulldown menus with additional icons per entry: Improves the appearance of menus
- New Grid control: A simple but effective control for drawing any number of parallel lines can be used to create large grids
- Maximized windows without scrollbars: This saves some screen space and improves the display
- Improved Control Collection: Redirects key inputs to child controls, can be scrolled remotely and supports new commands for updating multiple controls
- Menu data in each memory bank: To save memory in the main application bank, menu data can be placed in any other independent bank

SOUND DAEMON

- Sound playback service: Runs as a shared service in the background and can be used by multiple applications through its sound API to manage and play multiple collections of sound effects and music
- GUI events: Any kind of GUI event can be assigned to a system sound effect, which will then be played when such an event occurs
- PSG and Wavetable support: Controls available PSG (AY, Dave) and Wavetable (OPL4) Sound devices; PSG playback is based on the Arkos Tracker 2 technology and uses compressed and relocateable sound files; wavetable music is based on Amiga MOD files, but uses its own highly optimized and compressed file format that allows merging multiple songs into a song collection by sharing the same samples and also allows unpacking the compressed track data in real time
- Platform and device independent: Applications know nothing about the sound hardware used
- Collaboration with SymAmp: Mutual muting prevents collisions with SymAmp when using the same sound hardware; the master volume is synchronized between Sound Daemon and SymAmp

PRINTER DAEMON

- Platform independent print service: Works as a spooler for multiple print jobs from different applications using a printer-specific driver
- Printer independent: Applications always use uniform formatting codes that are converted to printer-specific control codes
- Network print server: Supports a client-server constellation where a SymbOS client sends its jobs over TCP/IP network to a SymbOS print server, which prints them on a connected printer
- Used by: PrintIt, WordPad, Help Browser

DATA COMPRESSION

- Kernel and file manager integration: SymbOS supports processing of ZX0 (by Einar Saukas) compressed data to save as much storage space as possible
- Decompression of data blocks up to 63 KB in size: Thanks to kernel integration, this is possible at any location in the available memory
- Transparent file handling: Compressed data is treated transparently like normal data when loaded from a file, making it very easy to update existing programs with optional compression support.
- Compression of existing file formats: To save disk space, all EXE, COM, WDG, SAV (SymbOS executables), SGX (SymSee), HLP (Help Browser), QS1, QS2 (Quigs applications), ST2, PT3, SA2 and SKM (SymAmp) files can be optionally compressed.
- Compressed startup files: By using ZX0 for SymbOS MSX and CPC loaders, it is again possible to put all files needed at startup, including the complete control panel, on an Amsdos 178K floppy disk.

SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS

- New task switcher: The extended desktop provides the familiar application switching feature by pressing (Shift+)Alt+Tab and selecting the desired program icon.
- Start menu with icons: When using the extended desktop, you get nice icons in the top area and in the control panel area of the start menu.
- Improved keyboard support: New key definitions for Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, used by the multiline text input control, list and tree control, slider control and control collection; new key definitions for Ctrl + 0 - 9
- System alert window: Optional support for 16-color icons
- File selection dialog with maximum memory: The maximum amount of memory can be optionally used, allowing any number of directory entries displayed
- Screen Manager speeded up: Mouse plotting speed increased by almost a factor of 3 on systems without hardware sprite support; PCW rectangle plotting up to 3x faster
- Optimized "transfer area" usage for system data: To reduce memory fragmentation
- Changed memory usage on the MSX: Makes new versions scalable for more features

HARDWARE

- Usifac II/Ulifac (CPC): USB mass storage driver
- Beer IDE Support (MSX): IDE interface driver
- Net4CPC (CPC): Network daemon driver (by D_KEF)
- Nova RTC (CPC): Real-time clock driver

NEW SUPPORTED PLATFORMS

SymbOS has been fully ported to three (!) new platforms, the number of supported systems has almost doubled from four to seven.

