Lee Stewart
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Everything posted by Lee Stewart
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Nearly finished with updating FBLOCKS. I need to burn an EPROM with the latest beta so I can test my revised Compact Flash utilities. Actually, the only one I had to modify was CFPMOUNT , which is the word that writes the mounted DSK volume to the compact flash so that the mount persists past power-down. The change was necessitated by the new DSRLNK described a few posts back. ...lee -
It does save 4 bytes where the jump calculation is performed in ENDIF and BACK , and obviates the need for BACK , which saves 18 bytes for a total savings in the resident dictionary of 26 bytes. It also saves 2 trips through the inner interpreter in compiling LOOP +LOOP UNTIL AGAIN because “ , ” replaces BACK (defined as “ HERE - , ”), but time savings while compiling are not usually that important. ...lee
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Maybe we should get Fred ( @F.G. Kaal ) to weigh in. I believe he had significant input to later versions of the DSR---maybe even wrote it? ...lee
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One of my TODOs is to possibly change BRANCH and 0BRANCH to use absolute addresses (per @Willsy’s TurboForth) instead of an offset (per figFORTH/TI Forth/fbForth), but I really do not see the advantage except, possibly, at compile time, which does not seem that important. The difference at execution time is MOV *IP,IP <---IP is a register versus A *IP,IP <---IP is a register which take exactly the same amount of time, as far as I can tell. So, unless someone (@Willsy? @Tursi? @matthew180? @jedimatt42? @apersson850? @TheBF? ??) can show me a significant difference in execution time, I am inclined to leave sleeping dogs lie—the mod would be significant! ...lee
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I added a routine to check for the ISR hook and, if not there, to call the fbForth ERROR word with the proper error message number to print “ISR?” after the usual “ERROR ?” and abort. While adding the new message, I took the opportunity to shorten many of the messages. Now, even after adding the ISR checking routine to bank#0 and the code to call it to 3 words in the same bank, there are 256 bytes free! I should add that the free-space increase is due not only to message size reduction but also to some other changes such as the redefinition of .S and shortening of a handful of words to use newly added words. There is still a little work before release. Here is the current state of the TODO list: fbForth300_TODO.txt ...lee
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Regarding booting up fbForth with its ISR disabled, I will have PLAY , STREAM , SAY check for a cleared ISR hook (>83C4) and, upon seeing it cleared, exit the routine immediately. Do you think I should include a message such as, “ISR not active!” or just fail quietly? ...lee
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Of course, there can be many reasons for choosing one operation over another. Regarding getting the MSB to the LSB, the point of using “SRL Rn,8” over “SWPB Rn” is usually to zero the MSB in the same instruction—saving instructions can outweigh speed. If you want to duplicate SWPB with a shift, “SRC Rn,8” will do nicely. Furthermore, if you want to test the result, the shift is the only way—SWPB does not affect the status register. Regarding zeroing a register, CLR is, indeed, the clear (groan) winner—unless, for some reason, you need a comparison. Both XOR and LI affect the status register, whereas, CLR does not. LI also takes an additional 2 bytes over the other two, when dealing only with registers. ...lee
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With your GPLLNK routine modified to use a writable workspace and storage locations (see @Gary from OPA post above), there are several Scratchpad RAM locations and one ROM location you can store XMLRTN for the return from GPL: >8300, >830E, >831C, >831E in Scratchpad RAM and >603E in ROM. The GROM0 addresses of the corresponding GPL XML instructions to place in the DATA directive at GXMLAD are >0376, >0EDA, >1675, >00E5, and >0131. Some of them have more than one GROM0 location, but I listed the first I found. ...lee
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With a couple of changes (“ CELL - ” to “ 2- ” and “ ? ” to “ @ U. ”), the following code is, indeed, shorter—16 bytes less!: : .S ( -- ) CR ." | " S0 @ BEGIN 2- SP@ OVER < WHILE DUP @ U. REPEAT DROP ; ...lee
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#1 works, but XX is superfluous. SP! is already defined to clear the stack by storing the contents of S0 in the stack pointer. XX pushes the contents of S0 and SP! wipes it out, i.e., does not use it—so no harm done. Also, .S , though not in figFORTH, is defined in fbForth (from TI Forth) and I like it better because it shows the stack as unsigned numbers. I do like your BEGIN...WHILE...REPEAT instead of the DO...LOOP of fbForth because it looks shorter. #2 certainly works as written and, I must say, I like it a lot. I think, though, that I would define := as : := DUP 1 WORD C@ 1+ + =CELLS DP ! ; to make the string only as long as necessary. Of course, neither form is protected against a second invocation of := for the same string with a length beyond the original. #3 does not work properly for 2 reasons: (1) EXPECT must be executed (last word on the line) before typing the text following it, i.e., nothing happens until <enter> is tapped at the end of the line, so the typed string is ignored while EXPECT awaits input. (2) EXPECT stores 2 nulls after the string is entered. ...lee
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Yeah...I remember your tagging me with that moniker when I used this pic as my avatar on this forum: ...lee
