All of the activity around Dawn's family tree diagram has got me
thinking, and a sudden brain-fart brought THEOS AKA OASIS to mind. I
never actually used the thing, but I remember looking at some doco and
noting how MV-like the MASIC structures were, including even a READNEXT
and MAT READ.

Anybody know anything more? Just curious.

Luke

Ahhh yes,

Interstingly one of the companies that built on the back of THEOS was
Altos, which of course later (post 8-bit Z80) got into "pick", as did
IBC!

The company is still around, and like "pick" is a hosted DB environment
these days .... with better connectivity. IIRC the company is now based
in UK? (I'm sure originally in USA,Ca)

Luke Webber wrote:

As my memory recalls, in 1984 I had a chance to play with Intertechnique's
IN-55 "Intellectual terminal". In fact it was a Z80-based micro-computer
with 32K RAM
and two 8" floppy drives. The first was "system', dedicated for an OASIS OS,
floppy,
and the other - for the user progs and data. OS was 2-user version, one
async terminal could be connected to a RS232 port.

I was impressed by the OS command system, which was intuitive and
function-reach at the same time, IMHO it would be an ideal for a PC OS.
Account-based OS organization resemled somehow the Pick's one. An imbedded
Basic interpreter-compiler seemed like good one as well. There was also
included an emulator program enabling IN-55 as a terminal for Realite-2000
mini.

Unfortunately my experience with that toy lasted only for a coule of weeks
until it's PSU just burned down together with motherboard likely. Nobody
cared to fix the box, it was the
only one the customer had, and soon was thrown away.

A few months later I got my first "IBM compatible" PC XT. I wondered how
MS/PC-DOS, a poor collection of a dozen "systems software" executables dared
to be called - Operating System.

Still I believe that OASIS was an exceptional prototype for a real personal
OS. It's pitty that there wasn't found any marketing genius able to push
this software forward.

Nick

"Luke Webber" <luke (AT) webber (DOT) com.au> ???????/???????? ? ???????? ?????????:
news:43a22355$1_2 (AT) news (DOT) melbourne.pipenetworks.com...

Luke Webber wrote:
It isn't coincidence that there are parts of Oasis/Theos that reminded
you of early MV. The Oasis/Theos founder, Tim Williams, was a systems
programmer at Pick & Associates in the mid/late 70s. (For how long?
No idea). He and Dick apparently clashed on some things resulting in
his moving on.

The Oasis JCL and the line-editor were even more MV-like than the
BASIC. In 1982 I had one of the Monitor Labs engineers looking over my
shoulder at the main console while I edited a proc. His observation
was something like: "I didn't know we used Oasis for manufacturing".

Maybe Chandru has some recollection of when and for how long Tim
Williams was with Pick. IIRC it would have been pre-Evolution, but
after the delivery of the first BASIC compiler. 1976-77 perhaps?

Also, while it may be apocryphal, IBM apparently had quite a serious
discussion with Williams about making Oasis the standard O/S for the
IBM PC. I have heard that Williams wanted a lot more money up front
that Gates did, and was apparently pretty abrasive in meetings with
IBM, so they went with the toy O/S for the toy computer.
--
Cheers,
SDM -- a 21st century schizoid man
Systems Theory internet music project links:
soundclick <www.soundclick.com/systemstheory>
garageband <http://www.garageband.com/artist/systemstheory>
"Soundtracks For Imaginary Movies" CD released Dec 2004
"Codetalkers" CD coming early 2006
NP: nothing

sdavmor wrote:
Do you have any idea if he took more than just ideas with him? Is
there any chance some code moved from Pick into Oasis? Thanks. --dawn

Goo'day,

On 18 Dec 2005 14:24:29 -0800, "dawn" <dawnwolthuis (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

The little I saw of this yonks ago leads me to think, now, it was more
"ideas" rather than "code". I remember that it looked vaguely
familiar.... It was promoted to me as "being better than Pick" - but
at about the same cost, IIRC, The bloke doing the promoting didn't
ooze anything near confidence.....

I'd think today that whoever it was that originated Oasis/Theos was
acutely aware of copyright/piracy/whatever. Unless the boot was on
Dick's other foot.....

Regards,

Bruce Nichol
Talon Computer Services
ALBURY NSW Australia

http://www.taloncs.com.au

If it ain't broke, fix it until it is....

dawn wrote:
None whatsoever.
--
Cheers,
SDM -- a 21st century schizoid man
Systems Theory internet music project links:
soundclick <www.soundclick.com/systemstheory>
garageband <http://www.garageband.com/artist/systemstheory>
"Soundtracks For Imaginary Movies" CD released Dec 2004
"Codetalkers" CD coming end of 2005
NP: nothing

By the way, Theos/Oasis used to have booths at the Spectrum shows.

Eugene
"Bruce Nichol" <reverse_ecurb (AT) taloncs (DOT) com.au> wrote

EPPICK77 wrote:
That is an interesting tidbit. I would think that they must have had
something to sell to the MV community -- either apps, 3rd party
products, services, or a flavor of Pick. I guess otherwise they could
have tried to entice Pick folks to move to their non-Pick product.

Do you have any recollection of why they were at Spectrum? Thanks.
--dawn