KEYSERVE by Bill Wolff (c) 1992
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What's better than KeyDOS or The Servant? The answer is KeyServe! As far as I know, this is the first honest look at KeyDOS and The Servant side by side review, and yet this is just an very short overview. There are many more things yet to tell.
Instead of looking at it KeyDOS vs. The Servant, after I received my copy of KeyDOS I soon loved both of them in their own little ways. Interesting, if you have both the REU bare and the internal ROM socket empty. Then you can have both up and running and even both active at the same time although The Servant will usually override KeyDOS if there is a conflict. I don't recall having any lockups, so they seem to behave well together (except a minor problem with the ROM based RAMDOS mentioned below). They also won't work as I've been told if you also have QQB installed at the same time. I must admit in the beginning I had The Servant first, and beta tested it too, but they are both different enough to need or want both. Since I receive no money from either or even have any obligation, this should be of little concern to most of you. Oddly enough, if you use both, you must use The Servant internally and KeyDOS in the REU. Or it least with their default settings they do. Your personal configuration may vary.
What can I say? I could say that I have found The Servant far more compatible, while KeyDOS is somewhat less while in interactive mode. Though this isn't really fair since KeyDOS does have features that would be impossible to avoid conflicts while The Servant doesn't even have a interactive mode. The Servant is either toggled in control or it bows out and lets things be. KeyDOS isn't even 100% compatible with itself. Again this isn't fair to KeyDOS, because those features are not available on The Servant at all anyway. And I wouldn't call KeyDOS buggy if you just got that impression. KeyDos is well documented what works with what and when. At least I haven't discovered any errors as of yet. And I was stuck at a desk for two weeks with nothing to read except the manual from KeyDOS. I think I have read it at least 20 times through already. After reading it through 5 times, I think there was nothing more for me to tap from it. So far both KeyDOS and The Servant seem to be truly 100% compatible while in their inactive modes.
KeyDOS sort of borders on the line between helpful for the programmer and the novice user. It has something for both. While The Servant offers ease for the novice but no special utilities for the programmer/intermediate user, yet will surely will not be disliked and would be most useful for even the best among us.
Sure there are things I would like to change with KeyDOS. And for that matter, things I'd like to change about The Servant as well. I suppose the biggest warning about KeyDOS is to be very careful about that F8 key and page 11 for RAMDOS doesn't work from ROM (I wonder how many other pages are effected?). I don't believe RAMDOS to be KeyDOS' fault. It's just asking too much to have two programs fighting for the same addresses. If it helps any, The Servant will crash too if you have RAMDOS using page 11 from the KeyDOS' ROM while using the file copier. The old standby disk based version of RAMDOS will work perfectly though. The Servant lacks an interactive mode with BASIC, but nor should it. The Servant isn't the same thing as KeyDOS! Both could be good or bad depending on how you look upon it and your special needs.
When it comes right down to it, I recommend both. I realize that some won't be able to get both. Boy that makes it tougher and I really don't know which one I would stick in there? They are both handy to have and yet different enough to warrant wanting both operating in the same computer. All I can say is thanks to Randy and Alf for making this all possible and it's far better to pick the wrong one for you then to pick none at all. I am personally having a ball with both! Who knows maybe both Randy and Alf are secretly enjoying both ROMs themselves? Honestly, I don't know if that is true or not, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was true.
