The OS-9 Forum Read Menu Read 1 [NEW] messages 2 Message NUMBER 3 WAITING messages for you (0) Search [new] messages 4 FROM (Sender) 5 SUBJECT 6 TO (Recipient) Enter choice !>1 #: 9194 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 19-Jan-91 10:29:36 Sb: #EPROMs Fm: LUTE MULLENIX 70721,2230 To: 76703,4227 (X) Kevin: I have a question for you, I noticed that someone asked about putting the boot in a EPROM. Do you think that it would be possible to burn every thing up to the reading of the startup file in an EPROM? Some way of booting without a floppy. I now have a SCSI HD using the Disto adapter and Ken Scales drivers. And I have noticed that on bootup, it reads from /D0 up to the point of the startup file, which is read from /DD (/H0). By the way, does OS9 automaticly change to a hard drive as the primary drive when one is on line? >Lute< There are 2 Replies. #: 9199 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 19-Jan-91 17:47:41 Sb: #9194-EPROMs Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 To: LUTE MULLENIX 70721,2230 (X) Lute - If you have a large enough EPROM (typically around 32K), you can burn the whole mess into EPROM. Most coco's are setup with 8K ROM slots though. The thing that causes /D0 to be read is the preboot (part of track 34), and then the Boot module. When the Boot module completes, it hands off to Os9, which in turn runs Sysgo, CC3Go, or whatever is specified in the Init module. The Init module also controls who the Root directory will be at startup, so this is the place you need to tweak for HD startup. Once you have customized your INIT module, cobbled a bootfile, and burned it into ROM, you can do what you like. Pete #: 9205 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 19-Jan-91 22:41:13 Sb: #9194-EPROMs Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 To: LUTE MULLENIX 70721,2230 (X) Well, let's review the relevant boot sequences: 1. DOS command loads in kernel track (REL,BOOT,OS9P1), executes it. 2. REL relocates (copies) kernel track code to $ED00, sets GIME etc. REL then jumps to OS9P1. 3. OS9P1 inits vars, verifies kernel modules, tries F$Link to INIT. Link fails, so does F$Boot which calls BOOT. 4. BOOT loads in os9boot file from floppy. OS9P1 can now find INIT. 5. OS9P1 tries link to OS9P2, jumps to it (else does F$Boot). 6. OS9P2 inits vars, checks INIT for default device, CHD/CHX to it (else F$Boot) 7. OS9P2 checks INIT for default term, opens it. 8. OS9P2 starts up CC3GO. 9. CC3GO tries to CHD/CHX to /H0. Does startup shell, etc. To boot without a floppy, the best method is to make an EPROM which loads in a kernel "track" off the hard disk... and also make a BOOT module which reads in an OS9boot file from hard disk. This leaves everything updateable, and the only thing you have to really change is the BOOT module. Still, you could burn everything (bootfile and all) into EPROM which copied itself into RAM... with a BOOT module that just returned "okay". Or change OS9P1 slightly so that it verifies _all_ the EPROM'd modules (then BOOT wouldn't get called at all!). #: 9195 S7/Telecommunications 19-Jan-91 11:10:05 Sb: #9186-ACPDS7.DOC help needed Fm: Steve Wegert 76703,4255 To: PaulSeniura 76476,464 Paul, No sweat on the addressing of the message. I've forwarded it to 'ALL' as you have requested. On the lastest version of Sterm ... I still use 1.3. There may be another release in test stage ... but 1.3 is the most current public release. The screwup with the window seems to be tied to the Termcaps library, not necessarily with the Sterm Code. I'll check with Mark and see if there's an update coming anytime soon. Steve #: 9196 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 19-Jan-91 14:14:08 Sb: #9190-12-bit timer: help! Fm: Bill Dickhaus 70325,523 To: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 (X) Kev, Probably the only workable way to deal with MIDI output would be to have the driver handle timing. This means passing timing information with the outgoing MIDI data to the driver. It would end up being fairly complex. I think the most realistic place for all this timing and stuff is out on a hardware interface, rather than bogging down the CoCo with all those interrupts. Bill #: 9198 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 19-Jan-91 17:39:09 Sb: #9190-#12-bit timer: help! Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 To: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 (X) Kev - On the internet mailing address, those used for UUCP don't translate directly. Example: Internet: pete@wlbr.imsd.contel.com The imsd.contel.com is a domain name assigned to my company out here. It is registered at SRI, where the internet numbers are controlled. Saying 'imsd.contel.com' is the same as using a Internet address (TCP/IP) of 192.26.147.???. In our case, 'wlbr' is a local host with a node number of 8, so the resolved Internet address for wlbr.imsd.contel.com is 192.26.147.8. The 'pete@' part just says that when it gets to that machine, further direct it to user id 'pete'. Now - how this message gets routed from its source to pete@wlbr.imsd.contel.com is a complex issue, and one I'm not slick enough to explain. The UUCP addresses however are VERY literal. In my case, the UUCP address would be {major backbone sites}!jplgodo!wlbr!pete, where the message will actually pass through each of the specified sites, until it reaches wlbr, and is ultimately mailed to me. Pete There is 1 Reply. #: 9204 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 19-Jan-91 22:40:11 Sb: #9198-12-bit timer: help! Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 To: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 (X) Ah! Thanks. I knew it wouldn't/couldn't be that simple ;-). #: 9197 S1/General Interest 19-Jan-91 17:29:51 Sb: #9184-need access to usenet Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 To: PaulSeniura 76476,464 Paul - I'll try to remember to mail to him early this week. As an added reminder to me, please drop a note in my email box here around Monday. Pete #: 9200 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 19-Jan-91 18:08:43 Sb: FOR SALE Fm: John Colegrove 76467,36 To: ANYONE FOR SALE!COCO3 512K,2 drives,CM8mon,modem-pak,music-pak,del-joysticks,lots of software+XtraCOCO3for parts-Leave Message-J.Colegrove76467,36 #: 9201 S1/General Interest 19-Jan-91 19:44:08 Sb: #Yet another one! Fm: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 To: 76703,4230 (X) Pete; Be sure to wish Marsha a Happy B'day for me! ..Jim There is 1 Reply. #: 9221 S1/General Interest 21-Jan-91 15:45:28 Sb: #9201-#Yet another one! Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 To: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 (X) Jim - I'll do that, but hers was in November (11th, actually) - do you have a reminder util that's setup for Jan ? (g).... Pete There is 1 Reply. #: 9242 S1/General Interest 22-Jan-91 23:01:36 Sb: #9221-#Yet another one! Fm: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 To: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 (X) Pete; Yep, that's what that Dateck program that I sent you does. When you said that Marsha's B'day was 4 years later than mine, I ASSumed that it was in Jan. .. Oh well, guess I have to edit the dates.file! Ain't Scorpio wimmen great?? All my loves for the past 16 years or so have been Scorpios. Luv that fiery, fiesty temperament!! ...Jim There is 1 Reply. #: 9248 S1/General Interest 22-Jan-91 23:47:56 Sb: #9242-Yet another one! Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 To: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 (X) Fiesty - that's a good.. er.. delicate word (g).... Happy 48th BTW! Pete #: 9202 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 19-Jan-91 19:48:17 Sb: #9117-#Eliminator repair Fm: Bruce Isted (UG VP) 76625,2273 To: JOERG SATTLER 74016,631 (X) Joerg, I've heard that Emerald may not be able to help with WD 1002-05 repair at the moment, but here's their address & phone number again anyway: Emerald Microware P.O. Box 1726 Beaverton, OR 97075 Phone: (503) 641-0347 There is 1 Reply. #: 9231 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 22-Jan-91 07:14:43 Sb: #9202-Eliminator repair Fm: JOERG SATTLER 74016,631 To: Bruce Isted (UG VP) 76625,2273 Spoke to Brian just this past Friday. He' going to try and see what he can do. He's got the controller, so we'll have to hope and see. Thanks Joerg #: 9203 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK) 19-Jan-91 20:54:42 Sb: #9101-OSK Clib.l Order Fm: Carl Kreider 71076,76 To: Mike Haaland 72300,1433 (X) I don't think it is a problem, particularly if things link ok. Re: _tidyup, would be _referenced_ in putc_c and such before it is _defined_ in cfinish_a. This will cause the linker to snatch it out of the lib to satify the unresolved reference. It is a one pass linker, so you can only have forward references. BTW Hi, Mike. Carl #: 9206 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 19-Jan-91 23:00:28 Sb: #Eliminator RTC Fm: james pottage 71750,2012 To: [F] Bruce Isted 76625,2273 (X) Bruce, I've been using the eliminator with the real time clock for about one month now and I have noticed that the system seems to speed up about every 15 seconds (like a power burst) when I am running Pacos9. The momentary speed increase only happens when I am using Pacos9 as far as I can tell. Any ideas on why this is happening and how to solve it would be greatly appreciated Jim Pottage exit There are 3 Replies. #: 9207 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 20-Jan-91 10:50:47 Sb: #9206-Eliminator RTC Fm: James Jones 76257,562 To: james pottage 71750,2012 (X) You know, that is sort of odd--there are times when I run pacos9 that things do seem to speed up in short bursts, and the creatures seem to dash about the maze faster. (The glyph that I'm controlling doesn't seem to...sigh. :-) I wonder what, if anything, pacos9 is doing? #: 9211 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 20-Jan-91 13:58:09 Sb: #9206-Eliminator RTC Fm: Bruce Isted (UG VP) 76625,2273 To: james pottage 71750,2012 (X) Jim, I haven't seen a problem such as the momentary speed up that you describe, but it sounds like a problem that could be caused by a marginal GIME chip. Since the 60 Hz tick count of the GIME's VBORD IRQ is used by the RTC clock module (same as the software clock module) that'd be the first thing to check. Do you happen to know what version (1986, 1987, or 1987A - I think those are the versions the GIME has gone through) GIME chip you have? If your CoCo 3 is pretty old I'd suspect it had a questionable 1986 version GIME. Oh... before going out & replacing the GIME, sometimes all it takes is a gentle press to seat it in its socket properly... if you don't mind opening the case. Also, are you using a Multi-Pak Interface, and if so, is it upgraded for use with the CoCo 3? If its not upgraded, do that first before you do anything else. Bruce #: 9220 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 