Basic Setup

Setup is one of the most important steps in doing the all of “Dinkit Projects”. The simplest setup is no setup. This is to say that the files will run straight out of windows. Go to
 www.micro-dos.com/html/micro-dos.html and click on the “level 4 Button” and login. (login. It is free). Scroll down near the bottom of the page and download any of the system disk zip files. Unzip them and run then in that folder. Of coarse you just get a glimpse of what is going on and nothing about what is going on underneath.

If you do not have a floppy drive, you can use still open and look at most all the files using WinImage. Although this works for reading all files accept the ones in the BIN dir. I an not recommending  WinImage because there is s fee for using WinImage. How ever there is a thirty day trial period. 

If you have a internal floppy drive, you have the necessary  hardware for all of the 50 or so System disks. More on this setup coming soon. Detail can be found at
 www.micro-dos.com/html/do_me_first.html

Basic computer requirements

The First of the "Dinkit Project" can run on any IBM computer from the oldest to the newest. As the project moves forward messages will be displayed if the computer that you are using, doses not have the required hardware. You will have to upgrade the needed hardware or get a long with the prier version of Dinkit.
Sample: At some point mono monitors (black and white)  will no longer be acceptable.  All Dinkit OS's are designed to at least start up and run long enough to display error messages on needed hardware. Only the System disks that have very stable kernels get placed on the "DINKIT.NET" site, so you the USER will not have to worry about working with an unstable kernel.

Assembling the Dinkit project requires an IBM 386 PC or better.

Quick over view

System disk one is the first of many system disks to come. Each system disk adds a new tool to the System. System disk one has the tool shed ("the Dinkit kernel") but no tools. So it has very limited use. System disk one is here to mostly to learn the basics on how to build and assembly the “Dinkit Projects”. Once learned, it is the same for all other system disks. As a USER you can skip the system internals and just concentrate on the new tools as they are added. Starting with "System Disk 02".
If you are a newbie, You might want to see how to build and assembly all of the "Dinkit packages" in detail, in the "DO_ME_ONE" project at www.micro-dos.com.
 

System disk one is very small in size about 400 bytes. System disk 50 gets up to about 20,000 bytes in size, with all of its tools and over lays. A Dinkit rule is that all System Disks have some kind of a
user input. This makes each system project a useful project.
The entire "Dinkit Project" can be divided into 3 basic levels:
Level 1 is the 4K series. All work is done in 4k or less of memory, and covers "System disks 001" to "System disk 014".
Level 2 is the 8K series. All work is done in 8k or less of memory, and covers "System disks 015" to "System disk 029".
Level 3 is the 12K series. All work is done in 12k or less of memory, and covers "System disks 030" to "System disk 050". There is also 4K of user space to load application files. Making a total 16k.
level 4 ????

Level 1 uses the "Do_program" processes for the user input, and is intended mostly for the "Experimenter User". Most all of the Dinkit tools are tested using this level.
Level 2 uses the console mode for the user input, and is intended mostly for the "Super User". This level can be used to diagnose and fix the kernel code. "Do_program" is also sill available.
Level 3 uses a DOS like command interrupter for the user input, and is Intended mostly for the "Command Line User". learn all of the commands in less than an hour.
level 4 ???

Assembling the package fast and easy over view

If you are a newbie, in the level 1 packages you can get away with a lot of cutting and pasting into the "Do_Program" section with a high degree of success with your programming code. (except for system disk 001)
Using a floppy disk, the one step assembler, assembles the Dinkit code in 10 second or so. (I used my 33mz PC with hard drive and assembled the Dinkit code in just a blink.)
In the final step you run the test kernel. If you like the new changes you then can make it into a bootable floppy disk. using my 33mz PC with hard drive it was about 2 seconds. Formatting the disk took about 40 seconds

The "Dinkit Packages" comes complete with all the needed software to do everything that you need to do. For you convenience Most utilities are mouse driven. Free Dos editor, Nasm assembler, the Dinkit IDE, Micro Dos utility disk builder.