madness77 Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 Hi, At the beginning I wanted to say that SIDE3 is a great piece of hardware that I have been waiting for a long time for. Many thanks to @candle and @flashjazzcat for a great job! Of course also to the @lotharek for the great production quality. However, while browsing through the collection of my different types of files (ATRs, CARs, ROMs...), I came across a problem: 512kB images for the SIC! catridge are not supported correctly: - SIC31IN1.ROM - some games start, trying to start others ends with SELFTEST. - The Best....car - mounting the image ends with the screen flashing. There is no problem with that files in the other cartridge (Ultimate). I attach both files. SIC31in1.rom The Best Polish ATARI Games.car 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madness77 Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 I also noticed a little glitch with a timer icon. You can see it when loading the contents of a folder with a large number of files or when changing SD cards. Does anyone also see it on their device? 20201006_223213.mp4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 Yeah, Jon is aware of that. He's mentioned it in the SIDE3 Pre-Order thread that has since turned into a general discussion, and he's mentioned it on Facebook in the A8 Computers group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 For the sake of clarity: the Sic! issue is the one I was already aware of, but the timer issue cannot be reproduced here. I am therefore very interested to know if anyone else experiences it. As for the Sic! issue: while the problem is known to me, the solution is not. Three other issues people may have run into were already fixed today: Problems launching ATRs Inability to boot on-board SDX via CTRL+X in the loader Screen glitch when enabling/disabling stand-alone ATR support in the loader's settings menu I am currently testing the loader flashing tool and attempting to ensure it works reliably on machines other than my own, meanwhile, otherwise I won't be able to issue any updates at all. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 this is normal gtia output? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madness77 Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 17 minutes ago, candle said: this is normal gtia output? This is output from Sophia DVI. But I have exactly the same symptom on my stock, unmodified 130XE too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snicklin Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 Not seen the timer issue but it looks like an out by 1 error. I have had a few ATRs not load, not sure which ones at the moment though as I am at work (lunch!). Great hardware and software I have to say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 8 hours ago, snicklin said: Not seen the timer issue but it looks like an out by 1 error. Well yes: the index into the bitmap would have to be off by one, or the data would have to be shifted one position in RAM. Difficult to see how the former could happen: inc TimerState lda TimerState and #$1F sta TimerState @ and #$1C ; strip lower two bits of timer asl @ adc #7 ; we know C = 0 tax ldy #7 @ lda TimerData,x sta Font1Data+[27*$08],y dex dey bpl @- 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StickJock Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 3 hours ago, flashjazzcat said: @ and #$1C ; strip lower two bits of timer asl @ adc #7 ; we know C = 0 tax ldy #7 @ lda TimerData,x FJC, in your code above, is the asl an asl A, or is it operating on one of the instructions at the label @? Typo/bug? It looks to me like you are trying to double A, and then set the bottom 3 bits, in which case you can optimize it a little by removing the AND and changing the ADC #7 to an ORA #7. This saves 2 bytes & 2 cycles. So, @ ASL A ORA #$07 TAX LDY #$07 @ LDA TimerData,X 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 8 minutes ago, StickJock said: FJC, in your code above, is the asl an asl A, or is it operating on one of the instructions at the label @? Typo/bug? That's just a cosmetic convention denoting implied addressing in some assemblers. I generally try to train myself out of it, but sometimes it happens. It does no harm. 9 minutes ago, StickJock said: It looks to me like you are trying to double A, and then set the bottom 3 bits, in which case you can optimize it a little by removing the AND and changing the ADC #7 to an ORA #7. Very true. I have no idea why I didn't do that already since it's rather obvious now that you point it out. Certainly it's true that no code ever posted on the Internet will not immediately be subject to optimisation unless it's more than a few dozen lines long. Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StickJock Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 An instruction saved is an instruction earned. - Ben Franklin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenrock Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 Don't believe what you read on the Internet. - George Washington 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 3 minutes ago, StickJock said: An instruction saved is an instruction earned. I guarantee I would have been glad of those two free bytes in the past in the U1MB Loader before I recovered them from elsewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StickJock Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 1 minute ago, flashjazzcat said: I guarantee I would have been glad of those two free bytes in the past in the U1MB Loader before I recovered them from elsewhere. I feel your pain. I spent over a decade of my career working on a micro that only had 2K of OTP ROM and 128 words of RAM. It did have a nice instruction set, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StickJock Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 The only thing we have to fear, is running out of code space. - FDR 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 1 minute ago, StickJock said: I spent over a decade of my career working on a micro that only had 2K of OTP ROM and 128 words of RAM. Nice! It's fun, though... at least when you suddenly spot something which can be optimised (not so much when you can't). Amazing how a different pair of eyes can spot missed opportunities too. The loader was already bursting the banks of 16K when I had to make the XEL version with support for dual physical disks and such. It's weird that every time one needs more space, one is somehow able to find it. Not indefinitely, of course, but the limit has evidently not been reached. With SIDE3, I'm not quite so bothered since the loader doesn't have to fit on the U1MB and I have more or less unlimited ROM space. The VBI code isn't especially performance-critical but there are certainly plenty of areas which are (such as cataloguing FAT directories), which is where I focused my attention when optimising. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StickJock Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 4 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said: Amazing how a different pair of eyes can spot missed opportunities too. We called that "Eyeball Pressure". It makes the bugs & optimizations pop out! Some people thought code reviews were drudgery, but I always enjoyed them. It was a fun challenge to spot bugs & find optimizations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 8 minutes ago, StickJock said: We called that "Eyeball Pressure". It makes the bugs & optimizations pop out! Definitely. The same reason the developers should never be the only ones beta testing the software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 Some people can write "code", but writing code that is optimized for size/performance is a skill that I think is missing these days, also an understanding of the platform is going to run on and its strengths/limitations, again I don't think many developers these days consider such things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StickJock Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 "Kids these days" have virtually unlimited resources - Disk space, RAM, CPU speed, etc. My first computer was a ZX81 with only 1K or RAM. I wrote a lot of code on a 4K Wang 2200T at school as well before I got my 48K Atari 800 with only 90K per side on the floppy drive and limited cycles in the DLIs and VBIs. Now, the down side is that for interpreted code, I skipped the comments as they took up space. But still, it instilled a sense of coding conservatism, where every instruction mattered and arranging conditionals so that the more common case is the quickest to save cycles. Even when I was "forced" to use higher level languages before I retired, I would look at the generated assembly and tweak my source so that the compiler would generate better/shorter/faster code. I used to think of it as the difference between a computer programmer and a software engineer. But then again, kids these days.... (Get off of my lawn!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 As well as the issues I mentioned earlier in the thread, I've just fixed: CTRL+H not going to the home (root) folder when pressed deep in a file list with >256 entries CTRL+P and ESC not calling the parent folder when pressed deep in a file list with >256 entries No word on the Sic! issue yet, so I may simply remove support for Sic! types entirely for now unless a fix is forthcoming before I release the update. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 Sincere thanks to Candle for pointing out the error in the emulation table which caused the Sic! issue. He spotted the problem in only ten minutes once he looked at it. Sic! images appear to work properly now, but I will test properly tomorrow. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 38 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said: He spotted the problem in only ten minutes once he looked at it. To quote Shakespeare, "Aye, there's the rub," eh? Does this mean we can hopefully get at least a test build for the U1MB integration soon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 16 minutes ago, DrVenkman said: Does this mean we can hopefully get at least a test build for the U1MB integration soon? Absolutely. Everything is pretty much ready to roll. Will upload tomorrow. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 1 minute ago, flashjazzcat said: Absolutely. Everything is pretty much ready to roll. Will upload tomorrow. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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