jacquesg

You can find the 3 disks that accompanied the SAMS card when released by the SW99er group on the Yahoo site named SWPB under the Files section. These disks contain a number of archived files containing Art Green's SAM's program including, a SAMS macro assembler, linker and library manager, with explanatory manuals. Joe Delekto's c99 for use with the SAMS card is also included. This was used to create the TI-NOPOLY program. Art also included a menu program to run SAMS and non-SAMS programs. There are other SAMS related items on this Yahoo site. If you have trouble accessing this site write to me privately. Regards, Jacques

Irwin Hott is a blind TI99er who has used a TI-99/4A in his work. With the assistance of friends he developed some program to facilitate using the speech function of his TI. The attached disk contains two main programs: 1 The program named CALLSAY runs PAULC/UTIL which creates SP & SQ type of files. JG & JH are my attempt to do the same. 2 The MERGE-WORD extracts speech DATA to create MERGE files which can be merged in your program. While I have had some limited success in creating MERGE files with these programs I am not yet completely comfortable with how Irwin uses them. There is a couple of YouTube files by Irwin which can be found with Google. Have fun, Jacques CALLSAY.dsk

The Morley book has examples of both 16 and 32 bit additions. Jacques

GROSNOS.ZIP is attached and includes the BAR version as GROSNOS1 and GROSNOS which displays the rectangle version. Both have been run through RAG Linker to create program image programs. Jacques GRONOS.zip

This is probably the program you are looking for. I think that I have it on disk and just have to find it. It appeared in the publication RD Computing from Ryte Data. I will post it when I find it or will recreate it from the listing. Jacques 1:15:1. TI-99/4 secrets and curiosities by Bill Gronos Brush the cobwebs off your cassette port and see sound in sixteen colors This month I've got a program that is going to make your eyespop. It's the closest thing to an LSD trip that your 99/4 canproduce. If you read my previous article, you'll remember that I gave you three simple Assembly Languageprograms to take music input through the cassette port and display it graphically on the screen. TravisHolland in Austin, TX writes, "Widgeon has been playing his Spike Jones tapes with #1, and is ready fordifferent colors for different frequencies". I think Widgeon is going to be very pleased after he types in thismonth's two programs — unless he happens to be epileptic. If he is, you'd better have a stick handy, Travis,to put in his mouth when he runs the second program. The second program is so fantastic it makes me want to add my computer and video monitor to my soundsystem as a permanent fixture. If you were fortunate enough to start out with a disk drive (unlike myselfwho labored with a cassette recorder for what seemed like forever), you really need to come up with acassette cable just to see the amazing things your 99/4 can do with a sound input. If you don't have one,check in the computer bargain papers! I've seen TI cassette cables advertised for $1.50, which is probablyless than what the connectors alone would cost you. It's also easy to make your own. Then you can stickon whatever mating plug your music device requires. Just about any sound device can be used to providean audio input: tape recorder, radio, TV, Walkman, etc. If you wish to make your own cable, the audioinput pins on the cassette port connector are numbers 8 and 9. On the standard TI cassette cable, pin 8goes to the tip of a mini plug, and pin 9 goes to it's sleeve. This plug is inserted into the earphone orexternal speaker jack on the cassette recorder.

Ask and you shall receive. I have attached a TI-Basic listing of the Cookie File program listed on page 241 of the Compute! book by C. Regena titled Programmer's Reference Guide to the TI-99/4A. This book is on the archived site of TI books. Since I did not want to have all the fun I left a few sections in the program which you may have to debug. The program runs as is but I have tested only the DATA for one or two cookie recipes. Those recipes I did not test may or may not contain errors. The steps that I followed to create the attached file were: 1 - Copied program listing from the pdf copy of the book to Notepad. This step will create some errors because some font is misread. Things like L for I, O for 0, and characters created by the holes where the coiled binding resides. I tried to correct these as they happened. 2 - I then transferred the Notepad file to my TI using Bruce Harrison's TRAN1 program on the TI side and the Old Terminal program on the PC side. There are many ways of doing this transfer, this just happens to be what I did. 3 - At this point the listing contains one major problem. Many lines contain semi-colons which should be separated by spaces because TI-Basic will not recognize "::". Using Replace String in the Program Editor of Funnelweb I replaced each : with :;. The character ; is ignored but acts as a space character. 4 - In order to create a TI-Basic program I ran the TEXTLOADER program and entered CALL LINK("OLD","DSK1.COOKIES/B"). There are other ways of doing this conversion but this is what I did. I ran the program and started the process of correcting the many errors in the transferred notepad file. The attached file was created by using MagicFM and contains a TIFILES header. Some of those recipes sound pretty good. Have Fun, Jacques cookies.txt

