DIY: 80 column WordPak board (CRT9128)

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pser1
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Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: DIY: 80 column WordPak board (CRT9128)

Post by pser1 »

my goodness!
I have been using GDB because I have not been able to find any Dragon assembler-debug-disassembler that allows me to trace a resident program that gets awakened from the Basic prompt.
I need a lot of practice on GDB, I see that you are miles ago from me!
I was searching for ways to make changes on the fly, for instance:
- How could I change the value of a register? the command "set may-write-registers on" fails because the child process is going ...
- The same with memory locations, how could I only change a byte of data? Much in the same way we do with DskDream or others ...
I see by your notes that I am going to learn how to set and work with watchpoints in just a short lesson, that's great!
thanks for your help, Tormod
Hope to come back with good news next week
regards
pere
pser1
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: DIY: 80 column WordPak board (CRT9128)

Post by pser1 »

by the way, I didn't mention before, but I hope that retrocanada will not mind the mods we are doing to the very first drive he made for his WordPak cartridge!
I have never asked for authorization to change it, thinking/hoping that it should be an 'open source' project.
Any advance we will do on that drive will be uploaded here, so that it could be used by any interested user ... sources included
best regards
pere
pser1
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Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: DIY: 80 column WordPak board (CRT9128)

Post by pser1 »

Hello Ken,
I have had the time to transfer the NitrOS-9 disk that you prepared for me (DOS bootable) and tested ...
I attach here some screenshots.
First to mention is that one more time I lose a char on the left margin and possibly three on the right one.
How could I change this settings in NitrOS-9?
Second thing is that on Stylograph the literal Value appears with one or two lost chars at the beginning (2nd and 3rd shots) ... any idea?
I haven't found the old GO40, GO51 commands. Have they been deleted because of the WordPak80x24 doesn't need them?
regards
pere
Attachments
1st shot
1st shot
01 - NitrOS-9 start screen.jpg (52.72 KiB) Viewed 5148 times
2nd one
2nd one
02 - Dynacalc shot1.jpg (41.66 KiB) Viewed 5148 times
3rd one
3rd one
03 - Dynacalc shot2.jpg (43.27 KiB) Viewed 5148 times
4th shot
4th shot
04 - CMDS dir.jpg (58.62 KiB) Viewed 5148 times
5th one
5th one
05 - Stylograph menu.jpg (61.78 KiB) Viewed 5148 times
KenH
Posts: 182
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:50 am

Post by KenH »

Hi pere,
Here are the NitrOS9 wordpak drivers with patches to compensate for overscan.
These drivers default to my own margins (3 on the left, 4 on the right), but you can easily adjust them as needed.

The obvious changes are in CoWP (aka Co80) and term_80.
I have patched the CoWP code and added equs for OSCAN (=left margin) and LASTC (= last visible column 0-79)
In term_80 you need to adjust szx and szy for the number of visible columns and rows.

What wasn't so obvious is that the screen dimensions are also hard coded into vtio (not so elegant I'd say).
So you also need to change the following line to match your actual visible screen size:

Code: Select all

  ldx   #$4918     ; Screen dimensions: 73X24 (orig. 80x24 - #$5018 )
I'm aware of the bug in Dynacalc that causes the first letter of the status line (Ready) to disappear. I haven't investigated this but it does go back to Luis's driver as can be seen in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wli_mhhT4EE

GO40, GO51 were part of Dragon Data's customized OS9 release and do not exist in Tandy OS9 or NitrOS9.
I think these commands patch in memory the Dragon's video driver (KBVDIO).
In any case, the wordpak nitros9 disk doesn't load any video driver for the VDG, thus freeing some memory that is badly needed under OS9.
Having said that, the modularity of OS9 makes it quite easy (memory issues aside) to have a dual display system (ie /term and /term80)
Attachments
nos9dw73.dsk.zip
NitrOS9 Wordpak boot disk/ Drivewire / 73X24
(219.26 KiB) Downloaded 219 times
WordPAK-NitrOS9-73X24.zip
Wordpak drivers / NitrOS9/ patched for 73X24
(17.34 KiB) Downloaded 220 times
pser1
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Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: DIY: 80 column WordPak board (CRT9128)

