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The header for a program image file for MDOS mode is different than a header for a program image (EA #5) file for TI-99/4A or GPL mode on the Geneve. MDOS mode software with very few exceptions, will use various operating system XOP's for screen writes, memory setup/access, and disk i/o. Those same XOP's are not available to a TI-99/4A. Beery

Try reassembling your project using the WRITE instruction instead of the READ instruction along with whatever other code changes if you want to write something to the TIPI and report back.

I'm briefly looking at your code in DSRS shown below. You are moving a READ byte rather than a WRITE byte into your PAB. I have not tested any reassembly, but at first glance, that is where I would start. WRITEF CLR R5 LI R3,>3000 LI R4,>F80 WF MOV *R3+,*R4+ INC R5 CI R5,25 JNE WF MOVB @READ,R1 LI R0,PAB BLWP @VSBW BL @DSR MOVB @CLOSE,R1 BLWP @VSBW BL @DSR B @STP

I'm turning in now, so hopefully others may have a chance to look at your code before I would have a chance.

You should not need a controller card to create a file. Next question is have you conducted any error checking after the open, write, and close? As you are doing this on the TIPI. look at the TIPI.log file and look at the last lines of the log file right after you run your routine. That will tell you if your OPEN, WRITE, and CLOSE code is being executed by the TIPI and/or if there are errors. I use a program like WinSCP to log into the TIPI using my local host name. Your should be something like 192.168.1.xxx or something else similar depending upon your router. That TIPI log can be very informative if something isn't behaving the way you think it should be. Beery

Does A$ have any text in the string?

Thanks.

Which versions of the EPROM for the F can be used without a daughterboard upgrade?

Just dealt with a similar issue. I pulled my SCSI card out to take pictures the other day, and then the next day, my HFDC was not recognized when cold booted, but would be recognized on a warm boot. Turns out the HFDC was sitting perfectly in the slot. As I was trying to rewrite the MDOS version for TIPI for the PFM, I thought I had somehow made the PFM unuseable. Thankfully, it was just a poorly seated HFDC.

I have something I have been playing around with, and I think Tim has done something probably similar but not committed anything yet that is useable. Right now, more of a proof of concept. Beery

I have quite a bit of software, however I will say my time is a bit limited though it may not seem apparent. It may be simpler to start another topic looking for software that has been mentioned and having others provide links to the programs or provide the programs from their libraries. Quite a few new program names were given above, so that may be a good first start. Just saying right now, what free time I do have at home in front of my Geneve, I have devoted to other time consuming projects. I would not want myself to be the focal point as there is just too many things going on with the Geneve already. Beery

I'm not blocked anymore. That was changed this past weekend after my account was reviewed. Getting the DIS/VAR 80 files to TIPI is easy. I can do a drag and drop to GitHub with either files with TIFILES headers which lead to unreadable source as they are not.TXT files or they can be converted with TIDIR and then dropped. I posted in another topic area about a wish list for TIDIR. I forget the specific github terminology, but what would be preferred would be able to upload the .txt files that have changed where anyone can submit, but only select people can approve the code changes. In the grand scheme of things, if a user with a telnet client could connect to the TIPI in localhost:23, a script would run that would convert the local DIS/VAR 80 files into TXT files, and then when someone wanted to get the updates to the current source, another script that would check out the appropriate updated files and load them back to the TIPI as DIS/VAR 80 files. There is a challenge that if the files are copied from the TIPI and back to a ramdisk or other hard drive, and then back to the TIPI again, everything is given a new datestamp so things all look new (updated). It is not an issue if the assembly process was taking place on a Geneve/TIPI combo except it is slower for the assembly process as the HRD or local hard drive is faster. For assembling MDOS, it is a 5 minute ramdisk assembly versus a 20 minute assembly process from the TIPI if you do a full assembly. I don't know how to get around this issue so at least the source files would be managed on the TIPI. Then, the other issue is that in a non-Geneve system, files saved with some controller cards will not even have a date stamp. So, what may be needed may be very specific to the Geneve. In the best situation and I have exchanged notes with Ralph, if xdt99 supported or had workarounds where things could be assembled and linked to form MDOS, then all one had to do was transfer MDOS back to the TIPI. As far as the Geneve 2020, if you could emulate the TIPI interface, that may be one DSR you would not have to write for at least the MDOS side of things and would open up a lot of potential. For some reason, I thought you were going to have some kind of interface to some existing TI/Geneve peripherals. Its been a couple of weeks since I last reviewed your notes. Beery

I sent him an email as well and he mentioned your note. Things will happen, when they happen. Family and work take priority over any hobby.

We are hoping to at some point in time, have a Github repository where future development efforts can occur. That's my dream, but for that to really occur for the Geneve, other things have to happen. Will it happen? Hard to say as everyone has busy schedules and their own personal projects. As far as @FarmerPotato and his Geneve 2020, the next release of MDOS and a Geneve Eprom upgrade will have the ability to boot directly from the TIPI which should assist @FarmerPotato in getting file I/O capability for development if he wants to connect with existing TI-99/4A or Geneve hardware. Either way, it would open the ability to file i/o and other capabilities provided by TIPI more easily than developing other new hardware right off the bat as well to have a functioning platform for development and testing.

