read new nonstop follow 92932 2-JUL 12:10 OSK Applications autolf From: PHXKEN To: ALL Was told on COCOLIST that autolf.lzh was located in incoming directory at Chestnut. Just FTP'ed over there and there does not seem to be an incoming directory. Does anyone know where the OSK/COCO AUTO Line Feed LZH files are stashed? phxken@class68.com -*- 92933 2-JUL 12:22 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92896) From: 01GEN40 To: COCOKIWI Hi Dennis, Thanks for the short history lesson on the 6809/6309 CPU differences. But, I do not see how this could explain all of the crashes I have been experiencing with the 6309. That CoCo crashed hard when I simply tried to format a floppy disk! In my programming experience, I have not delved into the masking and unmasking of bits yet. So, that still does not explain why a program I write would work fine most of the time and then crash at others. I do not think it is the fault of the 6309 either. I think it is with some other part(s) of the CoCo. I had mentioned before that when I replaced the 6309 CoCo with my original 6809 CoCo, I saw a defini te difference in the display on my CM-8. It is much brighter with the 6809 CoCo. For all I know, I could have a cold solder joint where I installed the socket for the 6309. All the programs I have written and am writing work fine on this 6809! I do not have the proper equipment to run extensive testing on the 6309 CoCo so it will have to sit collecting dust for a while until I figure out what I am going to do with it. I think I destroyed the 6809 CPU when removing it from the motherboard. I do not remember what I did with it. I may have to see if I can get another one, replace the 6309 and see if that cures its ills. If not, then it is beyond my current ability to persue the problem further. If it does, then I will get another 6309 to see if indeed the CPU is at fault. Thanks for the reply... See ya among the stars... LONG LIVE OS-9! ** In whatever form it is in! Peace and Long Life... Siran of Vulcan (CMDR) -= GEN =- -*- 92934 2-JUL 12:38 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92897) From: 01GEN40 To: DBREEDING Hi Dave, The best I ever did with the 6309 was to use PowerBoost and if I remember right, all it did was to enhance certain things to run better on the 6309. I have nothing that will put the 6309 in its native mode. I never thought of that when I mentioned HDBackup. I do not remember if I was using PowerBoost when I did any of the backups. I am sorry if I may have misled you. My 6309 CoCo is down for the count right now until I can determin what its pro- blem is. I am back to using my original 6809 CoCo which I have had absolutely no problems with. Talk about a trusty companion! Thanks for the reply... See ya among the stars... LONG LIVE OS-9! ** In whatever form it is in! Peace and Long Life... Siran of Vulcan (CMDR) -= GEN =- -*- 92937 2-JUL 20:24 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92933) From: DBREEDING To: 01GEN40 > . But, I do not see how this could explain all of > the crashes I have been experiencing with the 6309. That CoCo > crashed hard when I simply tried to format a floppy disk! > So, that still does not explain > why a program I write would work fine most of the time and > then crash at others. What is the language of the programs? Crashing one time and not crashing the next sounds like what sometimes happens if you have a jumptable in C and didn't get it initialized. If you are using Powerboost and B09, I read somewhere that B09 "cheats" on some of its interrupt routines, I believe, and this is incompatible with Powerboost. I know I have gotten some squirrelly happenings, crashes, I believe, at times, when I hit the BREAK key in B09. This is running PBoost in native mode. I don't think it should cause a problem if you were running in 6809 mode, though.. This could be the answer to the fact that crashing is not regular.. Do you run part-time in native and others in 6809 mode? > I had mentioned before that when I replaced the 6309 > CoCo with my original 6809 CoCo, I saw a defini te > difference in the display on my CM-8. It is much brighter with the 6809 > CoCo. That's a little strange. Most said they saw an improvement. I can't say I could tell any difference in mine, but it wasn't bad to start with. > For all I know, I could have a cold solder joint where > I installed the socket for the 6309. All the programs I have > written and am writing work fine on this 6809! > figure out what I am going to do with it. I think I destroyed > the 6809 CPU when removing it from the motherboard. You ought to see what a mess I made of mine. I completely destroyed some of the traces. I think on 2 or 3, I had to use some wirewrap wire and make new traces. I didn't expect it to ever work again, but I didn't seem to have any troubles with it. You might take the coco apart and examine all traces very closely and see if any are damaged. > I do not > remember what I did with it. I may have to see if I can get > another one, replace the 6309 and see if that cures its ills. That might be a good idea. a 6809 is only about $5 and it would be a good place to start. I suspect a damaged trace, though. -- David Breeding -- CompuServe : 72330,2051 Delphi : DBREEDING *** Composed with InfoXpress/OSK Vr. 1.02 & VED Vr. 2.4.0 *** -*- 92938 2-JUL 20:24 