21-Jan-91 04:44:36 Sb: #9206-Eliminator RTC Fm: LARRY OLSON 72227,3467 To: james pottage 71750,2012 (X) James, Put your tools and testers away , there is nothing wrong with the hardware. The speedup you see in pacos9 is all software related. Kevin was right about part of what you are noticeing, with the new GRFDRV installed the ghosts will sometimes line up on a byte boundry which makes the gets/puts faster, this is part of the speed increase. The other part of the speed increase you see is if pacman is not moving, when pacman is stopped, the processing time that would be devoted to moving pacman is now available for the ghosts, which causes them to speed up. If Bruce Isted's VRN was available at the time, it could have been used to fix that problem by setting the program up to move the objects under control of interrupts. I had some code in the program that would waste the processing time that pacman wasn't using, so that the ghosts didn't speed up noticeably, but I took it out. It seemed terrible to be throwing away processing time and anyway the more I thought about it, I thought that the speedup of the ghosts when pacman stops might add a little more of a challenge to the game. So James....Do Not Attempt To Adjust Your Set We Are Controlling What You See.... Larry (guilty party) Olson #: 9208 S3/Languages 20-Jan-91 11:13:23 Sb: #9103-#'C' help Fm: Steve Wegert 76703,4255 To: [F] Jim 72726,1153 (X) Jim, I've had a quick chance to play with the C version of dateck and have run up against some concerns with what I'm sure you've considered as improvements. Having to go hunting for screen.h tipped me off to some impending problems. Looks like you're supporting CoCo specific screen control. Doesn't look veddy pretty on my Wyse 50. :-) The BASIC09 version was a straight ASCII version ... jes? Also ... it looks as if you've limited it's use to a single dates.file. I have my system set up for dial up use and support a hand full of users... some of which maintain their own dates.file. Any chance of changing that back? Would make multi-user life better. Steve There is 1 Reply. #: 9244 S3/Languages 22-Jan-91 23:01:49 Sb: #9208-#'C' help Fm: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 To: Steve Wegert 76703,4255 (X) Steve; re: Multi-users Did you modify the original B09 source to allow multiple users? I just checked my latest source, and it's exactly the same as the C version. Are you saying that the program needs to look at the userid and select the relevant file depending on UID? I'm kinda in the dark on this one, as both the C and B09 source call for the dates.file to be in /DD/SYS... i.e. no provision for multi-dates.files. re: screen control Yeah, the B09 version used TABs to position the cursor, and in C, I opted to go with the rudimentary calls in SCREEN.H. What happens on the WYSE? and more importantly, can you point me to some generic C calls for positioning the next output to be at a certain column/row? I could do a little calculating of the name field and write say, 60 - n blanks, but I was hoping to eliminate that sort of stuff. Appreciate the feedback! ...Jim There are 3 Replies. #: 9249 S3/Languages 22-Jan-91 23:56:48 Sb: #9244-#'C' help Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 To: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 (X) Jim - Regarding multiple users... best technique (unix apps do this) is get the user's ID, and then use that to do a getpwuid() [forget if that's exactly what it's called... see the password(3) function of the Clib docs]. That will return a pointer to a structure that is the user's password file entry broken down. One of the members of the structure is a pointer to a string that is the name of that user's home [login] directory. Once you know that, your program can chd() there, and then open the dateck data file. This way, every user inherently gets access to his own file, and the program is automatically multi-user. Re: independent screen positioning... you just discovered what termcap is for. Termcap allows you to make generic calls that are used to manipulate any terminal that's being used (assming it has been defined by an entry in the /dd/sys/termcap file, and you know the name of the terminal the user is using. Pop over to DL3 and snag the two man pages discussing termcap that I recently uploaded. I'll be happy to answer questions after that. Consider it an investment in the future too, as OSK uses termcap too. Pete There is 1 Reply. #: 9272 S3/Languages 25-Jan-91 00:31:31 Sb: #9249-#'C' help Fm: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 To: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 (X) Pete; re: multi-users and getuid() Dunno if I want to get this esoteric in a pgm. that I'd like to keep as MS-DOS compatible as possible. The problem thbt Steve's having is because I changed the file pointer to look specifically in the /dd/sys directory from the original B09 program. Did this during a cleanup of my root dir. Will play around with it tho, and see what I can come up with. re: termcap related screen positioning Will go snarf the files now. Sounds like just what I was looking for. More than likely will be back with questions later...! Thanks, ...Jim There is 1 Reply. #: 9275 S3/Languages 25-Jan-91 11:47:57 Sb: #9272-'C' help Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 To: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 Esoteric? Consider it a stylistic issue, and one that will prep you for