RS-DOS
RS-DOS (Radio Shack Disk Operating System) was the primary disk operating system for the Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer series, commonly referred to as the CoCo. It was developed by Tandy Corporation and was based on Microsoft's BASIC interpreter with additional disk I/O functionality.
Overview
RS-DOS was the standard disk operating system for early TRS-80 Color Computers before being largely replaced by third-party alternatives such as OS-9 and Dragon DOS. Unlike MS-DOS, RS-DOS was not a standalone operating system but rather an extension of the built-in Color BASIC, adding disk commands and file management features.
Features
- Provided basic file management capabilities, including LOAD, SAVE, RUN, and DIR commands.
- Used a proprietary Disk File System that differed from common FAT-based file systems.
- Supported up to 35 tracks per disk and single-sided, single-density floppy disks.
- Required the Color Computer Disk Extended BASIC ROM for operation.
- Lacked multitasking or advanced memory management features.
Limitations
RS-DOS had several limitations:
- It did not support subdirectories or hierarchical file structures.
- Disk access was relatively slow compared to later systems.
- It lacked built-in support for hard drives or non-floppy disk storage.
Successors
As computing demands increased, RS-DOS was gradually replaced by more powerful operating systems such as OS-9 Level 1 and OS-9 Level 2, which provided multitasking and a Unix-like environment. Other third-party DOS implementations, such as Disk Extended Color BASIC and Dragon DOS, also emerged to expand the capabilities of the TRS-80 Color Computer.