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92934) From: DBREEDING To: 01GEN40 > Hi Dave, > The best I ever did with the 6309 was to use PowerBoost and if > I remember right, all it did was to enhance certain things to run > better on the 6309. I have nothing that will put the 6309 in its > native mode. There were two sets of stuff that came with powerboost. One set just optimized the programs to use some of the 6309 codes. The other put the 6309 in native mode. To do native mode, you had to run this one program on stock modules. It worked something like ipatch, I suppose. What I did was to create a seperate directory with all stock modules and worked on them. I then created a new boot disk with those modules. > I do not remember if I was using PowerBoost when I did any of the > backups. I am sorry if I may have misled you. Oh, don't worry about that. It's hard to remember what you did some time ago.. at least it is for me... > My 6309 CoCo is > down for the count right now until I can determin what its pro- > blem is. I am back to using my original 6809 CoCo which I have > had absolutely no problems with. Talk about a trusty companion! Yeah, I know.. When I finally got to upgrading mine, I went out and found me a second system.. Didn't want to butcher up my one and only .. -- David Breeding -- CompuServe : 72330,2051 Delphi : DBREEDING *** Composed with InfoXpress/OSK Vr. 1.02 & VED Vr. 2.4.0 *** -*- 92941 3-JUL 00:04 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92933) From: WDTV5 To: 01GEN40 Hi Gene; One possibility that might have an effect depending on the 1773 in your controller, is that at least in my machine, there are some glitches in a couple of the 6309 address lines that are not in the 6809. These glitches are quite near the leading edge of the eclock, and for those devices that latch data on the trailing edge, no problem. However, edge triggered devices might see those and miss-behave. Its a 6309 problem that seems to vary from chip to chip. I have a 63C09 here that does, and I put a 63B09 in Karl Swishers machine that didn't do it near as obviously, nor on the same address lines! I'm not saying thats it, but its food for thought, the kind that will have you dragging the scope over to the coco to check. BTW, my 63C09, glitches and all, is the most stable device here! In other words, my amiga crashes 10 times for once on the coco. And AmigaDos 3.1 is in fact pretty stable. I also have some extra gating in my mpi that may protect the 1773 from them too, but it wasn't intended that way, just happened when looking for something else. Cheers Gene, Gene -*- 92942 3-JUL 04:20 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92933) From: COCOKIWI To: 01GEN40 the difference's between CPU,s should NOT have any affect on the display at ALL.......strange one!......I would suspect a timing problem there somewhere..... Denniss -*- 92943 3-JUL 17:31 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92933) From: JEJONES To: 01GEN40 > ....I do not think it is the fault of the > 6309 either. I think it is with some other part(s) of the > CoCo. I had mentioned before that when I replaced the 6309 > CoCo with my original 6809 CoCo, I saw a definite difference > in the display on my CM-8. It is much brighter with the 6809 > CoCo. I'm not a hardware person, but I'd agree, there's something other than the CPU change going on. That sounds like something to do with the GIME. Good luck tracking down whatever the problem is. Opinions herein are solely those of their respective authors. -*- 92962 9-JUL 12:10 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92937) From: 01GEN40 To: DBREEDING Hi Dave, When I started learning to program, I started with RS Basic. After getting OS-9, I moved up to Basic09. I stayed with it for a while so I could gain a good feel for writing programs. I decided that I wanted my programs to be "stand alone" and not have the need for an interpreter. I moved on to "C". I have been using "C" since about 1991. DScan, in the database here, is my first and foremost major project done in "C". I am quite proud of the utility and plan to keep working with it as I learn to do bigger and better things in "C". DScan is by far, NOT complete! But, in its present state, it is very useful and informative. The PowerBoost that I have, which was the first out for the 6309, had no ability to put the 6309 into its native mode, not to my knowledge anyway. Like I said, I have not used it for a number of years now. The 6309 has ALWAYS run in 6809 mode. I am most positive that the problem I am having with the 6309 CoCo is a hardware problem and not software related whatsoever. I will persue the problem as time permits, or maybe I may just stick with this trusty ol' 6809 CoCo I got for Christmas in 1988. I used to read about all the various problems that people were having with their CoCo 3 computer, one of which comes to mind at this time, the infamous "sparlies" on the screen such as with a disk access. I have never had any of the problems that were re- ported with this CoCo 3. I would have to say that if there were such a thing as a "perfect" CoCo 3, it would have to be this one. Thanks for the reply... See ya among the stars... LONG LIVE OS-9! ** In whatever form it is in! Peace and Long Life... Siran of Vulcan (CMDR) -= GEN =- -*- 92963 9-JUL 12:18 