other work under both OSK and Unix. It's still up to you, of course.... Also - there's always: #ifdef MSDOS ...blah blah... #else PWENT = getpwuid(getuid()); ... #endif Pete #: 9252 S3/Languages 23-Jan-91 06:20:11 Sb: #9244-#'C' help Fm: Steve Wegert 76703,4255 To: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 (X) Ack Just hate when that happens. Nope ... I don't recall modifying the BASIC09 source at all. I'll check to be sure, but the version I'm running looks for dates.file in the currect data directory. With the public execute bit set on the module, and it looking to the current data directory for dates.file, it handily supports multiple user use. On the screen control issh ... I see the date screen report all scrunched to the left of the tube, each line with a couple of stray ascii charcters leading and trailing. I'll see if I can't upload an example. Steve There is 1 Reply. #: 9273 S3/Languages 25-Jan-91 00:31:40 Sb: #9252-'C' help Fm: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 To: Steve Wegert 76703,4255 Steve; Ahh... looking at the original AR file, you're right... I did modify my copy to specifically look in the /dd/sys directory during a cleanup of my root dir. You can easilt modify the C source to emulate the B09 program by just deleting the "/dd/sys" portion of the INFILE def. That way your users will have access to their own dates.file in their OWN data dir. re: messed up output on the WYSE I'm going after Pete's termcap files right now, and will see what I can do to make it a bit less machine specific. In the meantime, if you wished you could do something like : s_len = strlen(name); for (pos = 0; pos <= (54 - s_len); ++pos) fputs (x20,1); /* not too sure on this.. haven't tried it */ in place of the CURSOR(x,y); statements. Don't have a clue where the stray ASCII chars are coming from. Will get back to you after perusing the Termcap stuff. ...Jim #: 9254 S3/Languages 23-Jan-91 06:43:23 Sb: #9244-'C' help Fm: Steve Wegert 76703,4255 To: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 (X) Ok ... took a peek at my copy of the B09 source for version 1.2 (12/2/89) and saw that filenam="dates.file". No reference to /dd/sys at all. Perhaps you have changed that in a later version. I was able to redirect standard out and err to a file and capture the output of dateck that I see on my Wyse 50 (well almost ... there's a couple of screen control characters missing at the begining of the date hit lines, but you'll get the picture). Capture follows: <<>> !%Today is February 23, 91 Searching 02/23 to 03/25 : 02/28 Ash WednesdayM%!& 1st 03/17 St. Patrick's DayM& 1st <<>> I had to change the ^B's to to keep the CIS editor from sending me to Mars, but you get the general drift. I see Pete's already pointed you to termcap, so 'nuff said there. Steve #: 9209 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 20-Jan-91 13:14:06 Sb: #9178-Link shell command Fm: Denise Tomlinson 71021,3274 To: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 (X) Thanks, I'll try that. I am using a real time clock for "setime". I am using the smart watch in my controller. Works real good for time keeping under os9, by the way. Huggs, Denise #: 9210 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 20-Jan-91 13:15:02 Sb: #9179-Link shell command Fm: Denise Tomlinson 71021,3274 To: Bill Dickhaus 70325,523 (X) Thanks for the info Bill, I'll try that. Huggs, Denise #: 9212 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 20-Jan-91 15:36:40 Sb: #Eliminator RTC Fm: james pottage 71750,2012 To: Bruce Isted Bruce, I am not using a multi pak interface. As well the problem does not seem confined just to the one coco. I have a second newer coco3 that also has the same problem as the older coco3. The problem I encounter is the same as James Jones described in message 9206. The newer COCO3 was boughtin 1989 during the coco clearance sales. The eliminator system I am running is composed of the eliminator, on seagate st124 drive (20meg), one 40meg imprimis wren II drive, one 3 1/2 720K drive and one 360K 5 1//4 drive. Also I am using a monochrome monitor with the disto monocrome adapter on this system, along with one joystick. Could the problem be with either the RTC or with pacos9? Jim Pottage There are 2 Replies. #: 9213 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 20-Jan-91 15:48:22 Sb: #9212-Eliminator RTC Fm: Bruce Isted (UG VP) 76625,2273 To: james pottage 71750,2012 (X) Jim, I really don't know what the problem is... I have pacos9 (CRC $FE5BF0) but I've never noticed any problem. Of course, I don't play too many games, except when I need a break and probably wouldn't notice a problem if it bit me. I doubt the problem is with the RTC, but you could check by making up a new boot file that has the software clock module in it. Bruce #: 9215 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 20-Jan-91 19:43:40 Sb: #9212-Eliminator RTC Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 To: james pottage 71750,2012 (X) Jim - I've forgotten whether Pacos9 used the windowing system or not... if it did, then perhaps it hits on the fast Grfdrv PUT boundaries now and again, and that's the reason for the speedups you see. He wrote it before that grfdrv was widely available, if I recall. best - kev #: 9214 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 20-Jan-91 16:22:44 Sb: #Eliminator RTC Fm: james pottage 71750,2012 To: Bruce Isted Bruce, after I sent my last message I discovered two interesting