There are also a significant more number of programs than what has been mentioned here available for MDOS mode for the Geneve. It really all boils down to what do you want to do with a "retro" computer. Programs such as The Printer's Apprentice, MDOS Forth, and The Geometer's Apprentice were commerical applications that were quite versatile that really have no counterparts except Forth itself which Lee has done a great job. Lee actually borrowed some things from MDOS for his floating point library to speed mathematical calculations. Another excellent program is/was HyperCopy. Allowed copying floppies faster than anything else that has ever been released. Disk copiers now are now much less used. There is also another program, Gentri, that was a combination terminal emulator, word processor, and disk manager wrapped up in one package. If I recall, you could work on 3 documents at once, and I think it even had cut/paste capability. It's been a long time since I used it as I preferred MyWord over it as most of my work was programming, not writing documents to be printed and read. I will also say that without the Geneve, some development on the TI-99/4A may not have occurred. Take for example the SCSI card. The card had been designed and built, but no DSR had been written for it until after the card was working on the Geneve. After it was working on the Geneve, then appropriate code was then able to be developed and the DSR written for it. Lee actually borrowed some things from MDOS for his floating point library to speed mathematical calculations in Forth. He could have used the 4A GPL routines, but it would have been slower. If you are into retro computing, you need to ask yourself what is it you want to do. If you are into playing games, then really the frontier right now is with a TI-99/4A and the SAMS with a TIPI. However, if you are wanting to learn assembly language programming, I can tell you without a doubt, it is much easier to program on the Geneve 9640 than it is a TI-99/4A. If you want to setup graphics mode and draw a line from point a to point b, the total amount of code is under a dozen lines. Can't do that on a TI-99/4A. File I/O is also much simpler for handling data. If you want to do Basic programming, the versatility for what you can do in Abasic is access to all the graphics mode. There are also programming languages including c99, Fortran, Forth, and the PSystem. I don't know of anyone that has written anything for the PSystem as it was so late and only a couple of users ever messed with it. If you are looking to develop something commercial for the Geneve, software wise you would be very lucky to ever get a dozen sales. Hardware wise is a different story depending upon what you develop. Will you make money (profit), nope. Here is one other thing some people may want to consider. A Geneve makes a wonderful tool even for programming on the TI-99/4A. If you do not want to use non- 9900/9995 applications (windows, linux) to program, writing program code within MyWord in 80 columns and using the GenPROG package will make the assembly and linkage process so much quicker. As an example, while the TI-99/4A could assemble the individual files to make the object files to make the operating system, there are presently no tools to do so. Let's pretend there were tools that could piece the 75 to 100 object files all together for the moment. The assembly process would easily take an hour, if not two or more hours before you started reading all the object files to piece everything together. One can assemble the complete operating system in a little under 6 minutes including creating the image (136K, or 544 sectors). I recall one programmer indicating he at one time used MESS (precursor to MAME implementation of the Geneve emulation) that when he told the system to assemble MDOS, he could do it in seconds when he told the emulation to run at full Windows speed. MAME does not have that capability as it has been written to emulate real hardware. Right now, couple the Geneve with a TIPI and a TI-99/4A with a TIPI, your development time can be greatly reduced as you can interchange completed programs to the 4A with very minimal effort and time. Myself, floppy disk drives are almost a thing of the past. As I said, it is what interest you. If you are purely into games, then the TI-99/4A is the route. If you want to program and learn coding, it is much easier to start on a Geneve if you have no experience. Myself, I rarely play games. It is more development at the moment. I like seeing what I can have the computer do that maybe nobody else has done before. Beery

Well, the Geneve has a 9938 so if you re comparing to a stock TI-99/4A, better graphics and 80 column capability for a start. There are quite a few programs for the Geneve for its "MDOS" mode. The two most predominant applications I use is the 80 column MyWord and the GenPROG package which is an assembler, linker, etc. I've also got a a terminal emulator originally written by Mike Riccio as a serial terminal emulator that will do ANSI and acts as a Telnet client in 80 column with file transfer (Xmodem) capability. There is also Advanced Basic, and it was just this week someone posted a link to all the games a particular gentleman wrote in Abasic that looks to be some of the best games written specifically for the Geneve I have seen. That's just the start of the list of things and I will let others chime in. Beery

How do I contact Richard Bell?

Ralph, I sent you a private message and included @InsaneMultitasker on the message as well along with MDOS 6.50 source and where you can find all the information on the GenPROG package. It will be some good bedtime reading <grin>. Beery

Ralph, Tim and I were discussing the other day about the ability to use other non TI/Geneve programs to assemble MDOS with the direction moving forward to a github repository. The biggest issue here lies in the GenPROG Linker and the linking process and the uses of the PAGES command to build the 18 x 8K segments of MDOS as a single program image file. I'm guessing there are roughly 100'ish source files creating 50 various object files that are pieced together during the linking process. I don't know the xdt99 tools that well or if you have reviewed the GenPROG package to know if there would be a workaround, or I will use the word "simpler" changes that could be done to the source to move things to an xdt99 platform for assembly and linking process to create the final image. If you have some thoughts on the matter, it would be appreciated. Beery

I guess its unlikely this daughterboard replacement is available anywhere??? Beery

OK, that's why I had (I think). Was thinking there was something going on with either a halt or reboot. Guess not.

Tim, I am pretty sure Stuart's web browser is using the send/rcv message routines. I know the AfterHours BBS source does, Matt's Telnet and TIPICFG (I think), not sure about Chatti or Chess, and the mouse interface for TI-Artist as far as 4A programs. On the MDOS side of things, MyTerm uses that address. Beery

So, if I understand things, I can upgrade to Version 1.5, but would need the daughterboard for V1.6? Is the daughterboard available anywhere? Does it require any soldering on the card or trace cuts, or is it just a board that plugs into a socket? And, with the comment about changes in the low level routines, does that mean a reformat of partitions? Beery

I've never heard of Darin before, but he has some good programming skills. I don't know if everything is in Advanced Basic or not, but he really does show what the Geneve ABasic capabilities are. Beery

MyArt does not require a mouse driver. The MOUSExx drivers were for the Windows program I wrote years ago, and I am not 100% sure if the driver is 100% compatible with the current MDOS 6.50. Beery