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92938) From: 01GEN40 To: DBREEDING Hello again... I have 4 CoCo 3s. This one, that I am on at this minute, is the original I got in 1988. There is more info in a different message I left for you here, so I will not re-hash everthing again. As a matter of fact, I have a red heart sticker that I applied the this CoCos case top about 4 years ago. Maybe that is why she is so trust- worthy and gives me no problems. She knows I love here! Thanks for the reply... See ya among the stars... LONG LIVE OS-9! ** In whatever form it is in! Peace and Long Life... Siran of Vulcan (CMDR) -= GEN =- -*- 92965 9-JUL 12:39 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92941) From: 01GEN40 To: WDTV5 Hello Gene, If you are talking about my floppy controller, when you mention the 1773?, my controller is a dual ROM J & R, I think. I can- not see the cover because of my B&B HD controller. My MPI is one of the older, large case (white), units. It has a socket for the PAL with the upgrade installed. I strapped all pins #8. My 6309 CoCo has the 63B09 installed in it. My plan of action is to pull the 6309 and heat up the socket pin to make sure I do not have a cold solder joint and then put a 6809 back into it and see what that does. If everything works fine after about a month of use, I will replace the 6809 for the 6309 and use it again to see if any problems occur. If there are none then I can attribute the pro- blems to a cold solder joint. If I do start having problems again, then it is time to get a new 6309. Thanks for the reply... See ya among the stars... LONG LIVE OS-9! ** In whatever form it is in! Peace and Long Life... Siran of Vulcan (CMDR) -= GEN =- -*- 92966 9-JUL 12:42 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92942) From: 01GEN40 To: COCOKIWI >I would suspect a timing problem... Thanks for the note, Dennis. I will keep this in mind. Thanks for the reply... See ya among the stars... LONG LIVE OS-9! ** In whatever form it is in! Peace and Long Life... Siran of Vulcan (CMDR) -= GEN =- -*- 92968 9-JUL 19:55 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92962) From: DBREEDING To: 01GEN40 > When I started learning to program, I started with RS Basic. After > getting OS-9, I moved up to Basic09. I stayed with it for a while > so I could gain a good feel for writing programs. I decided > that I wanted my programs to be "stand alone" and not have the need > for an interpreter. I moved on to "C". That is about the same route I took.. I did go to assembly between Basic and C, but now, I'm pretty much into "C". I didn't even get Basic with my OSK machine. I would have liked to have ported a few of my coco programs to OSK, but decided that since everyone would need the interpreter, would steer clear of Basic. I have ported most of my more important stuff over to "C". > DScan, in the database here, is my first and > foremost major project done in "C". I am quite proud of the > utility and plan to keep working with it as I learn to do bigger and > better things in "C". DScan is by far, NOT complete! But, in its > present state, it is very useful and informative. Heh-heh... Is _any_ program ever complete? You think you have it just where you want it and then, almost immediately, you suddenly think, "Wouldn't it be nice if it would... " > The PowerBoost that I have, which was the first out for the 6309, > had no ability to put the 6309 into its native mode, not to my > knowledge anyway. I didn't realize they put out a version that did not support native mode. I can't even remember when I got my copy. It seems it had been out a year or two. > I used to read about all the various problems that people were > having with their CoCo 3 computer, one of which comes to mind at > this time, the infamous "sparlies" on the screen such as with a > disk access. I have never had any of the problems that were re- > ported with this CoCo 3. I must say that I never came across many of the problems that others have reported. Did get the BLOB a time or two. My first CoCo 3 was probably one of the first ones made. I remember that on the same day I received my issue of Rainbow announcing the Coco 3, I went straight to my R-S dealer and put in an order. It is kind of funny, it seems that I had just come home from visiting the RS store that very day and had caught an ad in the new catalog about OS9 Level 2. I know it was really a mystery what they were talking about till I saw the Rainbow. I would have to say that if there > were such a thing as a "perfect" CoCo 3, it would have to be > this one. I've had a lot of good luck with my Coco's myself. They have been relatively trouble-free. -- David Breeding -- CompuServe : 72330,2051 Delphi : DBREEDING *** Composed with InfoXpress/OSK Vr. 1.02 & VED Vr. 2.4.0 *** -*- 92969 9-JUL 19:56 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92963) From: DBREEDING To: 01GEN40 > I have a red heart sticker that I applied the this > CoCos case top about 4 years ago. Maybe that is why she is so trust- > worthy and gives me no problems. She knows I love here! Nothing like a little TLC, is there ... -- David Breeding -- CompuServe : 72330,2051 Delphi : DBREEDING *** Composed with InfoXpress/OSK Vr. 1.02 & VED Vr. 2.4.0 *** -*- 92970 9-JUL 19:56 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92965) From: DBREEDING To: 01GEN40 > If you are talking about my floppy controller, when you mention > the 1773?, my controller is a dual ROM J & R, I think. I can- > not see the cover because of my B&B HD controller. My MPI is one of > the older, large case (white), units. It has a socket for the PAL > with the upgrade installed. I strapped all pins #8. In thinking back about this thread, I might ought to mention one thing I came across. I have a Disto controller, SC-II with 4-in-1. However, I had installed my Multi-Pak so I could use my RS-232 pak, since the Disto serial port did not support RTS/CTS. I found I was having trouble writing PC disks with PCDos. Then I discovered I could not format a floppy, either. I tried cleaning my contacts but no luck. I first thought it was due to my Floppy driver, since it depends on IRQ's for floppy I/O, but it would not work with the PC-Dos driver either, and that boot disk was strictly non-6309. But removing the MPI permitted both operations to proceed. I never pursued the problem further. I just eliminated the MPI, since I don't depend on it for telecom any more. Perhaps your MPI could be doing something in your case, too? -- David Breeding -- CompuServe : 72330,2051 Delphi : DBREEDING *** Composed with InfoXpress/OSK Vr. 1.02 & VED Vr. 2.4.0 *** -*- 93061 18-JUL 22:29 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92968) From: 01GEN40 To: DBREEDING Hi Dave, This is going to have to be short since I do not have much time to be out here tonight, Tuesday July 18. I normally log in on Sunday mornings but this past Sunday I went to the S.D. User Group meeting. The only real problems that I have had was with the "bugs" in OS-9 L2. After getting new versions and patches out here I was able to get the OS to perform smoothly. But, since my last HD crash I have had to rebuild my boot and find that I am having some of those problems again. I get lost and/or garbaged characters in the forum messages, I lose my cursor after leaving Mail and the Internet, etc. All I have to do is try to remember what I did before. Since I have all the patches and new versions archived on floppies I should have only minor problems in ironing this out. Oh well... Thanks for the reply... See ya among the stars... LONG LIVE OS-9! ** In whatever form it is in! Peace and Long Life... Siran of Vulcan (CMDR) -= GEN =- -*- 93062 18-JUL 22:41 General Information RE: Fest (Re: Msg 92970) From: 01GEN40 To: DBREEDING Hello again, >Perhaps your MPI could be doing something in your case, too? I agree that the posibility is there that the MPI could be at fault. But, I was using it with my 6809 CoCo long before I ever decided to go with a 6309. I had no problems hardware wise that I can remember. Like I said earlier, this CoCo has been more than trustworthy. Come to think of it, the only hardware pro- blems that I really have had were my HDs dieing on me left and right. Maybe someone (Tony D.) can invent an IDE interface to the CoCo. Then I can just buy a new one and not worry about it for about 5 years or so! Thanks for the reply... See ya among the stars... LONG LIVE OS-9! ** In whatever form it is in! Peace and Long Life... Siran of Vulcan (CMDR) -= GEN =- -*- End of Thread. -*- 92935 2-JUL 12:58 General Information RE: Chopped-up Threads?!?! (Re: Msg 92898) From: 01GEN40 To: DBREEDING Hi again, The last time I was on the Internet, April, I spent over 6 hours online! That month I finally went over my 20 hours on Delphi. I think it is well worth the few extra bucks I paid to Delphi. Es- pecially when there are no long distant phone charges involved. I do not think I could have afforded it had I not had a local Sprint- net access number for Delphi. I am not an active partisipant in the Star Trek group, I just read it. I wonder if there is a term above AVID! I have a uniform that I assembled which I where when I go to each Convention. I go as a Vulcan Starfleet Commander, ears and all. My mother has claimed the rank of Captain and I cannot out rank my mother! She goes as a human female so that would put me in the same catagory as Spock. Trouble is, I do not know who my Vulcan father would be! Thanks for the reply... See ya among the stars... LONG LIVE OS-9! ** In whatever form it is in! Peace and Long Life... Siran of Vulcan (CMDR) -= GEN =- -*- 92939 2-JUL 20:24 General Information RE: Chopped-up Threads?!?! (Re: Msg 92935) From: DBREEDING To: 01GEN40 > The last time I was on the Internet, April, I spent over 6 hours > online! 6 hours... That just makes my hip pocket hurt :-( > That month I finally went over my 20 hours on Delphi. I > think it is well worth the few extra bucks I paid to Delphi. Es- > pecially when there are no long distant phone charges involved. I > do not think I could have afforded it had I not had a local Sprint- > net access number for Delphi. Tell me about it! I simply lust after a local dial-up number. I think I've already mentioned that I live in a very small rural area. We have just gotten a local newsreader service, and rumor has it that our telephone co. is supposed to get an internet link here sometime this summer. I don't know the nature of it, but if I can TELNET to Delphi and CI$, that will help me a lot and maybe allow me to increase my online time.. I just sit and cringe when I get into a huge download. I venture out into a few forums on