things. First, the old grfdrv driver seems to work fine with the RTC. Only the new grfdrv seems to cause the problem. Also, the system works fine with the new grfdrv if the RTC is not used and the clock driver sent with the eliminator package is used (or the old clock driver that came with OS9 Level II - I am presently using your clock with my disto system and it works fine). Is it possible that the new grfdrv is turning off the interupts? Jim Pottage There is 1 Reply. #: 9216 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 20-Jan-91 19:44:26 Sb: #9214-Eliminator RTC Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 To: james pottage 71750,2012 (X) Aha. Yep, see previous message. It must be the fast PUT locations. - kev #: 9217 S15/Hot Topics 20-Jan-91 20:39:52 Sb: #9145-#MM/1 Kit Available Fm: Steve Flock 76547,3362 To: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 (X) I tried to get a list of software for the mm/1 a while ago, but wasnt sent anything.. Anything completed yet? And, I believe that ims WAS offering some kind of plan to get a mm/1 for $35 a mo. Is that still on or what? Curious.. Steve Flock [76547,3362} There is 1 Reply. #: 9243 S15/Hot Topics 22-Jan-91 23:01:40 Sb: #9217-MM/1 Kit Available Fm: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 To: Steve Flock 76547,3362 (X) Steve; Ummm.. I think that maybe you meant to send your message to either Paul Ward 73477,2004 or Mark Sheffield 76247,1332 rather than to me. The only connection I have with IMS so far is that of 'customer' . According to the confirmation that I got in the mail today, the manuals are on the way, with the MM/1 following in 3-4 weeks. Pant, pant!! ...Jim #: 9218 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 20-Jan-91 21:17:58 Sb: Eliminator RTC Fm: james pottage 71750,2012 To: Kevin Darling Kevin - Thanx very much for the reply. #: 9219 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 20-Jan-91 21:51:19 Sb: #HELP Fm: John Colegrove 76467,36 To: ANYONE I am fairly new at OS9 and have a problem. I try to use Deskmate 3's Telecom with a Direct connect modem pak(junk I know)and it won't work. When I run ident on the different modules, I get MODULE HEADER IS INCORRECT! on DMAPPS and DMALT. I asked people in Fort Worth and they don't know what I am talking about. Can anyone help? There is 1 Reply. #: 9223 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 21-Jan-91 16:18:46 Sb: #9219-HELP Fm: Steve Wegert 76703,4255 To: John Colegrove 76467,36 (X) John, I wouldn't get too concerned over the ident error report, just yet. It's possble that Deskmate just can't find the right serial device. You did tell it to use /m1 and you have /m1 and modpak in your boot, jes? Steve #: 9222 S9/Utilities 21-Jan-91 16:14:27 Sb: #Formatting SCSI Drive Fm: Rodney Harper 75130,1321 To: All I have been having no luck formatting my Seagate ST-225N with Disto's Basic Formatting program that was supplied with the 4in1 adapter. I have tried every conceivable way to get this thing to work. I had heard that powering down the Drive and then repowering will sometimes work, but NO JOY for me. Has anyone come up with a better formatting program for this drive ? Does anyone have any suggestions ? >>Rod<< There is 1 Reply. #: 9224 S9/Utilities 21-Jan-91 16:38:50 Sb: #9222-#Formatting SCSI Drive Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 To: Rodney Harper 75130,1321 (X) I'd heard that running it once, getting an error, and then just running it again, would often work. There is 1 Reply. #: 9227 S9/Utilities 21-Jan-91 20:37:10 Sb: #9224-Formatting SCSI Drive Fm: Rodney Harper 75130,1321 To: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 (X) Kev, I tried several times like that. I heard from others that that would work sometimes, and then again, sometimes it won't. I guess I will keep on trying until something come along, or someone develops a better low level formatter. Thanks for the reply.... >>Rod<< #: 9225 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 21-Jan-91 18:35:47 Sb: #Sending nulls to T2 Fm: Paul Rinear 73757,1413 To: Anyone I use an old printer that has trouble keeping up at 1200 baud. If I use xmode to set null=120, there is enough delay for it to work. However, consecutive line feeds are unbearably slow. I tried setting null back to zero and writing a filter that counts output characters until a 'return' and then sends a number of nulls based on this line length. The shorter the line the shorter the delay after a return. Using this command : list filename ! filter > /t2 I get no delay no matter how many null characters the filter sends out. Should this work, or is there something in the device descriptor that ignores these null characters ? ??????, Paul R. There is 1 Reply. #: 9229 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 21-Jan-91 22:52:42 Sb: #9225-#Sending nulls to T2 Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 To: Paul Rinear 73757,1413 (X) Paul - your filter would have to do I$Read and I$Write (vs WriteLn which would ignore nulls, you see). What language are you using? (if you don't understand, that is ;-). best - kev There is 1 Reply. #: 9232 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 22-Jan-91 12:40:48 Sb: #9229-#Sending nulls to T2 Fm: Paul Rinear 73757,1413 To: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 (X) I wrote it in C using getchar and putchar. No good? While on the subject of languages, I have another question: I got the Level I assembler (asm) so that I can assemble code generated by the Pascal translator program. It seems to work with no errors, but it leaves no object code anywhere. ?? I ordered a copy of your book, Inside OS9 Level II, and there is a three week wait. Maybe it will help answer the last question I left (about renegade windows?). Thanks, Paul There are 2 Replies. #: 9233 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 22-Jan-91 13:34:07 Sb: #9232-Sending nulls to T2 Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 To: Paul Rinear 73757,1413 (X) I can't recall if Asm automatically leaves a module in your current CHX dir or not. If not, try something like "asm file o=filename"... been a while since I did that. On the filter, try redirecting its output to a file, and dumping it to see what's actually coming out of your filter. Might give some clues. #: 9236 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 22-Jan-91 18:30:00 Sb: #9232-#Sending nulls to T2 Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 To: Paul Rinear 73757,1413 (X) Paul - Getchar and putchar use buffered I/O, which will intelligently select I$writ/readln or I$write/read.... You'd be better off using read()/write()... There's some skulduggery you can use to force binary operations, but this is cleaner... Re: asm no generating code... hmmm. Did you try: asm l o=/d0/cmds/woof woof #20k The 'o' argument tells it to generate the binary... actually, you could have omitted the filename and it would have defaulted to the execution dir and the same name as the source. Pete There is 1 Reply. #: 9237 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 22-Jan-91 19:17:16 Sb: #9236-#Sending nulls to T2 Fm: Paul Rinear 73757,1413 To: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 (X) The 'o' argument works, and I get an output file. If I set the attributes and then load the file, it shows up on an 'mdir' but will always load from disk again when I try to run it. It also will load into memory without the execute attribute set. This is utterly useless. I will try your suggestions on the C code. Thanks, Paul There is 1 Reply. #: 9246 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 22-Jan-91 23:43:44 Sb: #9237-#Sending nulls to T2 Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 To: Paul Rinear 73757,1413 (X) If it loads from disk if it is already in memory, then very likely your MODULE name is not the same as the FILENAME. Make sure that they are the same. Also - I _dare_ you to load an executable without execute permissions... are you SURE it's actually in memory? Pete There is 1 Reply. #: 9255 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 23-Jan-91 09:45:19 Sb: #9246-#Sending nulls to T2 Fm: Paul Rinear 73757,1413 To: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 (X) My mistake on the attributes; I had the source code file named the same as the executable and I attr'd that one. On the other point, it doesn't seem to matter if the module name is the same as the disk file name or not, it still goes to the disk. The module is definitely in memory. Makes me think that the module itself ia is accessing the disk. It is only a test program of the 'hello world' sort. Paul There is 1 Reply. #: 9258 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 23-Jan-91 16:13:18 Sb: #9255-#Sending nulls to T2 Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 To: Paul Rinear 73757,1413 (X) If you type 'LOAD xxxxxx', it WILL go to the disk regardless. If you type 'xxxxxx', it will: a) See if the module is in memory... if yes, link to it and execute it. b) If NOT a, then see if it lives in the execution directory. If yes, load it, link to it, and execute it. c) If NOT a AND NOT b, then look for a file by that name in current data directory, and treat it as a shell script (i.e. fork another shell with it's input redirected to that filename. See which of the above applies to you. Unless your program explicitly accesses the disk itself, this is the behavior that will take place. Pete There is 1 Reply. #: 9264 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 24-Jan-91 00:21:51 Sb: #9258-#Sending nulls to T2 Fm: Paul Rinear 73757,1413 To: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 (X) I'm familiar with that. I "load test" then I "mdir" to check for it in memory. It is there named 'test'. So I type "test" and it heads right for the disk. So the module must be accessing the disk. Here is the source code: $TITLE Test $SUBTITLE pas PROGRAM message (input,output); BEGIN write ('good grief') END. Doesn't look disk intensive. Here is the output of PascalT.PRUN : NAM MESSAGE USE PASCALDEFS MOD P.END,P.NAME,P.TYPE,$81,P.START,P.DATA P.NAME FCS /borg/ FCB 1 P.TYPE EQU 17 RMB 3548 P.DATA EQU . TTL PROCEDURE MESSAGE PAG A0D0 FCC "good grief" FCB $D P.SUP FCS "SUPPORT" P.START STY MEMTOP STX PARAMBEG LEAX -1,Y STX PARAMEND STU MEMBOT LEAX P.ABORT,PC STX ABORT STX DISPATCH LEAX >Rod<< #: 9238 S1/General Interest 22-Jan-91 20:25:21 Sb: #Kyum-Gai goes OS-9!! Fm: Glen Dahlgren 72310,3243 To: all To any and all of you, I wanted to jump in and announce to those who were not aware that Kyum-Gai: to be Ninja, the popular CoCo 3 RS-DOS arcade game, has finally successfully been ported over to OS-9. The game coding was done by Glen Dahlgren (myself, an RS-DOS game programmer for Sundog Systems) and ported by Kevin Darling (a name known to all as the OS-9 guru) and Eddie Kuns (author of KBCom and contributing editor for Rainbow magazine). The result