Post by pser1 »

thanks Ken,
I have downloaded both discs and seen the video.
I will need moooooore time to feel comfortable with NitrOS-9, I have forgotten everything I did with OS-9 in the past, normally used BASIC-09, besides the dynacalc and stylo.
This is not, right now, at the first stack positions, so it will be ocasionally attended.
cheers
pere
pser1
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: DIY: 80 column WordPak board (CRT9128)

Post by pser1 »

hello Ken,

just a question. How could I manage to use the nos9dw73.dsk.zip NitrOS9 Wordpak boot disk/ Drivewire / 73X24 ?
It is not bootable in XRoar Dragon emulation, and with a CoCo emulation with the DOS command it shows NITROS9 BOOT but blinking and doesn't do anything else (after 5 minutes)
Would it be necessary to create another special DOS Bootable disk for Dragon, this time too?
If it's the case, woud you , please, do? Don't hurry, I will be working in other projects ... no problem
thanks beforehand
regards
pere
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tormod
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Re: DIY: 80 column WordPak board (CRT9128)

Post by tormod »

If the NitrOS-9 disk image was built for running over DriveWire, it won't run under emulation. The emulation uses the virtual Becker interface and not the bit-banging DriveWire routines and the images are built for one of them. To get started with NitrOS-on real hardware, you will need either DWDOS (a small program for booting an OS over DriveWire) or HDB-DOS (the DOS command will boot over DriveWire). DWDOS is part of the Toolshed project, see under Files at http://toolshed.sourceforge.net/
pser1
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Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: DIY: 80 column WordPak board (CRT9128)

Post by pser1 »

thanks Tormod,
in order to be able to test the WordPak80x24, Ken uploaded a normal DOS disk with the drive for standard DOS.
This is the one I modified to make PRINT@ usable.
Later he uploaded another special disk, prepared to BOOT from de Dragon Data drives.
I have copied this image to a physical disk and used it to test NitrOS-9 at 80 columns. With this one I have been testing a bit Stylo and Dynacalc. I uploaded some screenshots.
The problem with the last disk he has uploaded, when I commented that I need to modify the NitrOS-9 driver to adapt it to with my TV (I lose 1 char by the left and 3 by the right side), is only for DriveWire.
By now, I cannot spawn more threads or I will go mad!
regards
pere
KenH
Posts: 182
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:50 am

Re: DIY: 80 column WordPak board (CRT9128)

Post by KenH »

Hi pere,
Here is the DragonDos NitrOS9 boot disk for Wordpak patched for 73X24. (note to self: need to update this to the latest NitrOS9 3.3.0)

I haven't uploaded it before because frankly when you start using NitrOS9 with Drivewire there's no going back.
Imagine hooking up a hard disk to your Dragon. Well, under OS9, Drivewire is like a virtual hard drive: fast, with (almost) unlimited capacity, reliable and silent.

I've also uploaded a DragonDos disk image with DWDOS (see Tormod's post above). DWDOS lets you boot NitrOS9 straight from the Drivewire server.
Just mount the drivewire NitrOS9 boot disk as drive 0 on the DW server, LOAD"DWDOS.BIN" and EXEC

Hope this will help keeping you away from going mad ;)
Attachments
wordpak73.vdk
WordPak 73X24 boot disk / DragonDos
(360.01 KiB) Downloaded 221 times
dwdos.vdk
dwdos - DragonDos disk to boot OS9 from Drivewire server
(180.01 KiB) Downloaded 232 times
pser1
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: DIY: 80 column WordPak board (CRT9128)

Post by pser1 »

thanks a lot to both of you.
You are 'proficient masters' in the NitrOS-9 and drivewire ways.
I'm sorry to say I'm new to that. I had rejected drivewire from the beginning and have never given it a try.
Maybe it is time to change and see what happens after that!
Anyway, as I love suffering the problems that arise when programming, I will keep on my little client for my Java VDK server that will be changed from standard RS-232 (19200 bauds) to drivewire with the USB-Parallel converter when I have the time ...
I don't use OS-9 nor NitrOS-9 in a regular Basis. I am DOS inclined for its easy of use.
regards
pere
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