retroclouds

FWIW.... Stevie source code and issues tracker https://github.com/MirrorPusher/Stevie Spectra2 source code and issues tracker https://github.com/MirrorPusher/spectra2

That is most interesting. Very much like the idea of using the forth interpreter for programmability and the linked list. If I may make a suggestion; you could detect if the final grom is present and turn on its advanced mode (RAM). That way you could put the editor text there and go way beyond 300 lines. And there are a lot of people with final groms out there. Even though with Stevie the original idea was to get a VI-editor style, it kinda took its own spin and I’m not following up on that anymore. I have so much more stuff I’d like to implement, that VI-editor compability went down the priority list a lot. Anyway, very much looking forward to see how this further develops.

What I like to do in Stevie (the editor I’m working on), is to offer a possibility to open a file just by putting the cursor on a line in the editor and let the editor decide if it’s a potential device/file combination. If it is, you will get the option to load the file into the editor. So a predefined list of strings to match against would be my preferred way to go. Having said that, I can make this list configurable by the user. Thay way as new devices appear they can simply be added to the list. Suppose the editor has following lines: COPY “DSK1.ABC;S” TIPI.STEVIE.SRC.ABC;S If I put the cursor on the 1st line at position “DSK1” or on the 2nd line at the beginning of the line, then the editor should offer me the possibility to read the file into the editor. Having said that, letting the DSR validate if it’s a valid device name is an interesting idea that might actually work (I mean in terms of speed) if the option kicks in if I select the “open file dialog”. Oh and the editor is only using level 3 opcodes. I like to keep it that way because I think it offers best compatibility possible.

Do we have a compiled list somewhere of valid device/filenames as used on the TI-99/4a ? I like to check if a text string qualifies as a device/filename. Here's what I can think of (and I'm for sure missing a lot of storage devices) DSK* TIPI.* PIO.* IDE* RS232.* HDX.*

Yes, that's impressive!

Seems this is a very reasonable price for a factory packaged cc40 peripheral https://www.ebay.de/itm/NEU-Texas-Instruments-Hex-Bus-Modem-fuer-Ti-cc-40-cc40-Compact-Computer-/373427638947?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

@acadiel I wonder how the CALL MHCL (execute machine language) instruction on the TI-99/2 works. Do we have any documentation or an example on that instruction?

Well, yes but you have this:

Can you give some details on “… and the ability to write your own routines” Do you mean the def keyword? sub and subend are extended basic only if I’m not mistaking

@PeteE I would like to add your reworked source files to the 1st post in this thread. Is that ok with you?

def is there in TI-Basic. Just learned that yesterday while reading the excellent SAMS book: ti994a-basic-reference-manual.pdf

Thanks, that all makes a lot of sense. DISPLAY AT and ACCEPT AT would be really great to have. Oddly, there is the DISPLAY function but I think it’s just an alias for PRINT. Would need to check if even the same token is used. Never tried to compare DISPLAY with PRINT. The manual does state that DISPLAY is only for screen output, so theoretically it could be a bit faster as file output stuff is not needed. Wasn’t there a command module that had some TI basic extensions as well? Can’t recall if it’s one of those funky educational cartridges or some kind of business/accounting cartridge.

If you want to see how TI Basic integration looks like, take a look at the video

Give TI Basic some love… While working on integrating Stevie with TI Basic, I started appreciating TI Basic a lot. Back in the days I had Extended Basic so didn’t care about TI Basic much. Although the very first baby steps I did was in TI Basic, because I only got the TI Extended Basic module a few months later. Anyway, we all know how much powerfull TI Extended Basic is and that it has a lot of advantages over TI Basic. However, in this topic I ask you: 1) What are the (technical) benefits of using TI Basic compared to Extended Basic? 2) What are the most critical features missing in TI Basic? Reason for asking is because I’m working on improving the TI Basic experience in combination with Stevie (full-screen editor) As far as (2) is concerned, I’ll kick it off with: peek, poke (load), peekv, pokev, load, hex

Thanks. Not at this time. Have been thinking if there is a way to accomplish that. One way would be to have the ISR inject the TI Basic statements. Not sure if that would be a good solution. Can imagine it might be too slow. Another approach could be a tokenizer that converts the TI Basic text statements into tokens and saves that to disk. That would require you to OLD from disk quite often when jumping back and forth between the editor and TI Basic. A third option could be some assembly language thatpokes the tokens into VDP memory before jumping into TI Basic.

