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While reconciling the Horizon Ramdisk ROS, CFG, and MENU programs I have been learning about GROM access. In all these years, I've never had much interest in GPL or GROM. That changed for a few reasons including the need to understand GROM to reconcile the source code and my curiosity of the magic that Tursi and Gazoo have been conjuring.

 

Since there is no better way to learn (IMHO) about something than to experiment with it, I found the source code for the 80-column Geneve version of BOOT. In its native configuration, it resides in two GPL banks and over-rides the title screen. Gazoo's XB27 suite does something similar with BOOT so I removed most of the Geneve-specific code and started playing around.

 

Gazoo, Atrax, and Omega have been most helpful testing and offering ideas. Although the program is not quite ready for release, I can tell you a few things about it:

 

1. The menu and all options are presented in 80 columns. F18A and V9938 80-column modes are supported.

2. BwG clock, MBP, Triple Tech, Geneve, and Clulow clocks are supported. Classic99's clock has been tested but not currently implemented due to space constraints. (incorporation will occur with future consolidation of the clock routines).

3. Menu files can be created as executables that are run from the menu itself. Chaining of menus is possible with this feature, allowing an "unlimited" number of selections.

4. The menu program can save itself to the Uber cartridge, similar to the function provided by Gazoo's cartridge code. It can also be saved to disk as BOOT.

5. Ramdisk boot tracking has been added for "DSK*." support, though this may not be necessary.

6. The cartridge finder has been updated to scan up to 16 GROM banks from g>9800 to g>983C. It will also find name headers in the same GROM, such as those found in the Mini Memory cartridge or XB27 suite. The HSGPL exhibits some odd behaviour that we are trying to track down.

7. Re-entry hooks are in place for potential return to the menu from external programs (provided they do not stomp on the menu code).

 

This program is by no means a formal project and I make no promises on how far I will take it. Once a few more tests are completed, I'll share the first release for folks to play with. I haven't settled on a name for the program so for now, it will refer to its roots as the "9640 Menu System".

 

 

post-25764-0-74440500-1439789785_thumb.png

post-25764-0-00456800-1439789882_thumb.png

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In case you are testing this on a HSGPL emulation on MESS, remember to upgrade to at least version 0.153. I fixed several bugs with that release.

So far the tests have used real hardware as both Gazoo and Atrax have HSGPL devices in there systems.

 

For some reason while (or after) reading GROM the system crashes. I don't know if there is a HSGPL DSR issue or some other oddity that is not apparent in a non-HSGPL system. The trouble right now is that only one system exhibits the problem.

 

I would be happy to share the source for the cartridge review routine. Maybe you would spot a reason for the problem.

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You guys are gonna :lust: LOVE :lust: this menu system! In my humble opinion...

IT'S THE BEST MENU SYSTEM EVER MADE FOR THE TI!

 

Guy's with F18A's are gonna be ecstatic, and the 9938 guys can use it too!

 

There is a short video << HERE >>.

Great video and explanation of the features Omega.
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

Been setting this up on my system - awesome! :) Any chance you could read the clock from Fred's HDX?

 

100 OPEN #1:"HDX1.TIME",INTERNAL,FIXED
110 INPUT #1:SEC$,MIN$,HOUR$,DAY$,MONTH$,YEAR$,DAYOFWEEK$
120 CLOSE #1
Near as I can tell, all current HW clocks are out of production with the exception of HDX...
Not complaining! :) Love the new menu - much better than Boot - which I used for years!!!
Cheers, Arthur...
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Been setting this up on my system - awesome! :) Any chance you could read the clock from Fred's HDX?

 

100 OPEN #1:"HDX1.TIME",INTERNAL,FIXED
110 INPUT #1:SEC$,MIN$,HOUR$,DAY$,MONTH$,YEAR$,DAYOFWEEK$
120 CLOSE #1
Near as I can tell, all current HW clocks are out of production with the exception of HDX...
Not complaining! :) Love the new menu - much better than Boot - which I used for years!!!
Cheers, Arthur...

 

I'll add it to the list of 'possibilities'. I was hoping to add the IDE clock to the mix as well.

 

My programming availability/time has been quite limited this year. I don't know when things will change, so don't anticipate anything too soon ;)

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Been setting this up on my system - awesome! :) Any chance you could read the clock from Fred's HDX?

 

Let me know if/when you get CorComp or compatible RTC. Since you are getting into Forth I have a real nice startup for fbForth that gets the date and time on start up. Thanks to the able assistance of Guru Lee Stewart.

 

Getting the HDX to read time in fbForth would be cool too!

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I do have a CorComp FDC actually - but have been using my TI 80 track controller here because I feel it's more reliable. I have been experimenting with fbForth from HDX and it appears to run well. Right now however I have been focused on getting TI-Base to run properly from HDX. I am going to write up a post on that as it's a pretty interesting story.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 1 year later...

While reconciling the Horizon Ramdisk ROS, CFG, and MENU programs I have been learning about GROM access. In all these years, I've never had much interest in GPL or GROM. That changed for a few reasons including the need to understand GROM to reconcile the source code and my curiosity of the magic that Tursi and Gazoo have been conjuring.

 

Since there is no better way to learn (IMHO) about something than to experiment with it, I found the source code for the 80-column Geneve version of BOOT. In its native configuration, it resides in two GPL banks and over-rides the title screen. Gazoo's XB27 suite does something similar with BOOT so I removed most of the Geneve-specific code and started playing around.

