Altirra 2.50 Final out

[phaeron]

Hmm, I can't reproduce that. Does it happen with U1MB disabled?

[fujidude]

Hmm, I can't reproduce that. Does it happen with U1MB disabled?

Yes, it still does. Do you need any files or anything from me?

[phaeron]

Try booting Atari DOS or MyDOS on a vanilla config with additions.atr in D2: and see if you get the hang with altxep80.sys -- if so, please generate a save state.

[Creature XL]

Feature request:

 

I might have ask for that a while back. While writing the text below I got a strong feeling I asked that before. So please don't be rude if there is already solution

 

"disable/enabling" of break points (like in Visual Studio)

I often set a break point at a label (either bp or ba/bx). However, I want the bp to trigger only in certain scenarios.

For example I need to move the sprite (while in-game) to a certain position. But on the way to that position the BP triggers 20 times and I always have to press "F8".

Of course, when having simple BP I can just enter "bc *" and "bp label". However, I often have long labels and/or "complicated" bx/ba statements.

 

So... a command like "btg 1" for "toggling breakpoint 1" would be nice.

 

 

Other devs: Please press "like" if you think this feature is useful.

[Mclaneinc]

I liked it although I'm not a dev, the reason is it sounds sensible, once the label etc is aliased to say 1 or a simple word it would make life easier.

 

With my typing I normally make mistakes in long statements so the shorter the better I say

[fujidude]

@McLaneinc and Phaeron,

 

Patience is a very good thing to have. And it does need training and maintenance....

And we also need another kind of imagination.

Irony doen't translate well with Google.

And very poor language skills of any kind, (also lack of diplomatic skills) may appear / disguise as rudeness.

Also, all of us are a bit off in some way. That's why we keep on coming back to our old machines I guess.

 

In other words, please keep up the good work.

 

BR/

Guus Assmann

 

 

 

Good info there. Even if it isn't poor social skill masquerading as rudeness (and actually is rudeness), I am reminded of a saying that goes something like this (paraphrasing):

 

When dealing with difficult people, always maintain composure, courtesy, and decency. Do this not because the difficult person is nice, but because you are.

 

Also on an interesting side note.... when the heck did this business of calling some people "trolls" come from. Trolls are ugly brutes from scandanavian mytholgy. The term "trolling" as it pertains to people on-line who try to get folks engaged in controversy, relates to the similar concept in fishing where you "trol" the waters looking for fish to catch. Such people should be called "trollers" then, and not "trolls." As soon as you get enough of the unclean masses involved in something, incorrect slang like this develops, catches on, and horror of horrors, starts being used by even people who should know better. Kind of like people say Gigabyte with a hard G sound, when it should be spoken with a soft G. Giga comes from the metric system as the prefix for billion, and is and aleways has been correctly pronounced with a soft G. Another one is "noobie." Should be spelled "newbie" because "new" is the root word. Anyway, thanks for listening to my peaves. LOL.

Edited December 13, 2014 by fujidude

[flashjazzcat]

See Troll: Etymology.

 

I'm going with the theory that most Internet trolls are themselves also ugly brutes, and I have no evidence to hand to contradict that supposition. In any case, according to the article, the original trolls were: "antisocial, quarrelsome and slow-witted creatures which make life difficult for travellers", which also corresponds perfectly to the modern definition.

 

[/endOT]

Edited December 13, 2014 by flashjazzcat

[fujidude]

Try booting Atari DOS or MyDOS on a vanilla config with additions.atr in D2: and see if you get the hang with altxep80.sys -- if so, please generate a save state.

 

O, MG. I think I figured it out... I had auto xep80 view set in 2.50, but forgot to in 2.60t27. Can you guess what probably happened? Waaaaa.

[fujidude]

Feature request:

 

Instead of having a single window which switches viewing between standard screen and xep80 screen, would it be possible to give the xep80 its own window? That would be great if it weren't too much trouble. Sometimes it's nice to use something like Bobterm with the terminal on the xep80 and the app and its menus on the standard screen just like the real hardware. Or make it a user option if there are those who can't or don't want to spare the screen realestate for two windows at once (or are running full screen maybe).

 

BTW, it's cool having Mac/65 app in the xep80 with DDT in the standard. Just tied that out and it worked great (had to switch views of course though, uhg).