I have the Art Green version of Multiplan installed on my HSGPL card in bank 4 (>9810) where it overwrites TI Basic. The Multiplan files MPHLP and OVERLAY reside on DSK9 of one of my HRD. I usually use DSK1 as a work disk which IIRC must be named TEMP. Every slot(8 GROM plus 4 ROM) of the HSGPL card are utilized. There is a small bug which can arise when you first set up a spreadsheet but it can easily be avoided. Jacques

The book that I mentioned back in message 9 of this topic "Programmer's Reference Guide to the TI-99/4A' (Compute!)" might be the book you are thinking of. A copy of the book is in Ernie's book archive. Jacques

Am I correct in assuming that if I put many ROM programs on a disk created by using Gazoo's HSGPL menu loader program I can avoid having to move ROM programs that I want to use to banks 0 and 1 by using CALL BANK(x) followed by CALL GRAM ? Along the same line would not RXB have to be installed on the first bank of the HSGPL card in order to use CALL GPOKE that is in some RXB statements? I have not yet used RXB 2012 to any large extent but would like to do so in the near future. Jacques

I do not believe that they are currently active with their TIs, but here are a few names of women who made their mark in the community. Cheryl Whitelaw (aka C. Regena) wrote many books and programs for 99er, Compute! and MICROpendium magazine. When I first developed an interest in TI programming Regena's book, 'Programmer's Reference Guide to the TI-99/4A' (Compute!) was always by my side. Mickey Cendrowski had an interest in adventure games, produced a catalog of such games, and wrote some other TI programs. Both were inducted in the TI99er Hall of Fame. Go read their biographies. www.ti99hof.org/ There are still a few other women who periodically post comments here and on the Yahoo groups. Jacques

I have attached a program to display a number of extended basic programs that appear on various ram or floppy disks. I'm a real fan of Funnelweb but I find that it is limited to displaying only about 15 XB programs under its LOAD option. The DR program of FW will load an XB program but first you have to find where the program resides. Up to now I have run XB programs from either the MENU or BOOT programd but I still had to first find the location of the program I wanted to run. My other reason for writing this program was to understand how RUN "DSK1.1234567890" worked. I found an example in the program named CATWRITER by Jim Peterson. On the attachment is a short example that uses this RUN command. I now understand how this RUN example works. The line 10000 must be the last line in your program which means that subprograms cannot be used. The TIXB program attached lists most of the XB programs I use. The program pointed to by the letter A on the screen of the TIXB menu program is on the attached disk. The DATA statements starting at line 1000 list the XB programs that you wish to have appear on your menu. List the drive where the XB program resides, then a dot followed by the XB program name. I have placed TIXB on my FW LOAD program and I can also run it TIXB.dsk by doing a CALL TIXB. I now have a menu listing of all the XB programs that I use. Pressing the letter that appears next to the program name will run that XB program. Use TIXB if it suits your needs and have fun, Jacques

There is an easy way out. After entering OLD CS1 simply press SHIFT E and Press ENTER and you will have escaped. Jacques

I edited my previous message to show the slot settings for my MESS EVPC HSGPL set up. QM2C numbers slots from 0 to 7. I seem to remember Michael saying that evpc had to be in slot 2. Is that what you have? I also do not know how to load variables in a SAMS card. When I last programmed with the SAMS card I used the supplied c99 program. It has been a number of years since I last programmed using c99 and in particular the version for use with the SAMS card. Regards, Jacques