occasion, but I still try to keep an eye on my time. > I am not an active partisipant in the Star Trek group, I just > read it. So far, all I've done with the newsgroups is to just lurk. On occasion, if someone asks something that I might be able to help at, I'll just go into email and send them a note. I really should reply within the newsgroup so others might not bother to send the same info, but I haven't made that step yet.. -- David Breeding -- CompuServe : 72330,2051 Delphi : DBREEDING *** Composed with InfoXpress/OSK Vr. 1.02 & VED Vr. 2.4.0 *** -*- 92964 9-JUL 12:22 General Information RE: Chopped-up Threads?!?! (Re: Msg 92939) From: 01GEN40 To: DBREEDING BIG Ear to Ear ! LONG LIVE OS-9! ** In whatever form it is in! Peace and Long Life... Siran of Vulcan (CMDR) -= GEN =- -*- 93019 16-JUL 18:45 General Information RE: Chopped-up Threads?!?! (Re: Msg 92831) From: GREGL To: EDELMAR From what I have been able to gather so far, Netcom uses the TCP/IP protocol with either SLIP or PPP via modem. From what I recall, the NetCruiser software works only with Netcom and I don't know if you can use more "standard" software with Netcom or not. Best ask them about that. I'm somewhat surprised there isn't an Internet service provider within Delaware that uses standard SLIP/PPP software. Speaking of which, has anyone written networking software based around SLIP/PPP for OS-9/6000 or OS-9000 yet? -- Greg -*- End of Thread. -*- 92936 2-JUL 13:05 General Information RE: Visability (Re: Msg 92907) From: 01GEN40 To: THETAURUS Hi Chris, >>In that case let me remove all toasters and blow dryers from the area.<< ZZZZTT ZZZTT ZZZTTT... Ah dang, I knew I should not have turned on that fan! :( Thanks for the reply... See ya among the stars... LONG LIVE OS-9! ** In whatever form it is in! Peace and Long Life... Siran of Vulcan (CMDR) -= GEN =- -*- 92940 2-JUL 23:18 OSK Applications RE: OSK C Bug (Re: Msg 92931) From: NIMITZ To: WRHAMBLEN Bud, how is this usually manifested? For those of us who port code and usually don't read it first! ;) David -*- 92945 3-JUL 20:19 OSK Applications RE: OSK C Bug (Re: Msg 92940) From: WRHAMBLEN To: NIMITZ David, Porting code without reading it is exactly how I found this! :o I was fooling with the enormous GNU P2C pascal-to-C translator and had some funny looking strings appear in the output. Here's one place that caused trouble in the file trans.c: #ifdef OSK if (useAnyptrMacros) charname = "Char"; else if (unsignedchar == 1) charname = ucharname; else if (unsignedchar == 0) charname = scharname; else charname = "char"; #else /* Nuxi */ charname = (useAnyptrMacros) ? "Char" : (unsignedchar == 1) ? ucharname : (unsignedchar == 0) ? scharname : "char"; #endif I was using the -k0CL cc command line option for code references over 32K away. GNU software runs big and the p2c binary is over half a meg. Bud -*- End of Thread. -*- 92946 4-JUL 14:21 General Information KWindows window format From: TEDJAEGER To: ALL Hi All, Been trying to figure out the native (DSNAP) format of a saved to disk KWindows window. Have used Joel's demosnap to save the screen and then dumped it to examine it. Looks like the first $3C bytes are a header and I would guess that 16 of them (its a TYPE 0 screen) are the palettes. Anyone know what the bytes in this header represent? Thanks! Bests ---TedJaeger -*- 92951 6-JUL 23:00 General Information RE: KWindows window format (Re: Msg 92946) From: TEDJAEGER To: TEDJAEGER > Been trying to figure out the native (DSNAP) format of a saved > to disk KWindows window. Have used Joel's demosnap to save the screen > and then dumped it to examine it. Looks like the first $3C bytes are a > header and I would guess that 16 of them (its a TYPE 0 screen) are the > palettes. Anyone know what the bytes in this header represent? Thanks! > > Bests > ---TedJaeger OK, I'm talking to myself but have learned a bit. Takes 48 bytes (3 per palette) to encode the palettes. They are offset $0a to $39. I also discovered SnapIt, an utility distributed with the MM1 upgrade to OSK version 2.4. It works like demosnap except it does not do any compression. This makes it handier if your purposes are simply to display a KWindows screen so that additional software may grab a section of the screen and save it into a disk file in a format for loading into a buffer for future PUTing on a graphics screen. Yup, that's what I'm doing! Good luck Bests ---TedJaeger -*- 92976 11-JUL 01:38 General Information RE: KWindows window format (Re: Msg 92951) From: JOELHEGBERG To: TEDJAEGER Ted, > > Been trying to figure out the native (DSNAP) format of a saved > > to disk KWindows window. Have used Joel's demosnap to save the screen > ... > OK, I'm talking to myself but have learned a bit. Takes 48 bytes (3 per > palette) to encode the palettes. They are offset $0a to $39. I also > discovered SnapIt, an utility distributed with the MM1 upgrade to Sorry I didn't pick up on this thread earlier. Let me know if you want me to post demosnap's format. I may also have a utility which lets you save a portion of the screen (you use the mouse to rubber-band off an area you want saved). I can dig it up if you need it. -- Joel. -*- 92979 12-JUL 21:00 General Information RE: KWindows window format (Re: Msg 92976) From: TEDJAEGER To: JOELHEGBERG > > > Been trying to figure out the native (DSNAP) format of a