 

Gazoo, Atrax, and Omega have been most helpful testing and offering ideas. Although the program is not quite ready for release, I can tell you a few things about it:

 

1. The menu and all options are presented in 80 columns. F18A and V9938 80-column modes are supported.

2. BwG clock, MBP, Triple Tech, Geneve, and Clulow clocks are supported. Classic99's clock has been tested but not currently implemented due to space constraints. (incorporation will occur with future consolidation of the clock routines).

3. Menu files can be created as executables that are run from the menu itself. Chaining of menus is possible with this feature, allowing an "unlimited" number of selections.

4. The menu program can save itself to the Uber cartridge, similar to the function provided by Gazoo's cartridge code. It can also be saved to disk as BOOT.

5. Ramdisk boot tracking has been added for "DSK*." support, though this may not be necessary.

6. The cartridge finder has been updated to scan up to 16 GROM banks from g>9800 to g>983C. It will also find name headers in the same GROM, such as those found in the Mini Memory cartridge or XB27 suite. The HSGPL exhibits some odd behaviour that we are trying to track down.

7. Re-entry hooks are in place for potential return to the menu from external programs (provided they do not stomp on the menu code).

 

This program is by no means a formal project and I make no promises on how far I will take it. Once a few more tests are completed, I'll share the first release for folks to play with. I haven't settled on a name for the program so for now, it will refer to its roots as the "9640 Menu System".

 

 

 

 

I've found a description of the early BOOT for 9640 and 4A with HSGPL, Gramulator Gramkracker and Geneve GRAM loading support. But I find it impossible to track from that description to the actual File, and to the latest version of that still compatible with the Geneve. I am intrigued by the Geneve cartridge loading support, as it should work inside ROMPAGE mode.

 

The 9640news file archives contain several one line descriptions of what sound like different versions of this menu... but I can't really trace the lineage. The Miami user's group... someones mods... an 80 column menu instead of 3 pages...

 

Did the final version retain the gramkracker cartridge loading from the menu? If so I should be able to use that to load cartridges off of TIPI on my Geneve instead of having to swap floppies... This would be nice... Can anyone point at the latest version? I can't re-find the description I read digging around whtech... I find BOOTV10 and BOOTV12 in CAT10 of the 9640news archives, but I think those are pre-80 column.

 

-M@

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Matt,

 

Did you get my MAME image for the Geneve?

 

If so, at the MDOS prompt, type GPL. That will load the GPL interpreter and an 80 column menu program. When you hit the option to "Save", it will write out two(?) files with something like GPO/GPP to a disk device. I know I set it up to load a few things off of the TIPI on the Geneve before I sent my TIPI in to Greg to be updated. Now, I never tested it with cartridges, but it did run EA5 programs. I have no reason to believe it would not load any modules.

 

Beery

 

P.S.

 

If you did not have the MAME image, here are the notes I had for users that were wanting to set it up on their system.

 

Unarchive the directory to your root level on your C:\drive.

Copy the Bootdisk1.hd file twice, once with a name of Bootdisk2.hd, and Bootdisk3.hd. This will give you three hard drive images.

I've got a lot of code you may find useful on the drive.

To run mame, launch geneve2.bat. This will pull up the debugger which you will need to hit F5 so it can continue. It is also configured for an RS232 port, but you need to run tiimagetool to get that to work in addition to MAME.

File size is about 168 MB's. This is for the Windows 64 bit version of MAME.

To download the file, it is at http://www.USwingNut.../Files/MAME.zip

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Thanks, I'll rummage around in those hard drive images...

 

-M@

FYI, it's really just one drive, multiplied by 3. Same data in each, if you do it that way. I took and changed the geneve.bat file and renamed the drives to two other drives that are on whtech and now have each drive, with mostly different data in each. used the mdosgpl.hd image and the all.hd image.

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Something to be careful about

 

FYI, it's really just one drive, multiplied by 3. Same data in each, if you do it that way. I took and changed the geneve.bat file and renamed the drives to two other drives that are on whtech and now have each drive, with mostly different data in each. used the mdosgpl.hd image and the all.hd image.

 

Something to be careful about with the hd images on Whtech. The hard drive image format has changed over the years. The older formats may be readable only, not sure, unless someone updated the files and re-uploaded them. I know at one point in time, things were associated with a MESS version of something like 0.68. I think that was perhaps the first version of the HD image, and we are at least two versions beyond that now.

 

One also has to be careful when they create a new format to not use compression in the file. Or, at least I did not, as I recalled that creating problems with MESS. Not sure if MAME and TI/Geneve emulation has a problem with dealing with a compressed hard drive image.

 

Beery

Edited by BeeryMiller
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If the CHD is too old, it will not be usable in MAME anymore. Please use TIImageTool to verify the CHD version and to upgrade it if needed. (Yes, there's a function in it for that purpose. :-) )

 

Also, I'd really suggest to use TIMT for creating new hard disk images. That way you will not run into issues with compressed formats.

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Some years ago I decompressed any (for me) available .HD-file, and these were the ones that didn´t work (for me):

 

attachicon.gifUnsupported-HDs.JPG

 

 

 

And these were the ones I was able to unpack (I have them in 1 zip-file now):

 

attachicon.gif2015-04-05-HD-Extract2.JPG

Schmitzi, take an older version say 0.80 of chdman from that version of Mess, and use the following command line in a command dialog box: chdman -extract somedrive.hd somedrive raw. This may vary between versions of chdman and if you just type in chdman, you get a list of the commands and parameters. Then take the new version of chdman and make a new hd using the raw file to pull out the data. This should give you a usable copy of the drive for mame to use. I also just found that you can import the raw into a workind hd , using Michaels TI Image Tool.

Edited by RickyDean
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