Robert, As you know I set up MESS using QM2C. If it is of any help to you I have listed the slot settings that I have used for a basic TI-99/4A configuration with 4 RML choices and one with changes to support HSGPL. FWB HSGPL EVPC HSGPL grom port multi none not used joy port twin joy twin joy twin joy peb: slot 2 samsmem samsmem evpc slot 3 horizon horizon horizon slot 4 tirs232 tirs232 samsmem slot 5 not used hsgpl hsgpl slot 6 speech speech tirs232 slot 7 not used not used not used Until I looked this morning I could have sworn that slot 7 contained hfdc. I will have to look into this because the MESS configuration seems to run without hfdc. Over the last week or so I have been reorganizing things on my real TI-99/4a. Bye for now, Jacques .

I think the point that Rich was making is that RXB uses SAMS memory without using assembly. He is correct considering that RXB commands resemble an Extended Basic program by the use of line numbers with its command statements. However, I wonder if we are getting into a question of semantics with the extensive use of CALL LOAD and CALL PEEK statements in the Query Program example. It has been a few years since I last used either SAMS or RXB. These are now on my 'To Do' list as I slowly work my way back into using my real iron TI-99/4A and its MESS emulator. In considering Robert's FILES question, you must remember that the SAMS memory card loses its contents when the computer is turned off. Perhaps this is why I have never seen a SAMS program that retains contents when turned off. Art Green's Menu Loader program allowed you to place a number of .assembly programs in SAMS memory and they could be instantly accessed as long as the TI was still on. There is also a SAMS program that played XB music programs temporarily loaded on a SAMS card. Robert, you should be able to place your arrays on the SAMS card while you update them but you will have to save their content to external storage before shutting down your TI or emulator. Of course, your arrays could be put on HRD or even on hard disks. Mess can handle pretty large ram or hard disks and these do not lose contents when MESS is turned off. Just some thoughts to consider, Jacques .

Hello Robert, Unless you have been there already, there is a lot of SAMS information in the FILES part of the SWPB section of Yahoo Groups. My SAMS card came with 3 dsk files containing mainly the SAMS manual written by Art Green. The three files which I subsequently uploaded are: _sw99ams1.dsk _sw99ams2.dsk _sw99ams3.dsk The Yahoo Group contains both a SWPB and a swpb section. The above files are in SWPB and include programs that can run from a SAMS card. A game named TI-Nopoly written jn a SAMS adaption of c99 is also included but unfortunately is without source code. I have these programs running on my real TI and on my MESS emulation. . Art Green writes excellent manuals so you may have filled up your reading schedule for the rest of the summer. RXB approach to deal with the contents of a SAMS memory card differs from Art's approach. Each has its purpose. Regards, Jacques

A Gentle Reminder When I set up this topic I expected to exchange comments with those who were using UM2C to set up MESS. Very quickly the discussion drifted to anything else but using UM2C. Would the participants set up another topic to cover their discussions. Thank you, Jacques

I have figured out another way to transfer a .dsk file from my Win 7 computer that I have designated as COM 1 to my TI using DSK2PC. I still have to use my older PC which I have designated as COM2. My older PC runs PC99 while the Win 7 computer runs MESS and other emulators. Each of these computers has folders to share documents. I put the .dsk file that I want to transfer to my TI in the Shared Document folder on my Win 7 PC and I have arranged that the Shared Document file on my older PC has been set as the folder to receive a TI99 Disks file on the HDX2 program using COM2. The DSK2PC will then transfer the selected file from my old PC to my TI. IF I want to transfer a PC99 disk I first use TI99DIR to first convert it. It seems to me that this is simpler than using 2 RS232 cards or a switch box and uses the same number of steps as if everything was done using only COM2 You do have to use both PCs, the one designated as COM1 to select the disk and the other designated as COM2.to transfer the disk. I am quite happy with my modified TI RS232 card as it allows me to use HDX1 as another way of Getting There From Here. Jacques