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To be compatible with current SAMS hardware, the returned LSB should always be ignored when reading the SAMS registers. SAMS hardware merely repeats the page number of the MSB in both bytes, whereas Classic99 does, in fact, return the bank# in the LSB and the page# in the MSB. ...lee
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My TI-99/4A journey started in December, 1983, when my first wife bought one for our kids for Christmas after the price drop to $50. I was 40! When TI released TI Forth into the public domain that same month, I was hooked. I first signed on to AtariAge with this post in May of 2011: I’ve been enjoying interacting with this group ever since! ...lee
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I know I mentioned this before, but I am thinking seriously of booting up fbForth 3.0 without enabling the fbForth ISR. It is enabled in fbForth 2.0. Besides enabling execution of user ISRs, the only reason to have it enabled is to use the fbForth speech and sound engines. This does not affect the BEEP and HONK words. Of course, you can always do sound lists per the E/A manual, with or without the fbForth ISR. And, you can always re-enable the ISR by jamming the contents of user variable INTLNK into >83C4. The fbForth ISR does not take a lot of time, but it is not nothing. If you don’t need it, it slows the system a touch. Of course, you can always disable it by storing 0 at >83C4. What do you think? ...lee
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The next version of FBLOCKS will also allow exiting the old way, but with CTRL+9: Future exits from 64-column editor: FCTN+9: Exit editor to SPLIT2 SPLIT Text window CTRL+9: Exit editor to mode from which editor invoked ...lee
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My apologies! I actually have those working but forgot to compact and copy them to FBLOCKS. It will take me a little time to do that. In the meantime, here are the scripts: b2fexp.fbf f2bimp.fbf ...lee
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OK ... Here is a partially updated FBLOCKS: FBLOCKS The utilities marked “...OK..” just before the block# on the menu have either been updated or shown to work with the current beta. ...lee
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Wow! This took a bit of head scratching and code wizardry(?). Everything related to graphics mode switching seems to be working now. The 64-column editor also works fine. Here is the current beta: fbForth300_8_Na.bin Gettin’ tighter!: bank 0: 162 bytes bank 1: 112 bytes bank 2: 118 bytes bank 3: 118 bytes ...lee fbForth300_8.bin
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Indeed, if the entire 4 KiB block at >3000..>3FFF is unused by the p-system, using >3000 (SAMS register address = >4004) as your only 4 KiB paging address, you are good for a single 4 KiB SAMS page window. ...lee
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The problem with invoking the 64-column editor does, indeed, involve graphics mode switching. When the graphics mode is switched from non-bitmap modes (TEXT,TEXT80,GRAPHICS,MULTI) to bitmap modes (GRAPHICS2,SPLIT,SPLIT2) or vice versa, the system PABs (1user font file, 2 blocks files) are moved. The problem with the move is that the VRAM buffer address in each PAB does not get updated, so all hell breaks loose when the EDIT word is invoked with no intervening USEBFL (Use Blocks File). There may be one other VRAM location change that needs to be made, as well. I may be able to split COLD into more than one routine such that a part could be invoked by the mode change code to make everything better without too much code bloat. We’ll see .... ...lee
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We have enjoyed it since December 1. Returning to Maryland to, likely, rain April 2. ...lee
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OK...I am pretty much done with the Chapter-8 File I/O changes for the new DSRLNK. I also have working DIR and CAT utilities for the new FBLOCKS. I have been puzzling over what broke the 64-column editor and am reasonably sure it has to do with graphics mode switching and blocks I/O code. I did make changes to both and undoubtedly broke something. I did discover that, if I switch to Split mode before invoking the 64-column editor, it works. Exiting the editor shows issues, as well. I need to work through the mode-changing and blocks I/O code to shake out the bugs—too many balls in the air at once, I’m afraid! Aside from bug fixing (may not get done until after return from Florida next week) and managing the DSRLNK changes for Alternate I/O (RS232 card) for KEY and EMIT (easy) , I am nearly done with the cartridge code for fbForth 3.0. After I run down the bugs in recent code changes exposed by the 64-column editor, I will start knocking down the updates for FBLOCKS. Meanwhile, here is the current beta: fbForth300_8_Ma.bin Current remaining cartridge space (some improvement! ) bank 0: 162 bytes bank 1: 102 bytes bank 2: 184 bytes bank 3: 118 bytes ...lee
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It should be there until you turn off the computer. Also, there is really no reason to turn off the mapper unless you really want the start-up, transparent mode. I mentioned before that, once initialized in fbForth, the mapper is never turned off. ...lee
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Yeah...any blocks with DSRLNK calls must be updated before they will run properly. I am nearly done with DSRLNK updates to the fbForth 3.0 cartridge. I will then get after FBLOCKS. Thanks to you and @TheBF for your tests! ...lee
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