Amstrad NC100/150/200 port

- Virtual desktop resolution: Supports both 480x64 (NC100, NC150) and 480x128 (NC200) screens and improves the virtual resolution up to 480x256 by switching the visible screen area
- PCMCIA SRAM card support: The required card must be 1 MB and is used for both RAM (512 KB) and as a FAT12 mass storage device (512 KB)
- Serial Mouse Support: For Microsoft compatible serial mice with up to three buttons and mouse wheel
- Fast Full Screen Text Mode: SymShell provides a full 80x25 character text screen on an NC200 with a 6x5 pixel font
- Booting from SRAM Card: Due to lack of FDC support, SymbOS is booted from a prepared PCMCIA RAM card

SymbOSVM port

- World's fastest SymbOS platform: SymbOSVM runs on modern hardware as fast as a 2GHz Z80 system or even faster
- Breaking the 256 pixel Y barrier: Screen resolutions up to 3840x1600 (QuadHD+) are possible
- CPU idle mode support: To save power on the host system
- Enlarged SymShell terminal window: The command line interface can run at up to 120x50 characters

ZX Spectrum Next Port

- High Screen Resolution: SymbOS ZNX uses the maximum 640x256x16 resolution of the Next Layer2 screen
- DivMMC Support: The internal SD card reader is used as a mass storage device
- Kempston Mouse Support: Driver for the standard ZX Spectrum mouse
- PSG and Turbosound Support: Sound driver for the Sound Daemon and SymAmp, the latter also supports dual PSG
- 90% classic ZX Spectrum port: SymbOS ZNX is mostly a port for the classic Sinclair ZX Spectrum, except for using the advanced memory banking and display capabilities of the Spectrum Next.

MISCELLANEOUS

- CPC Plus cartridge release: SymbOS CPC can boot entirely from a CPC Plus cartridge and use part of a large 512K cartridge as a ROM disc containing a collection of important applications and sample data
- GitHub repositories: For all internal and public applications and resources
- Python scripts: For converting bitmaps and icons, compressing executables and data files, and more

BUG FIXES

- Screensaver crashes due to incorrect memory banking on non-VDP platforms
- Mouse wheel misbehaved with slider values
- Clock widget showed wrong year if you are still stuck in the 20th century
- Directory read function did not optionally skip CP/M file system entries
- PCW interbank calls did not work correctly
- Systray icon click detection in wrong positions when there are multiple items
- Incorrect memory banking for control collections, which have sub-controls in different banks
- And more: As usual, several more bugs were fixed, including some very old

IMPROVED DEFAULT APPLICATIONS

- SymAmp: New modern skin, added Amiga MOD (OPL3 wavetable based) and SA2 Adlib Tracker 2 support (OPL2 FM based), fixed PT3 player bug
- Task Manager: Includes context menus, shows application names also in the process list, allows killing processes, can put processes to sleep, change task priorities and switch to applications
- SymShell: New "test if character exists" feature
- SymCommander: Nice new menu icons

NEW APPLICATIONS (SINCE SYMBOS 3.1)

- SymCalc: Full featured spreadsheet application in the look and feel of classic MS Excel, supports more than 50 functions, absolute and relative cell references, fast automatic recalculation of cells, cut, copy, paste and move cell ranges with full repositioning of inner and outer cell references, date and time support and lots more (by Prodatron)
- SymbOS C Compiler: The new, very powerful and comprehensive C development kit for SymbOS, includes multithreading support, extensive wrappers and helper functions for SymbOS system calls, great documentation and much more (by Prevtenet)
- CPvM: CPvM is a kind of virtual machine that runs the CP/M 2.2 operating system and runs most classic CP/M applications within the SymbOS multitasking environment (by Prevtenet)
- WordPad: Advanced text editor that supports WYSIWYG text with various fonts such as bold and italic; supports printing using the Printer Daemon
- Solitair: Most popular GUI card game of all time (by Prevtenet, using Quigs)
- PDP-8 Emulator: Emulates a fully functional DEC PDP-8 minicomputer from 1965
- Star Map: Sky map with stars and planets (by Prevtenet, using SymbOS C compiler)
- SyMon: Visualize memory usage by displaying a complete map with the different types of used and available memory areas
- Sudoku: Sudoku is a number placement logic puzzle game popular in newspapers and puzzle books (by Prevtenet, using Quigs)
- Programmer's Calculator: The first SymbOS C compiler project lets you calculate with binary, hexadecimal and octal numbers (by Prevtenet, using SymbOS C compiler)
- Font Editor: Create and edit fonts in SymbOS format (.FNT); a huge collection can be found in the media section (by Prevtenet, using Quigs)
- Brainfuck: SymShell-based interpreter for the famous minimalist esoteric programming language (by NYYRIKKI)

[ervin]

Absolutely mindblowing!!!

