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PLATOTerm99 0.1 test release for TI-99/4A


tschak909

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If his program addresses the server directly, however, how would I do that?

 

I need to run Telco to get to your BBS, but then how would I run his Plato term emulator while Telco was running?

 

Or am I over-thinking this somehow.....

 

its a terminal.. just like telco, but it supports the plato protocol.. I'll mess with it when i get home and see what i can do, howerver if you reset your TI, and don't turn off the rs232 it will likely stay online while you load the terminal program..long as you are at the same baud rate and parity it will just pick up where the other left off..

 

SHOULD be able to just atdt (thekeep no) then login, type /go dialout etc..from platoterm

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As an example, I run a Raspberry Pi, running tcpser, which is acting like a virtual modem, attached to a COM port, which I am running on ti994w...

 

Once I get my real console, it will be attached via a TI RS232 Interface sidecar, via port 1.

 

The copy of tcpser I am using is here:

http://github.com/tschak909/tcpser

 

-Thom

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tested on real hw.. doesn't seem to see the rs232 port correctly on a TI rs232 card .. fast term works fine to test the modem out first.. If I reset my wifimodem I see the text coming from it (with dropped characters..) at 1200 baud 8n1.. when i type in plato it doesn't seem to get to the modem.. likely emulation works a little differently than real hw.

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the initial comms parameters:

  rs232_setcontrol(RS232_CARD,RS232_9902A,RS232_CTRL_STOP_1|RS232_CTRL_NO_PARITY|RS232_CTRL_8_BIT);
  rs232_setbps(RS232_CARD,RS232_9902A,RS232_BPS_1200);

Tursi's code does not do any flow control...

 

-Thom

 

shouldn't need it at 1200 baud.. you should be able to get up to about 2400 baud without flow control and even 19200 (TIMXT) and with better comm routines up to 38400 without it.. (HDX does that)

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Yup, this was just to start, I picked a safe value.

 

I have added a baud rate toggle to the most recent build.

 

This brings to question, how to best handle "settings" ...

 

Specifically:

 

* Toggle Baud Rate (300-38400 baud) (FCTN-0 in TTY mode, can't be done while in PLATO mode)

* Toggle PLATO/TTY mode (need to find an out of the way key that one won't trip over)

* Hang Up. (FCTN-9 in TTY mode, can't be done while in PLATO mode)

 

PLATO and TTY mode is an emergency switch of sorts, if for some reason it has gotten out of sync (normally, the host switches into PLATO mode) this could happen if for example, you launch platoterm while already connected to the host.

 

I am currently only allowing baud rate switching and Hang up in TTY mode.

 

I am trying to wrangle together some hardware, so I can do some testing here, because it's working just fine under ti994w. sigh.

 

-Thom

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If PlatoTerm is able to buffer packets of incoming data before processing it, the burst speed increase could be substantial. All depends how things are coded. (re: 38400, TIMXT manages it by tricking the ROM interrupt service routine into bypassing the VDP handling in favor of the user interrupt to service the RS232, whereas HDX uses direct RS232 polling on a more controlled packet basis)

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@insanemultitasker the ShowPLATO() routine accepts a buffer, and a length, so it is possible. I just need better RS232 routines.

 

I also need, very much need, routines to drive the 16550 on the NanoPEB v2.. seriously, who the @#(%@# puts an unsupported (in the scope of TI 99/4A, I am familiar with the 16550) UART on a peripheral and doesn't provide example code to drive it?!

 

-Thom

Edited by tschak909
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As mentioned in another thread, I think... Fred Kaal produced a program called CFHDXS1 which was designed to allow access to that serial port. I use his program regularly for transferring files to/from the TI.

 

The source may be out there, and (if not) he might be willing to share it with you.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have been steadily implementing PLATOTERM. While there are still issues with the RS232 version (it doesn't seem to work outside of TI994W), the TIPI version has been working quite well, and is currently reachable via entering PI.HTTP://TI99.IRATA.ONLINE/PLATOas a filename to CALL TIPI() (or other E/A5 loader), or by using one of your URIx shortcuts (e.g. URI1.PLATO).

 

I have just implemented basic color support, which adds color decoding for the 8 basic PLATO colors:

* Black

* White

* Red

* Green

* Blue

* Cyan

* Magenta

* Yellow

 

all on black background.

 

post-9462-0-86896800-1549695125_thumb.png

 

post-9462-0-49222500-1549695131_thumb.png

 

post-9462-0-52399800-1549695137_thumb.png

 

post-9462-0-97566700-1549695143_thumb.png

 

post-9462-0-06851200-1549695151_thumb.png

 

Due to the quirks of the TMS9918 GRAPHICS II mode, I am not able to successfully add support for background color support. If I can work out a reliable integer-only way to scale down to 0.008 (to scale RGB values down), I will add support for mapping all of the other possible colors to the closest VDP match (again, no background colors, because then any color clash will become _VERY_ apparent.)

 

Stuff I am still working on:

* Character Set loading (compiler bugs in relation to unsigned char data types are causing the charset loading code to not work 100% correctly, am trying to work around it)

* Keyboard mapping (This is _HARD_... I still have a suggested mapping from arcadeshopper to try and work through), I really want to get this to be as least awkward as possible....

* Preferences (save baud rate, possibly phone book and maybe color/mono toggles)

* Get RS232 working on real hardware.

 

Once these are knocked out, I will consider the TI99 version of PLATOTerm feature complete.

 

-Thom

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You know, I know what you're saying makes perfect sense... I know the TIPI is awesome, and it is revolutionary and it changes the way you "TI" by doing all kinds of stuff way faster and more efficiently.

 

I have to be honest though... I don't know if I want that kind of convenience. Sounds stupid, I know.... but if I had TIPI, I likely wouldn't have spent 2 hours last night taking a disk controller card apart to swap out EPROMs.... I likely wouldn't be making serial transfer videos or focusing on the best way to catalog floppies to a parallel printer.... These are the things I love to do... and I fear that my TI time would shift to CHATTI and playing 2P games on the TIPI server.... I know there's an amazing new world out there, I just don't know if I'm ready for it.

 

And maybe I'm completely wrong.... but I am just not ready to go there yet. Too much legacy stuff still to do before I need a new experience. :D

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