saved > > > to disk KWindows window. Have used Joel's demosnap to save the > screen > ... > > OK, I'm talking to myself but have learned a bit. Takes 48 bytes (3 > per > palette) to encode the palettes. They are offset $0a to $39. I > also > discovered SnapIt, an utility distributed with the MM1 upgrade to > > Sorry I didn't pick up on this thread earlier. Let me know if you want > me to post demosnap's format. I may also have a utility which lets you > save a portion of the screen (you use the mouse to rubber-band off an > area you want saved). I can dig it up if you need it. > Hi Joel, Yes, I sure would like the scoop on demosnap's format. Here is what I'm up to. I wrote a little game called SLIDER that is a knock off of that old hand-held game that had a wooden frame with a 3X3 matrix of numbered blocks within. One cell was empty and you had to move the 8 other numbered blocks around to get them in proper numeric order. Got it all working and then realized that it would be nicer if I could put a graphic in the 3X3 matrix and let the player move sections of the graphic around to get the parts of the picture in proper order. So then I need some way to grab a section of an iff or gif or bmp image that matches the size of the 3X3 matrix. Since the game currently runs on a Type 0 screen, I need a way to grab a part of such a screen and save it as a disk file that I can gpload. If your utility would do that and you can find it, I'd appreciate a copy. In fact, the more I think about this, the more I bleieve I should probably revise the game to run on a Type 3 screen so I can get 256 colors in the image, no? Not much work, I think. Thanks Bests ---TedJaeger -*- 93016 16-JUL 13:20 General Information RE: KWindows window format (Re: Msg 92979) From: JOELHEGBERG To: TEDJAEGER > Hi Joel, > Yes, I sure would like the scoop on demosnap's format. Ok... DemoSnap file format: Offset # Bytes Description ====== ======= ====================================================== 0 4 Header for file ("DSNP") 4 2 Total number of horizontal bytes per line 6 2 Vertical size (in lines) 8 2 Number of colors (16 or 256) 10 ?? Palette data in triplets (RGB) (size = num_colors * 3) ?? 1 Compression byte. ($00 for uncompressed, $01 for RLE) ?? ?? Image data For uncompressed image data, the image data is exactly as it should be stored on the screen. In other words, if you had the memory address of a properly sized screen, you could load the image data like this: read(path, screen_address, bytes_per_line * vertical_size); For RLE compressed image data, bytes are read from the file two at a time. The first byte is the byte to be stored on the screen, and the second byte is the number of times the byte should be used. This continues until end-of-file is reached. So, if you read in the two bytes $3C and $05 you would write out the byte $3C five times to the screen. -- Joel. -*- 93058 18-JUL 21:41 General Information RE: KWindows window format (Re: Msg 93016) From: TEDJAEGER To: JOELHEGBERG > Offset # Bytes Description > ====== ======= ====================================================== > 0 4 Header for file ("DSNP") > 4 2 Total number of horizontal bytes per line > 6 2 Vertical size (in lines) > 8 2 Number of colors (16 or 256) > 10 ?? Palette data in triplets (RGB) (size = num_colors * 3) > ?? 1 Compression byte. ($00 for uncompressed, $01 for RLE) > ?? ?? Image data > Thanks much for the above, Joel. I should be able to make something from this! Bests ---TedJaeger -*- End of Thread. -*- 92947 4-JUL 21:51 General Information IRC Conference From: MROWEN01 To: ALL Thanks to everyone who supported the OS-9 IRC conference! We had a pretty good showing for our first time and on a holiday weekend to boot! Right now I am planning to have these twice a month, unless popular demand calls for a weekly conference. If you can make it to the next meeting, please join us. The next meeting will be on Sunday 16 Jul 95 at 10PM ET (GMT -4). Mike Rowen VP OS-9/6809 OS-9 Users Group mrowen01@delphi.com -*- 92948 6-JUL 00:44 General Information CDI terminal From: PAGAN To: ALL IS there any way to connect a terminal to a CD-I box? The Sand Diego User Group has one to show off at the show this year and would like to be able to remotely access it. I have no idea if it's possible Stephen Carville (PAGAN) -*- 92952 6-JUL 23:06 General Information RE: CDI terminal (Re: Msg 92948) From: MITHELEN To: PAGAN It is possible, (At least on the older, pre-pop-top models) to hook up a terminal, and get into a "service shell"... Also,with the proper disk, you can actually boot OS-9 and have a regular shell, with all your familiar commands... Boisy was able to do this by makeing a CDRom that had a copy of his MM/1 HD, and the proper boot modules for the CDi player... Of course, you need access to a CDRom burner to do this... -- Paul -*- 92953 7-JUL 06:30 General Information RE: CDI terminal (Re: Msg 92948) From: BOISY To: PAGAN > IS there any way to connect a terminal to a CD-I box? The Sand > Diego User Group has one to show off at the show this year and > would like to be able to remotely access it. I have no idea if it's > possible > > Stephen Carville (PAGAN) Yes, there is. I've only tried this on a Philips CD-i 220 player and a Magnavox 910, so I don't know if it will work with the smaller 450/550 players. You need to construct a