[Ygdrazil]

Absolutely mindblowing!!!

Yes!

[poulette73]

Excellent !!! 

Thanks Prodatron for constant developments, new apps & games, and regular follow-up !

[DrSnuggles]

Wonderful start into the weekend.

Thanks!

[Brocky]

Great stuff Prodatron!

MOD player?! sik! now i need a OPL3-4... !

[XeNoMoRPH]

I was waiting for it, excellent, I will try to make a video from real machine, showing the new functions, using the V9990 for faster image speed and colors, as always.

[dodogildo]

Lightning-fast, eye-candy, amazing!

[Geco]

Cool  !!!

[Geco]

Congratulation , i played with it, it is a great version, fast, i was surprised on spreadsheet how good it is.
I think you should show it to Microsoft, an operating system is faster on a z80 processor, than on an X GHz

[Prodatron]

Thanks a lot for testing!

Lightning-fast, eye-candy, amazing!

Wow, your CPC seems has a lot of Amps, your Amsdap with all the expansion cards doesn't need an own power supply

[Neurox66]

It's fantastic! Amstrad CPC 6128 Plus + Symbiface III + SymbOS 4 (CPC Plus ROM Version)

[Egg Master]

SymbOS is just black magic on Z80 computers.

I like a lot the B&W picture on this Amstrad Plus monitor. May be a problem with the vertical centering?

[roudoudou]

"After three years of hard work, another major release is ready, containing the most extensive changelog ever."

Hallo, ich heisse PRODRATRON



ps: Massive work, you rocks!

[Neurox66]

SymbOS is just black magic on Z80 computers.

I like a lot the B&W picture on this Amstrad Plus monitor. May be a problem with the vertical centering?

Yes, the monitor had a vertical centering issue, but I've now fixed it.

[Devlin]

Trust this to come out just as I'm away from my real amstrads for a bit :3

That said, it looks good! will have a dick about with it in the VM later

[McArti0]

DSKA720KB FAT12_SymbOS40-250131 Live bootable.dsk

68kB free

[Prodatron]

Thanks a lot again, @McArti0 ! I will add it to the CPC package in the download area, if it's ok for you!

DSKA720KB FAT12_SymbOS40-250131 Live bootable.dsk

68kB free

[McArti0]

Thanks a lot again, McArti0 ! I will add it to the CPC package in the download area, if it's ok for you!

Ok.

[McArti0]

DSKA720KB FAT12_SymbOS40-250131 Live bootable.dsk

DSKA720KB FAT12_SymbOS40-250131 Live bootable v2.dsk

Fix minor settings bug.

[St-BeidE(DE/GB)]

Dear @Prodatron,

will it work with RSF3 also? I'm sorry for having not enough time for the Amstrad part of my (our) hobby.
Each spare time I almost start over.
There was something special with the RSF3 version?
M4 stuff? 
I can't remember. 

Stefan 

[Prodatron]

will it work with RSF3 also?

Hi Stefan,

yes, the RSF3 is an improved SF3, so it contains the...
- USB mass storage interface
- RAM expansion
- USB mouse interface
- Realtime clock
- MP3 decoder
...of the SF3, which is all supported in SymbOS. As an additional feature it can emulate the Wifi network of the M4Board, so you can use the SF3-version of the SymbOS Network Daemon for the RSF3 as well.

[Prodatron]

DSKA720KB FAT12_SymbOS40-250131 Live bootable v2.dsk

Fix minor settings bug.

Thanks! Added to the CPC download package.

[St-BeidE(DE/GB)]

will it work with RSF3 also?

Hi Stefan,

yes, the RSF3 is an improved SF3, so it contains the...
...

This is fuxxin' awsome 
Thank you very much for the work!
Stefan 

[HAL6128]

Dear @Prodatron,

will it work with RSF3 also? I'm sorry for having not enough time for the Amstrad part of my (our) hobby.
Each spare time I almost start over.
There was something special with the RSF3 version?
M4 stuff?
I can't remember.

Stefan

Can confirm. It works well with a RSF3. Include the M4-ROM into the ROM-Banks which enables you WLAN network.
@Prodatron : A lot of respect to the upgrade from you and all others involved!!! It will take me hours to dig through all the changes. Looking forward to.

Question: The support for the NET4CPC (of d_kef) means support for the Ethernet-module, right?