Edited December 13, 2014 by fujidude

[phaeron]

Breakpoint enable/disable's been on my list, along with putting in a breakpoint window. Probably end up using WinDbg's commands to control them (bd/be).

 

XEP80 dual window -- thought about it, but I didn't know there were programs that actually did it. Problem is, the emulator's kind of structured around one display... the display code itself can sort of handle it, but the main loop not, so it'd be some work.

 

In general, I have to get into certain moods to work on features, so I don't work on them based on age of request or likes. One of my big pet peeves is when people ask for features to be added in the next release... because their feature request is so much more important than everyone else's.

 

Non-native speakers are rarely an issue -- they're some of the more polite people I deal with, and it's pretty obvious when what they're saying is muddled by language issues. No, pretty much all of rude people I end up dealing with are perfectly fluent in English.

[fujidude]

XEP80 dual window -- thought about it, but I didn't know there were programs that actually did it. Problem is, the emulator's kind of structured around one display... the display code itself can sort of handle it, but the main loop not, so it'd be some work.

 

In general, I have to get into certain moods to work on features, so I don't work on them based on age of request or likes. One of my big pet peeves is when people ask for features to be added in the next release... because their feature request is so much more important than everyone else's.

 

phaeron, it sounds like it wouldn't be worth the trouble of dual screens, since the issue that it solves is not that big of a deal when you come down to it. As to your comments about feature requests, I hope that wasn't triggered by any of mine. My postings about requested features were made in the spirit of just that, requests. I have no expectations when anything would be done or even if anything were to be done at all. I really appreciate your efforts on the emulator, and while there are things I think would be cool to see and might share them, I'm more than happy with what there is already.

Edited December 14, 2014 by fujidude

[Keatah]

Feature suggestion:

 

I'd like to see some sort of control that varies the scan line intensity. Something like where setting "0" is no scan lines visible. And "100" would be high contrast black lines. And "50" would be a blended mix of half-brightness lines.

 

In the Stella VCS emulator I find a value of 14% (IIRC) gives me awesome near CRT appearance on some of my LCDs. But whatever the setting, a lower setting looks so much better than full-on. The scan lines are there and barely visible. The blending/intensity control also makes vertical moire noise disappear.

 

What do you think?

[serj]

support the request for filter scan lines.
for the fact that now there are no tears can not look.
Avery, please see how to make the filter scan lines in emulators type - stella or nestopia.

[Keatah]

Save these two screens and zoom in with a non-interpolating picture viewer.

You can see how one has what appears to be an interference pattern from the classical slit experiment. That would be Altirra. On Atari 800 Emulator the effect is so much less pronounced because you can turn down the intensity of the scanlines, and turn on interpolation. They can be made very subtle or very "loud". Also changing the scaling and screen size and resolution and pixel aspect ratio can increase or decrease the effect.

 

And here are three from Stella VCS emu.

One has the setting at 5, another at 14, and another at 100.

 

If I remember and recall correctly, Stella uses the blargg ntsc library. Not 100% sure if Atari 800 Emulator does, but it seems to have the same options as Stella for the effects.

[danielcg]

Feature suggestion:

 

I'd like to see some sort of control that varies the scan line intensity. Something like where setting "0" is no scan lines visible. And "100" would be high contrast black lines. And "50" would be a blended mix of half-brightness lines.

 

In the Stella VCS emulator I find a value of 14% (IIRC) gives me awesome near CRT appearance on some of my LCDs. But whatever the setting, a lower setting looks so much better than full-on. The scan lines are there and barely visible. The blending/intensity control also makes vertical moire noise disappear.

 

What do you think?

 

I already discussed on these scan line intensity on somewhere on this forum, possibly on Altirra 2.40 or 2.50 topic. I already requested scan line intensity long time ago.

[Mclaneinc]

@McLaneinc and Phaeron,

 

Patience is a very good thing to have. And it does need training and maintenance....

And we also need another kind of imagination.

Irony doen't translate well with Google.

And very poor language skills of any kind, (also lack of diplomatic skills) may appear / disguise as rudeness.

Also, all of us are a bit off in some way. That's why we keep on coming back to our old machines I guess.

 

In other words, please keep up the good work.