Here's a rather long demo on some of the clipboard and TI Basic integration stuff I'm currently working on. Have some more debugging to do, but it's almost ready for release. Want to have a new release out before Xmas. js99er-20211125200249.webm

Here's a rather long demo on some of the clipboard and TI Basic integration stuff I'm currently working on. Have some more debugging to do, but it's almost ready for release. Want to have a new release out before Xmas. js99er-20211125200249.webm

Thanks, the new features will come in very handy for the stuff I'm currently working on. ?

Thanks for the update. One more question, with the possibility to override the GROMS 0-2, would it be possible to use the strange cart to drive a usb keyboard instead of the built-in TI-99/4a keyboard? I suppose it is not possible to override the system ROMS where KSCAN resides, but if the GPL interpreter is patched to not use the KSCAN. Would be kinda cool to have the strangecart as a "plug-and-play" solution for running a USB keyboard. Not sure if it would work with all software as that would really require KSCAN to be modified.

Thanks. The simple reason is that back then I didn’t know enough about bitmap mode to seriously consider implementing Time Pilot using it. Best approach would probably have been to do more proof-of-concept things before starting the actual implementation, but yeah I was kinda pleased how far I got before I lost interest. I’m sure that with the 9918VDP a real good conversion of the Time Pilot arcade game is possible on the TI-99/4a. Heck, with your skills and the experience you gained with your previous Ti-99/4a games I can see an almost arcade perfect Time Pilot.

oh yes, that was a long time ago, I think about 10 years or more. Even if you are not into assembly language I suggest you take a look at the code. Tried my best to document the code on to what I was doing. Anyway, the “secret” is that the bullets are not sprites. They are just plain characters that get redefined on the fly. Basically there is a region in RAM where I draw the bullets and this gets copied to VDP memory. Repeat this process multiple times per second putting the pixels on a different Y,X coordinate and you get the illusion the bullets are moving.

Yes, there will be a configuration option for setting the device/filename of the clipboard(s).

Watched the strangecart videos again. Really cool. Do you have plans to do a run of assembled strangecart boards in the future? And if yes, when? Also very much like the TI Basic acceleration. How complete is it? Do you also have file IO support from a TI Basic program?

I’m going to do some tests in the next days. First thing I want to try is to re-use the functionality that is already in place and bind it to some shortcuts. This is what I have in mind; a clipboard file. You’r editing a file, mark a block and press a shortcut. The block is automatically saved to a file DSKx.CLIP Load the next file and press a shortcut, the DSKx.CLIP file is automatically inserted at the current line position. The cool thing about the clipboard file is TI basic integration. You could jump into TI-Basic, run a program that opens the DV80 clipboard file, does its magic and return to Stevie. Press the clipboard insert shortcut, and there you have it. Content is in the editor. I have a small disk catalog program in TI Basic I want to modify so that it writes to the clipboard file. The clip device/file should be configurable in some way (wasn’t there a clipboard device in classic99? have to check. Stevie does not fully run in classic99 yet, working on that too).

I’m considering getting a DREM 3 and connecting it to my TI-99/4a PEB. Main reason is I want to use it to emulate a HDD. I have a shift 838 IDE card that I want to use it with. Is that supported? I’m currently using the IDE with an old seagate drive. But the drive is starting to fail and is not reliable (and it’s also very loud). Can I use a DREM with a Geneve as well? And if yes what controller is required for this to work.