cable to go from the 8 pin mini-DIN port on the BACK of the CD-i player (labeled IO/2) to a 9 or 25 pin RS-232: Below is the pinout of the IO port, an 8-pin mini-DIN. Facing male 8-pin mini-DIN connector: (top) 6 7 8 3 4 5 1 2 pin signal I/O ------------------------ 1 nc 2 rxd I 3 txd O 4 nc 5 ground 6 cts I 7 rts O 8 +5V (200 mA max.) The following connections are needed to interface to a DB-25: signal 8-pin mini-DIN DB-25 ---------------------------------------- rxd 2 2 txd 3 3 ground 5 7 Also, tie pins 6 and 7 on the 8-pin mini-DIN together. This will assert both CTS and RTS. Once you have constructed the cable, hook it up to your CD-i player and a terminal. Hold down the space bar on the terminal while powering up the CD-i player and you should see a diagnostics menu appear where you can run simple tests. With a special disk, it is even possible to call up a shell. I have such a disk, which is loaned out to someone right now. Their intention is to duplicate the behavior of the disk and possibly make copies for sale. -- Boisy G. Pitre__ __ __ Delphi: BOISY |_ _| \ \/ / CompuServe: 74464,3005 I use... _| |_ > < Internet: boisy@os9er.waukee.ia.us |_____|NFO/_/\_\PRESS 1.2.0 OS-9 -- King of Operating Systems -*- 92956 7-JUL 19:39 General Information RE: CDI terminal (Re: Msg 92948) From: THETAURUS To: PAGAN Stephen I am not sure if it can be done, but I would THINK it's possible, and if I remember correctly, this is what Boisy did recently at one of the fests(correct me someone). Either that or maybe he had his MM/1 hooked up to it. If you find out how to do it, let us know how the show works out. I hope more clubs follow the example of the SD UG! This is what clubs can do to keep OS-9 'in the light'. :-) See Ya Chris Perrault OS-9 Users' Group Sourcebook Coordinator -*- End of Thread. -*- 92949 6-JUL 19:44 System Modules (6809) os9 From: WILLIAMSON68 To: ALL I'm relatively new to os-9. Just a quick question. Is there a way to remove a module & device descriptor from memory and replace it with a new mod.&dd.? I.E. changing /h0 from a 20meg. to a 30meg. on the fly? Also, can you save a module in mem. to a disk file? Any help would be appreciated. (:} -Dan- -*- 92950 6-JUL 22:42 System Modules (6809) RE: os9 (Re: Msg 92949) From: RANDYKWILSON To: WILLIAMSON68 Dan The answers very much depend on what version of OS9 (OSK) you are using. For a CoCo3 running L2, no, you can not remove and replace system modules that are in boot on the fly. Though it is not very convenient, they did have a good reason for limiting this on L2. However, for your specific request, it is possible to change the a disk's device descriptor on the fly by using dmode (available here in the DBs). The procedure would be to make sure nothing has an open path to the disk (CHD, CHX, etc.), deiniz the disk a bunch, dmode the paramters (tracks, heads, etc.) then reiniz the disk. However, with some hard drive systems, this can lead to problems. For instance, you can not directly dmode the total sector count and park cylinder on B&B descriptors. If this is a permenent change, it is best to build a new boot disk. There should be a PD "save" command, or five, lurking in the DBs here. Randy -*- End of Thread. -*- 92954 7-JUL 12:52 General Information RE: Help! My computer hates me! (Re: Msg 92915) From: EDDIEKUNS To: CCMAN (NR) Marty Goodman would be a good person to ask about monitors. You may want to check in the CoCo SIG databasess to see if anyone has compiled any info on monitors for the CoCo. I don't know if there is any such information compiled or not. Good luck. Eddie -*- 92955 7-JUL 19:20 General Information RE: Help! My computer hates me! (Re: Msg 92915) From: WILLIAMSON68 To: CCMAN (NR) This is only a partial list, I hope it helps. magnvox-8cm505 8cm515 8cm643 icm135,7622(amber),7652(green) sony----kv1311cr tandy---vm-4(green) cm8-color n.t.c.--monochrome There are probably others but I don't know for sure. Good Luck. (:} -dan- -*- End of Thread. -*- 92957 7-JUL 23:24 General Information bmp viewer From: TEDJAEGER To: JOELHEGBERG Hi Joel, Just reporting one of my prouder moments. Used your BmpSnap to grap a BMP image of DeskTop full of folders, etc. Then copied that file over to my PC, used a PC utility to resize it to 640X480 pixels, and set it up for Windows wallpaper. Since my PC boots to Windows with the Program Manager iconified, the boot process ends on the PC with Mike's DeskTop program in full view!!! Causes a definite double take. Thanks for the fun! Bests ---TedJaeger -*- 92977 11-JUL 01:38 General Information RE: bmp viewer (Re: Msg 92957) From: JOELHEGBERG To: TEDJAEGER Hi, Ted! > Just reporting one of my prouder moments. Used your BmpSnap to > grap a BMP image of DeskTop full of folders, etc. Then copied that file > over to my PC, used a PC utility to resize it to 640X480 pixels, and > set it up for Windows wallpaper. Since my PC boots to Windows with the > Program Manager iconified, the boot process ends on the PC with Mike's > DeskTop program in full view!!! Causes a definite double take. Thanks > for the fun! Hehe, great! Glad you were able to jazz up your PC... :) -- Joel. -*- End of Thread. -*- 92958 8-JUL 00:56 General Information Hard to find parrif's From: MRUPGRADE To: ALL Ok,, folks,, hava look in th CoCo side Classified,, "FOR SALE" section. I've just listed a bunch'uv hard