I have noted your suggestion and I may give it a try in the future. For now I will continue to solidify my understanding of my current HDX1 setup. This is not really a problem but is an item which has me puzzled. In order to run HDX1 on my Win 7 by using CFHDXS I first have to turn on the printer echo on the PC side. The old terminal.exe program will run on a 32 bit Win 7 computer and it has an option that will turn on printer echo. I also have to do this if I want TI99Print to print to my PC using COM 1. If I do not first turn printer echo on neither TI99Print or HDX1 will wok using COM1, I do not remember how I stumbled upon this requirement. I would guess that my USB to RS232 connection does not leave printer echo on and makes it necessary for me to click the option in the terminal.exe program. I am just curious why this is happening. Regards, Jacques

Thank you for the suggestion. However since I do not have a spare slot in my PEB for another RS232 card and considering my age, lack of a steady hand and the condition of my eyes I doubt that I will try this modification. What I have will suit me fine. Jacques

Greg, Thank you. I got HDX1 to work on my Win 7 by using CFHDXS. Not quite as convenient as DSK2PC but I can get it to serve my needs. Jacques

I downloaded a new copy of DSK2PC to my TI and obviously my previous copy was bad. I can now transfer .dsk DOAD files between my TI and my PC. For my second problem I wonder if a WIN 7, 32 bit NetBook will run HDX. I have 2 PC connected to my TI with a dual line TI RS232 cable. One PC is an older MS Windows computer which I have designated as COM2. This PC handles both FIAD files using SAVE and OLD and also DOAD files using the DSK2PC program. My Win 7 PC is the other computer. It will display the TI99HDX 7.3a screen but will not deal with either a FIAD or DOAD file. An attempt to SAVE a one line program yields an I/O error message of 66. My Win 7 computer using a RS232 USB cable handles TI99PRINT and TIImageTool but does not seem to like working with HDX. Does anyone else have this problem? Jacques

Greg, Yes, now I know why I was having difficulty in relating your comments to what I could see on my TI screen. When I ran DSK2PC, the screen display would stop after displaying the line 'Dsk2PC functions'. I must have a bad copy of Dsk2PC. I will download a fresh copy later today. In addition the TI99HDX instructions left me with the impression that UPLOAD and DOWNLOAD were new TI commands for use with HDX. Obviously this is not so. Omega, thank you for the pictures. Now I know what to expect. Jacques

I have a few HDX1 questions but I will start with one. I understand how to SAVE and OLD and then RUN XB programs contained on my 'selected TI99 files directory'. One of my problems is how do you move a .dsk (say, JJG.DSK) from your PC which is running TI99Hdx 7.3a to say DSK1. I understand that you have to use UPLOAD or DOWNLOAD together with the TI program DSK2PC. The HDX1 instructions do not provide an example that I could follow. At the moment I have simply copied file JJG.DSK to my 'selected TI99 disks directory'. Jacques

There are very many types of menu loader programs and what is best for you depends on your needs and set-up. Here are a few suggestions: BOOT,BOOTU allows you to run up to 22 menu items from the selections shown on the 3 screens. It can be run from an XB module because it has a LOAD program. It can run XB and EA 5 programs but not EA 3 programs. You can catalog another disk and run programs from that disk by highlighting the program name on the catalog listing. MENU is similar to BOOT but with fewer bells and whistles. LOAD MASTER has many similarities to BOOT and MENU but creates it own menu from files on the disk. The program was written by Mickey (Schmitt) Cendrowski and the late Bruce Harrison helped her to add a routine to identify the type of program listed on the menu. FUNNELWEB. I have listed it because that is what I use. In fact I have FWB load BOOT and MENU as menu items. If you only use floppy disks FWB may be overkill because you will spend a lot of time swapping disks. FWB has a bit of a learning curve but it allows you to use only an XB module to replace the need to have a TIW and/or EA module. My guess is that LOAD MASTER or BOOT would serve your needs quite well. I have not looked but the whterm site should have these programs. Have a nice day from the sunny Maritimes, Jacques