retroclouds

That's something I would like to try. I've successfully compiled MAME on my Ubuntu desktop machine and it works so far. The thing is that I don't have any ROMs at this time. Well the ones I do have do not work, although I configure MAME to use my directories it keeps saying the selected software is missing files. Probably will have to invest more time in getting MAME properly configured

Yes, I'll prepare and send you the test, probably tomorrow. One thing to note is, that if I set "Break on Disk Corrupt" the execution halts with the following Debug warning: Warning: DSRLNK functions should store the DSR address of the device name entry at >83D2! (Got >4019) So classic99 did catch that something is fishy. It seems that the DSRLNK is saving an invalid address out of the DSR header to >83D2 That could explain that the card is turned on, but the actual "bl *R9" branches to an invalid location in the Disk Controller ROM and then goes bananas. What steps would I need to do to patch the real TI disk controller ROM in classic99? I made a custom cart with the disk controller ROM at >4000, but the TI-99/4a title screen does not appear and I see a lot of debug messages. According to the debug messages it seems it is having issues with the DSR powerup routine.

That's a crazy setup you have there. But I guess that's what one needs to be able to do those great videos you make. I really enjoy them! Thank you for that 😀

Thank you for all the valuable input. I knew this was the right place to ask. 😉 Please bare with me while I go through the details.

Is there a disassembly available of the standard TI-Disk Controller DSR ? Reason I'm asking is that I have some File reading stuff in assembly that works fine in JS99er and classic99 but which locks up on the TI-99/4a with PEB and standard TI-Disk Controller. I'm currently using a modified version of Paolo Bagnaresi DSRLNK code. What I'm trying to come up with, is a scratchpad memory map of the minimal requirements for doing file I/O (I'll post the memory map at a later time) For that I collected information from the documents posted in the Development Resources Thread, classic99 source code (mainly disk.cpp and ScratchPadCorruptList), Thierry's site, jedimat's TIPI source code, etc. Even though there are many documents describing File I/O and DSR's floating around, there seems to be still quite some confusion as far as the exact used memory location are concerned. The standard for me would be the TI-99/4A Disk Controller and go from there. ... and while we're at it. Is there a disassembly of the Editor/Assembler DSRLNK available somewhere?

Love watching these pics. Thank you for taking the time & effort to share with all TI Home Computer fans here on Atariage. It is much appreciated!

Count me in. Very cool!

Thank you Tim for all the efforts and all you give to the community! It is much appreciated! We all need a break once in a while.

I know my version of Pitfall! was assembled for the Tutor and works fine, have a ROM cart with the game on it. Did not have time to concentrate on the Tutor but have 2 of them and a pyuuta game console, so one day...

With the discussion on file formats, index handling, etc. going on in the below thread, perhaps now is a good time to get a first "alpha" version of TiVi out. Attached is an 8k binary for use in js99er.net and on the real deal, F18A and 32k memory required. I don't think it works on classic99 yet, due to the F18a stuff I am using. There's no possibility to load/save files and if enter more than 80 characters on a line things get funky, but you get the idea. Keyboard usage is listed in this thread.

Basically the way I implemented is, that the lines of text are not a linked list with a pointer at the head. They are basically just concatenated text. I keep the index with the pointers in a separate memory region, that makes it more easily for using SAMS (I guess, will have to see how that works out). This is how the index looks like. * Each index slot entry 4 bytes each * Word 0: pointer to string (no length byte) * Word 1: MSB=Packed length, LSB=Unpacked length Processing a range of lines is quite easy as I can easily calculate the offset in the index and go from there. Deleting/Inserting lines is easy as well as I just rework the index. As said I will have to "defragment" the memory region holding the actual text once it runs full, but will work on that when I get there. Dunno how big the slowdown will be, that might get interesting then. So far I'm pleased with the results. Working on a couple of hundred lines is very fast. But now I first have to get file loading/saving in place so that I can get to work on bigger texts.

That's basically how I do it in TiVi. It's copy-on-write and working with pointers. That allows me to quite easily add undo functionality. Basically I edit a line and as soon as the line is "commited" by pressing enter (or moving to another line) the line is "packed/crunched" and added to the editor buffer. What that means is, if I edit the same line multiple times (after leaving that line) I have multiple revisions in memory. Still a bit worried about fragmentation but will see how that goes. By "packing/crunching" I mean that the format how the text is kept in memory could be changed depending on the type of program I'm editing (e.g. BASIC). For now it's basically a plain text copy with the actual line length.

All feedback so far from the forth guys! Excellent DF80 seems like a candidate. Probably will go with some form of scrolling as well. Will need that when displaying 2 panes on the screen anyway.

I'm currently implementing file access in my TiVi editor. The editor is designed to run in 80 columns mode. My question is what text file formats should be supported? I mean DIS/VAR 80 for sure. But are there editors out there that support other file formats as well. Does it make sense to implement scrolling in the editor so that I can let say open a file with 255 record length and show it on a single line with scrolling? Any opinions on that?

Well I for one would hope that we get to see a 80 columns 60 rows mode. I'm preparing TiVi for supporting a variable amount of rows. I'm now running at 80x30 and i feel that already helps. EDIT: Almost forgot to mention that I'm really thrilled by the F18A MK2 development. Really looking forward to that. Keep up the good work!

unexpanded

These are the keys I have currently defined and working: Movement keys ============= fctn + s cursor left fctn + d cursor right fctn + e cursor up fctn + x cursor down ctrl + a cursor home ctrl + f cursor end of line ctrl + s cursor word left ctrl + d cursor word right ctrl + e cursor page up ctrl + x cursor page down Modifier keys ============= enter enter line fctn + 1 delete char fctn + 3 delete line fctn + 2 insert char fctn + 5 insert line ctrl + 2 toggle insert/overwrite mode fctn + q quit ctrl + k delete until end of line. Note that I'm using my own keyscan routine (derived from the Simon Koppelmann book "TMS9900 assembler auf dem TI-99/4A". I want to add some custom behaviour when holding down the ctrl key or fctn key without pressing any other key. Even considering "repurposing" the right shift key on the TI-99/4A keyboard so that it behaves as a "TAB" key. Might also map "quit" on "ctrl + q" instead of "fctn + q" to prevent incidental quitting out of the editor (I found that a clever trick in MG Explorer). I'm open to suggestions. This is just a map I came up with that works quite well for me.

sorry, not at this time. Currently have most of the editing features implemented but loading and saving files is not there yet. Might do a video in the next few days/weeks though, will see.

The internal representation of a text file in RAM is not necessarily the same (and for most text TI-editors it probably isn't, not sure there). The programming editor I'm working on (at least from time to time) has a different representation as it has when written to disk. My goal is to support large files (when using SAMS). You can read about it in the TiVi thread.

interested in 2 assembled 8 mb boards.

Indeed, that was exactly what I was thinking about. I personally do not like it when I reset the TI-99/4a to jump from one program to the next. Also some kind of mailbox (something similar to a unix pipe) would be fantastic. That way you could pass output from one program as input to the next program. Yeah, getting carried away now.😀

Can you give some details on how you tackled this project? Did you start from source (is the RS232 source available?) or did you do a disassembly and started from there? Either way, great work!

I think it is a great idea having a new Geneve. One thing I would love though that it is a PEB card or at least have a PEB adapter card so that it fits in the PEB. Count me in, even if it would mean console only.

Jim, you can put me on the waitlist for one too. Thanks Filip

I would be interested in a specification so that I can call my own binaries and safely return to force command. Is something like that planned?