Frequently Asked Questions

This is really weird! How can I cancel a mistyped character? The S2 key does not appear to behave like a normal backspace!

When the M20 was made, it was not obvious that the top right key (labeled S2 in the M20) would be a backspace. To cancel a mistyped character, you should type CTRL+H. At the time, several CP/M computers shared the same idea and in typewriters the backspace was even harder to obtain... Anyway, you can redefine the S2 key in order to behave like a backspace using the PCOS command pkey

I just found an old M20. I managed to find a PCOS, but I do not know anything about the configuration of the computer.

If the PCOS version is at least 2.0, you can type dc %h or dc %m to obtain informations about hardware installed and the memory configuration.

I am writing a program using the BASIC and I have an M20 with an Italian keyboard layout. I want to copy a listing from an English manual, but I do not know how to enter the symbols @ and #.

Nationalised versions of M20 use a slightly different character set. In the Italian case, the symbol corresponding to @ is the section sign § (a sort of S with a small circle inside), that you can use at the place of @. For the #, the equivalent is the £.

I started using the M20 and I found somewhere the PCOS disks. All is OK, but the keyboard layout does not appear to be correct. Is there a way to define the keyboard layout?

Yes: type sl and you will be prompted for your keyboard language.

I see that the M20 supports a 80x25 text video. How can I switch from the default 64x16?

Type the PCOS command ss ,,,,1

Olivetti is a registered trademark of Telecom Italia
This site is no way related to Olivetti nor Telecom Italia