oto find CoCo Parrif's. From two types of Digitizers, to 1 meg RAM DRIVE,, and other stuff. Check it out... . (~~~~~~~~~~~~))) (---- -----))) l l l\\\\ l l l~~~~ il l l l hen l l l erry g \\\\\\\ ~~~~~~~ * Hooked on phonics works real well * * huked on foniks, a grate wae to spel * -*- 92959 8-JUL 01:19 General Information Monitors From: COCOKIWI To: PAGAN That monitor had ONE very bad problem! as do MOST Maggot boxes,My TV being one of them.... THE...FLYBACK transformer is a problem waiting to happen! The solder joints on the terminals of that are TOO large.......causing COLD solder joints! the joint contracts and expands and gives out! ......SO! cure iss go around the joints and re solder em!......then check the fuse on the power supply board!....and go from there!...I have TWO of em! one is still working! the others power supply died!..... Dennis -*- 92961 9-JUL 02:20 General Information RE: Monitors (Re: Msg 92959) From: WA2EGP To: COCOKIWI I had to resolder mine and after working a couple of years in industry with a wave solder machine, I think they did a crappy job on the board. Probably sent the boards through too fast. Cycling of heat-cold also weakens the solder joints, especially if they are crappy to begin with. -*- 92972 10-JUL 03:28 General Information RE: Monitors (Re: Msg 92961) From: COCOKIWI To: WA2EGP my 19" tv was the same way!..........had the EXACT same problem! Dennis -*- 92973 10-JUL 19:17 General Information RE: Monitors (Re: Msg 92959) From: JOHNREED To: COCOKIWI > > THE...FLYBACK transformer is a problem waiting to happen! The solder > joints on the terminals of that are TOO large.......causing COLD solder Heh, heh, as I recall, I used to try real hard to make those big ugly solder joints on flybacks. If you leave any sharp edges sticking out, you can get a "corona discharge" -- little blue pinpoints on high-voltage/high-frequency connections. Causes an ozone odor and interference. ((A spark being your basic all-frequency transmitter)). The real blame for the problem is manufacturers depending on PC-board solder joints to hold heavy things in place. The instructor always said - "first make it mechanically sound -- then solder it". ((Wonder what he would have said about "surface mount" components)) GRIN NEW RULE - "If you can drop it on the carpet and hear a `thud', it shouldn't be held in place by solder." JohnW -*- 92975 11-JUL 00:52 General Information RE: Monitors (Re: Msg 92973) From: WA2EGP To: JOHNREED A properly made PC board will hold "heavy" stuff in. They should have used those little "feedthough" holes like on multilayer computer boards. Yank on a lead though one of those and the board will rip before the solder connection breaks. A small eyelet would probably do. >The instructor always said - "first make it mechanically sound -- then >solder it" You don't know how many times I cursed out someone who does that when I had to repair some electronic equipment because of faulty wiring or failed part, especially the old tube stuff. Even bending the leads on a part on a PC board makes it a pain to repair. Thank goodness wave soldered boards do not follow that rule. As I said before, the problem with the Maggies are not that the transformer is too heavy.........they just didn't solder the thing in correctly in the factory. Every one I've seen looks like a board full of cold solder joints. Something was not done right at the factory. -*- 92982 13-JUL 01:56 General Information RE: Monitors (Re: Msg 92975) From: WDTV5 To: WA2EGP Maybe, I've got 2 of them here in front of me, and 4 more maggie built commie 1084s's. Some are as high as 9 years old now without ever having the lid lifted for anything. One only had some mechanical damage to the din plug joints on the board brought on by our overly tight cabling run and trying to move it with the cable plugged in. Out of those 6, none has had an H.O.T. come loose. So lets here it for all those maggies that are still out there plugging away without any thanks from their owners! Cheers, Gene -*- 92988 14-JUL 00:54 General Information RE: Monitors (Re: Msg 92982) From: WA2EGP To: WDTV5 Well, I guess you were lucky. Could have been a run of them that were bad. Mine had the occasional blink that turned into the screen going blank for longer and longer periods of time until it went out completely. I opened it up and found the soldering was real crappy on the whole board. I guess mine must have been made: 1. Monday, 2. Friday, 3. by a new person on the wave solder machine (grin). Actually what you have told me, it adds to my theory that the failures are due to bad soldering rather than poor design. -*- 93035 17-JUL 01:28 General Information RE: Monitors (Re: Msg 92973) From: COCOKIWI To: JOHNREED Oh! Yeah!...... To talk of arcing I did an alarm not so long ago!@@#$%!!! a Dry Cleaner......Someone put TWO bricks through his two front plate glass windows!...so I come in and put in a GlassBreak detector! To replace the OLD tape used!,in doing so I took out some old ciruits! ....Following the tape by 1" was a "NEON tube"............. the thing falsed! I found the tape was ARCING to the window frame.....via the metal screws used to connect the wire to the tape! the problem was the blocks were VERY close to the frame,removing the wire brought on the other problem! the ARCING interfered with the GLASSBREAK....