 

BR/

Guus Assmann

 

 

 

The sentiment in this post is great and as Avery says, most of the people who are rude do it with perfect English. And as for expecting features in the next release then hard luck, Avery is ultra fast at fixing bugs, faster than most emulator authors but we all have our own time so please don't expect the man to devote 24/7 to Altirra, features require planning and hard work, some may not even be possible without a major rewrite of parts of Altirra, there's no 'Emulator Construction Kit', its all hard work. I've asked for features years ago that may never get added, hardly the end of the world, I get to use the most advanced Atari8bit emulator for free, that's a win win in my book, if something I have asked for gets added then even better (as long as its a worthwhile addition)....

 

If there's something you want added then you have the source code, add it yourself, if you can't then wait for the man who can to give your request consideration, if he likes it he adds it to the list to be looked at whenever.....And lets remember that stuff that Avery thinks are really worthwhile normally get added sooner (normally..not always..)

 

And can I again say that although I do try and help with questions about Altirra that I'm NOT in anyway associated with Altirra, Altirra is a one man show by Avery / Phaeron, he does it all, I just do what everyone else does, beta test it, use it and appreciate the hard work by Avery. I could not code my way out of a paper bag (ok, a small really weak bag maybe), I just have the same input all of us do, find the odd bug, make suggestions and play with Altirra. Its just I have had PM's asking me to get something added or could I suggest it to Avery, sorry, I have no sway with Avery, Altirra is 100% his

Edited December 14, 2014 by Mclaneinc

[serj]

Paul, we all understand it perfectly.
but, tell me you like to this innovation in the emulator or not ?

Edited December 14, 2014 by serj

[Mclaneinc]

Of course I do, we all love the new features Avery adds and we all appreciate the people who suggest these additions as well, just a swift look at Altirra shows amazing features that the genius Avery has bolted on, did I ever expect my Atari to play Sid tunes via an emulated sid chip?...NO, there's a ton of brilliant addons emulated for our use and I love every last one.

 

What I do not like seeing is plain rudeness to an author, sometimes there's a fine line between passion for a feature you want and utter rudeness that gets crossed, you know I used to moan at you for repeating the same feature 20 times in a row even after Avery himself had asked you to stop but then you got in to the beat of things and started finding some obscure bugs and making valid really good suggestions that Avery saw and added, they needed no repeats and you knew that, I love your enthusiasm for Altirra but sometimes others just demand which is rude and wrong.

 

The last thing I want is Avery to find Altirra a chore to update, for him to lose passion for it because others make it a negative thought re working on it, lets make sure people remember that Altirra is FREE, its worked on in HIS spare time, time he could very easily use for HIMSELF, he's a busy guy with other things to do and he's entitled to a personal life just like all of us so be thankful he spends some of that on us and Altirra.

 

'Nuff said..

[serj]

Paul, you're a little mistaken.
I did not ask.
I only supported the request.
I should note that I am not the first to suggest it.

[Mclaneinc]

Paul, you're a little mistaken.

I did not ask.

I only supported the request.

I should note that I am not the first to suggest it.

 

I wasn't talking about the scan line thing which I presume is what you mean...

 

I meant ages ago when you used to ask for the same thing 20 times over

 

Relax, you are an excellent Altirra user and your suggestions are great..

 

As for the scan lines, yes it would be nice but I seem to remember Avery saying something about how Altirra's core wasn't set up for it or something similar, I'm sure he will put us all straight re this

[serj]

Paul, you're talking about a conflict when I persuaded add emulator support * .ini file (configuration emulator)?.
agree, then I went pretty rough.
I made that very much regretted later.
but in the end we all have benefited.

 

let's not create more conflicts.
now emulator is almost perfect.
and I am very glad that there is such a person as Avery, who was able to endure all our antics and implement all of this.

[+Philsan]

Has something changed in View/Save Frame?

 

I now get a 336x480 png instead of 336x240.

[flashjazzcat]

Turn off interlace in System->Video.

[Jason1024]

Speaking of repeating oneself, have to say that Altirra is fantastic and Avery/Phaeron does great work.

[Heaven/TQA]

Can someone tell me when using .dumpdsm command... how can I tell Altirra not to generate illegal opcodes into the listing so I can reassemble with MADS?