is simply fantastic. It was originally created as a response to the statement by a well-known RS-DOS game programmer that it was impossible to create a fast, well-programmed arcade game under the OS-9 environment. Kevin Darling took it as a challenge and, along with a little help from Eddie and myself, ported the arcade game over to OS-9. Now OS-9ers can play one of the top CoCo 3 games without sacrificing your OS-9 features! Have multiple Kyum-Gai's in memory at once. Multitask while playing! Don't worry about moving to another window, as Kyum-Gai will auto-pause and wait for your return! This is a landmark piece of software and I'm glad to announce, especially to those who have been waiting patiently for it, that it is now shipping! Now you can have an incredible CoCo 3 arcade game installed on your hard drive! Check out the ad in Rainbow and hopefully soon in the OSKer! It retails for $29.95, and can be purchased on-line in Delphi's shopping service, or directly from Sundog Systems! Thanks for your time! -----------Glen R. Dahlgren Sundog Systems There is 1 Reply. #: 9240 S1/General Interest 22-Jan-91 21:14:12 Sb: #9238-#Kyum-Gai goes OS-9!! Fm: James Jones 76257,562 To: Glen Dahlgren 72310,3243 (X) I'm very glad to hear that it's now available--and if I remember rightly, Kevin commented in a posting a while back that the code in Kyum-Gai was quite well structured, simplifying the port considerably. Expect an order from me shortly! (Of course, there *is* the obvious followup question. :-) There is 1 Reply. #: 9260 S1/General Interest 23-Jan-91 20:12:57 Sb: #9240-#Kyum-Gai goes OS-9!! Fm: Glen Dahlgren 72310,3243 To: James Jones 76257,562 (X) Well, if the obvious followup question is where you can get a hold of it, I can certainly answer that one! Sundog Systems resides at: Sundog Systems P.O. Box 766 Manassas, VA 22111 703/330-8989 We'd be glad to take your order! ;-) -----------Glen There is 1 Reply. #: 9263 S1/General Interest 23-Jan-91 23:38:52 Sb: #9260-#Kyum-Gai goes OS-9!! Fm: James Jones 76257,562 To: Glen Dahlgren 72310,3243 (X) The obvious followup question I had in mind was, what other games would you be porting to OS-9? (Obviousness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. :-) :-) Thanks much for the address and phone number. There is 1 Reply. #: 9271 S1/General Interest 24-Jan-91 20:50:44 Sb: #9263-Kyum-Gai goes OS-9!! Fm: Glen Dahlgren 72310,3243 To: James Jones 76257,562 (X) Ahhhh!!! My idea of obvious is, of course, much different than your! Actually, to answer your other obvious question, it really depends on the sales of this program. I've got a few well-known OS-9 authors who would be very interested in converting other games. If Kyum-Gai: to be Ninja (the OS-9 Version) proves itself in the marketplace, then I would be very open to the idea. Remember, you can promote this! Word of mouth is one of the most powerful movers in this market. If a lot of people hear, and therefore buy, the program, we'll be churning out more! ------------Glen #: 9239 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK) 22-Jan-91 20:48:48 Sb: #termcap functions Fm: Bob van der Poel 76510,2203 To: all I notice in the termcap docs I have for os9-68000 that there is no definition (name) for cursor on/off. The program I'm writing would like to do it's own cursor stuff, if the terminal's cursor can be turned off . . . so, does anyone know if there is a definition for this? I suppose that I could pick something at random (from what I understand from termcap nothing is really predefined), but I'd like to keep some consistancy. I guess the other way to handle this is via the programs own config files, but it would be nice to keep all the output things in termcap. Any suggestions appreciated. There is 1 Reply. #: 9247 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK) 22-Jan-91 23:46:29 Sb: #9239-termcap functions Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 To: Bob van der Poel 76510,2203 (X) Bob - I recently posted full termcap docs to DL3. You may want to refer to them (if you haven't already). In the meantime, I don't know for sure if a cursor CAN be turned off using conventional termcap. Pete #: 9241 S1/General Interest 22-Jan-91 22:32:44 Sb: #THE DEMISE Fm: RORY OCONNOR 75500,3212 To: ALL TO ALL OF THE COCO USERS OUT THERE, I HAVE BEEN AWAY FROM THIS SERVICE FOR QUITE SOME TIME AND WANT TO GET BACK INTO IT AS WELL AS PROGRAMMING. I DO HAVE A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS FROM YOU GUYS. I HERE THAT THE COCO IS DEAD AS FAR AS TANDY IS CONCERENED, IS THIS SO?--- IF SO WHAT IS THE NEXT STEP? HOPE TO GET A LOT OF SUGGESTIONS, THANKS. There are 2 Replies. #: 9250 S1/General Interest 23-Jan-91 01:23:46 Sb: #9241-THE DEMISE Fm: Wayne Day 76703,376 To: RORY OCONNOR 75500,3212 (X) Rory, "Dead", the CoCo is not (just ask all of the people who are using it right now!). The CoCo line is being allowed to go SOWG (Sold Out When Gone) and there's no replacement coming from Radio Shack, so the chances of seeing anything new from Fort Worth are slim to absolutely none. Of course, you can still buy TRS-80 Model 1 parts from Tandy, today, so the technical support for the computer will continue for a while. What next? You can (a) stay with the CoCo or (b) go to another platform. If you're interested in OS-9, there are much worse platforms to use than a CoCo-3 running OS-9 level 2. Wayne #: 9253 S1/General Interest 23-Jan-91 06:31:44 Sb: #9241-THE DEMISE Fm: Steve Wegert 76703,4255 To: RORY OCONNOR 75500,3212 (X) Rory, For a couple of 'next platform' options, check out the recent announcements in our HOT TOPICS library. Frank Hogg Labs, IMS and Ed Gresick have some exciting news to share. Steve #: 9245 S3/Languages 22-Jan-91 23:02:28 Sb: #ASM code Fm: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 To: Any HP users Anybody have any experience with ASM on the HP-9000? I'm in a 68000 ASM class with about 50 other students, and needless to say, the lab instructor's time is at a premium. What I'm looking for is the cmds to asm and link my source file to produce an executable. I can get it to asm O.K., but can't get it to link with the externs to produce runnable code. Any input welcome!!! (gotta use the HP until my MM/1 arrives!) ..Jim There is 1 Reply. #: 9251 S3/Languages 23-Jan-91 03:41:31 Sb: #9245-ASM code Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 To: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 (X) Jim - I'd suggest a quick question in the HP forum (go hp)... luck! #: 9256 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 23-Jan-91 15:04:33 Sb: Seagate ST225N Fm: Rodney Harper 75130,1321 To: All Is anyone using a Seagate ST-225N hardrive with the Disto 4in1 ? If so, could someone shed a little insight on formatting the drive using Disto's Low Level Formatter ? I get nothing but errors, all of the time. Does the 4in1 require a voltage input in order for the hard drive controller to work ? I have just about run out of patience trying to format this Hard Drive, I don't think there is a problem with the Drive itself, but if this keeps on, it will make a good doorstop. >>Rod<< #: 9257 S1/General Interest 23-Jan-91 15:04:38 Sb: Disto Support Fm: Rodney Harper 75130,1321 To: SYSOP (X) Is there any Disto Reps online in this forum ? Is there a FAX number for Disto available ? >>Rod<< #: 9259 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK) 23-Jan-91 20:04:26 Sb: #ss.screen_size Fm: Bob van der Poel 76510,2203 To: all In writing my VED text editor for OSK I've come up with a minor problem. It seems that OSK does not have a standard SS.Screen_Size status call. I understand that Kevin's drivers for the MM/1 will have that, but using this will mean that the program will only work in that in that environment. VED will use termcap to determine all the other terminal stuff, but using termcap to get the size is a problem since termcap does not know about windows (Kevs or anyone elses). My plan is to use a small auxillary program called Ved_size (or something else equally creative) which would simply get the screen size either as a constant or via a getstt and exit with the size as its F$Exit paramater. As new drivers etc. are developed the user would need to replace this program. I was thinking that VED could fork to ved_size and get the resultant information from the error status returned to F$wait (use the lower half of the long word for the columns, the upper for the rows...). It does seem rather convoluted to me...anyone with a better idea? Comments? BTW, VED is up and running on my single board MM/1. Some debugging left to do, etc., but it should be ready for market within a month or so. Now I just have to decide if I should follow my low-price philosophy or try to hang on to the high-price one the OSK market seems to like. e There are 2 Replies. #: 9266 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK) 24-Jan-91 05:21:21 Sb: #9259-ss.screen_size Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 To: Bob van der Poel 76510,2203 Well... don't fork to ved_size, but call it as a subroutine module instead? PS: sorry haven't answered you about control codes. I understand that you have one of the non-palette prototype machines? The latest driver hasn't been back-ported to that one yet... and I've forgotten what codes the old driver supported. The new one supports many more. Hang tight. Working on it. best - kev #: 9269 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK) 24-Jan-91 12:11:42 Sb: #9259-ss.screen_size Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 To: Bob van der Poel 76510,2203 Bob - You can't use the lines and columns entries in the termcap? These would be fine for conventional terminals, and the scsize call would be supported for winders. Sounds as if your bases are already covered... Re: pricing philosophy.... remember two things - a) A lot of GOOD PD stuff is available (uemacs, stevie [vi clone], etc.) that has been or is a candidate for being ported to an OSK environment. b) Keeping prices within the impulse-buy range is certain to net you a greater volume of sales. Pete #: 9277 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 25-Jan-91 17:29:31 Sb: #Seagate St225N Fm: james pottage 71750,2012 To: Rodney Harper, 75130,1321 (X) The formatting for the St225N ussually gives an error on the first attempt, Try formatting a second time without shutting the system down. A better plan would be to contact Ken Scales on Delfi, or leave him electronic mail on compuserve. He has a new patch for the disto SCSI drivers which solve a problem encountered on booting up, and also allow formatting. They also allow better multi tasking. If you can not get a hold of him leave me another message and I will contact him for you Jim Pottage There is 1 Reply. #: 9279 S10/OS9/6809 (CoCo) 25-Jan-91 20:05:15 Sb: #9277-Seagate St225N Fm: Rodney Harper 75130,1321 To: james pottage 71750,2012 Jim, What is his User Name ? I am RWHARPER on Delphi. >>Rod<< Press !>