Like solving puzzles? Any ideas on how to do this?

[UNIXcoffee928]

I would like to be able to copy a text selection on a Linux PC, and be able to virtually "paste" it over serial to real Atari hardware, as though the text was Keyboard input, on the Atari side.

 

I have an RS-232C port on my PC, and an 850 interface on the Atari. My SIO2PC was USB, and only worked under Windows, so I'm mainly considering how to have a serial datastream replace Atari Keyboard input, without explicitly using a terminal program, so that text can be entered into any Atari application that is looking for keyboard input. Is there any easy way to swap the handlers?

 

Any ideas?

 

 

[JamesD]

Wouldn't you need a custom ROM image to replace the standard keyboard routine?

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

IIRC you can write a new handler, load it and the new handler will replace an older, existing handler with the same "name".

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

[Bryan]

Yeah, but it will only work for applications where (1) the application properly uses the OS for input (2) you get a chance to load the handler before the program is loaded.

 

oh, and... (3) there's memory for your handler available.

[Rybags]

It depends on the application or language in use.

 

With Basic you're pretty much doing what you ask whenever you use ENTER <filespec> to load a program.

You can also get Basic to do the same thing by changing a couple of it's control variables.

 

ENTDTD $B4 (180 dec) controls which IOCB Basic is receiving input from. You can open a file containing a Listed program or bunch of commands on disk then change this location and Basic will act as if key input is coming from the file but the output will still go to the screen as normal.

 

LISTDTD $B5 (181 dec) controls which IOCB Basic sends output to.

 

So for Basic you can to an extent do what you want but a fair bit of user intervention is needed. To have the process mostly automated you'd need some customization at both ends.

 

Swapping handlers - the problem is that Atari uses E: handler which is a mix of K: and S: as well as some unique code. I'm fairly sure that you can't replace the K: or S: default handler with your own then have E: use it as well. The E: handler would likely have all calls to shared routines hard-coded rather than go through CIO.

 

What might work for you is just take over the E: handler. Have some hot key combination that's used for paste. Then your handler opens another IOCB that talks to the 850, grabs the text from your Linux box and treats it as input to E:

[Bryan]

If you want a way to get keystrokes into an A8 program no matter what, then a PC->XEGS keyboard interface would be the way to do it. You'd use a uC to buffer serial input and strobe the keyboard lines at the right times.