Uniform
Initial Release
To help curb the incompatibility problems which plague today's personal computers, the producers of the Kaypro computer -- America's fastest-selling portable personal computer line -- have introduced new software that allows Kaypro computers to read and write disks in the formats of the Osborne I (single and double-density), the Xerox 820 and 820 II, and the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1.
According to David Kay, vice-president of Non-Linear Systems, Inc., all new machines will be packaged with two new programs, called UniForm, which are incorporated onto the system's CP/M S-Basic diskette. The UniForm programs are licensed to Kaypro under copyright from Micro Solutions, Inc., DeKalb, IL.
Uniform is a pair of programs, SETDISK and INITDISK, which allows Kaypro users to transfer files from the above named Osborne, Xerox and TRS-80 machines on Kaypro machines, or to permit Kaypro files to be used by machines produced by other manufacturers.
Of Uniform's two programs, the first -- called INITDISK, allows the user to "initialize", or change, a disk to any of the supported formats. It plays an important role in the Uniform package because it enables generation of initialized disks usable on different brand machines.
The second program, called SETDISK, is used to select the desired disk format for drive B on the Kaypro II. Once SETDISK to a different format, familiar commands may be used to manipulate the data. Files are easily copied between Kaypro II disk format and the selected format by using the CP/M "PIP" command.
The problem of incompatibility has hampered computer users who wish to exchange or buy new software for their machines. In most cases, it's not possible to take a disk from one brand machine and expect to read it on another, even though they both use five-inch disks.
One approach had been to link two different computers together and send the data between the computers over the link. The disadvantages to this are that the computers must be quite close to each other if high-speed data transfer is desired. If they can't be positioned close to each other, lower speed transfer can be done over a phone line.
("Kaypro Achieves System Compatibility by Introducing Programs to Read, Write Xerox, Osborne, Radio Shack TRS-80 Files" Press Release, June 1983)