OS9Term was an RS-DOS terminal program written by Sub-Etha co-founder Terry S. Todd. It emulated the OS-9 text screen control codes. This not only included things like color, move cursor position, and underline, but also the overlay windows! OS-9 Level 2 “windows” on the text screen were all created by sending a series of escape code bytes. Terry’s program would let you dial in to an OS-9 machine using a modem and actually run text-mode windowing applications. I recall modifying my EthaWin interface with an option so it would not create its own window on startup. This allowed me to run the Towel disk utility remotely if I wanted. (EthaWin supported a mouse, but was designed so all functions – including the menu system – could be operated from the keyboard.)

It was a neat product, though I do not recall us selling very many copies. Too little, too late, I suppose.

The DSK image for this is up on the Color Computer Archive site:

https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/Disks/Applications/OS9Term%20%28Sub-Etha%20Software%29%20%28Coco%203%29.zip

As I went to find that link, I see this .zip has a Play Now button ;-) So here is a screenshot:

I would love to have a disassembly of this code, if anyone out there might be able and willing to take on such a task. The code is not all Terry’s. This program uses the bitbanger serial routines written by Ultimaterm’s Ken Johnston. At some point, Terry got in contact with him, and he provided his routines to Terry. Sub-Etha’s launch product, Shadow BBS, used the remote terminal driver written by Ken.

I don’t even know where to begin with a task like this, so I thought I’d post and see if anyone out there had some suggestions.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.