[Coco] graphical CoCo emulation environment

[Jones, Orville CPT]

Roger,
I just wanted to let you know that I like your idea. Also I wanted to let
you know that I haven't had a lot of time to use Portal-9, but what I've
seen so far is very impressive. The main thing that is preventing me from
using Portal-9 is a tutorial of some sort. I think I heard you mention from
a previous post that you have a online tutorial, so I will check out your
web site.

Keep up the good work. I appreciate your contribution to our fun hobby.
Thanks.

Chappy

>Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2003 01:36:25 -0600
>To: coco at maltedmedia.com
>From: Roger Taylor <rtaylor at bayou.com>
>Subject: [Coco] graphical CoCo emulation environment
>Reply-To: coco at maltedmedia.com
>
>We've talked about this subject before: the idea of a graphical 
>representation of a real CoCo system being emulated on a PC, where you can 
>drag and drop "floppy disks", "rom paks", "cassettes", insert "cables", and

>everything else you'd normally do with a real system (well, almost).
>
>Because the M.E.S.S. team has made it somewhat easy for some to interface 
>with the mess.exe and messgui.exe programs, a graphical environment of the 
>type I described should be rather easy to do.  The hardest work would 
>probably be in the graphics department, keeping everything pretty and in 
>proportion, etc.  Even that is not that hard to do.
>
>My ideal virtual CoCo would look pretty much like the systems did in the 
>Radio Shack catalogs, to some degree.  The only portion of the whole screen

>that would belong to M.E.S.S. itself is the surface that holds the CoCo's 
>video screen, and maybe the menu riding on top, but I'm sure that can be 
>switchable.
>
>The messgui app is okay I guess, but is buggy and if you're just into 
>emulating the CoCo, it's not really needed unless you're configuring the 
>M.E.S.S. settings when you first install the emulator.  After that, you can

>pretty much call on messgui with parameters and if you know a bit about 
>hijacking windows and subclassing them, you can make the M.E.S.S. video 
>surface behave to fit this graphical CoCo system.
>
>So this will be my "next" CoCo project, which will be the 3rd project based

>on a PC but aimed 100% at the CoCo, while 2 of those projects are designed 
>to actually create CoCo software for real CoCos, so I do not feel bad at 
>all playing around in this area.
>
>any thoughts?
>
>
>{Roger Taylor}

Chaplain (CPT) Orville A. Jones
LTF 406
AEM3AK MARS Station
AA4ZI Amateur Radio Station