[Coco] CoCoNet status

[Joel Ewy]

I'm sure you're aware that if you aren't careful, anything with the word
"Visual" in front is going to try to suck you into the M-Soft honeypot,
and then there goes your portability.  Keep it modular and segregate
anything proprietary.

JCE

Roger Taylor wrote:
> At 05:53 PM 2/20/2009, you wrote:
>> Roger Taylor wrote:
>>> Hey guys, CoCoNet just gained the auto-update feature!  It also has
>>> the side effect of allowing Virtual Game Paks....
>>>
>>> Read on...
>>>
>>> The very top of the CoCoNet ROM has code that tries to replace
>>> itself with an updated .rom file (on your PC).  If the .rom is not
>>> CoCoNet, it starts up like a game pak.  So, CoCoNet is also a Live
>>> ROM Pak.
>>> From your PC you tell the CoCo what ROM to boot up with - CoCoNet, a
>>> game pak, utility pak, embedded pak, etc.  Otherwise, the
>>> cartridge's EPROM already contains a version of CoCoNet that
>>> continues to boot.
>>>
>>> This is over the bitbanger cable, and it's still very cool.  I can't
>>> wait to see all this go wireless.
>>>
>>> Wireless virtual disks
>>> Wireless ROM Paks
>>> Wireless HTTP requests
>> This sounds so excellent!  I'm using an SVD right now but supporting
>> the game paks would convince me to purchase one.  Now to find a way
>> to xvfer tape images without the recorder.   ;)
>>
>> ~telengard
>
>
> More good news:
>
> The CoCoNet server will be rewritten in the coming days.  I need to
> use whichever language is more portable so I can bring support to the
> Mac users and any others as well.  My own choices are Visual C++,
> Visual C#, and Visual Basic.  I am no longer going to use HLA for
> authoring the CoCoNet server app.
>
> A simple initial test in Visual Basic worked great when I simply
> opened the COM port associated with the CoCo's wireless pak, wrote a
> string to the port, and it appeared on the CoCo screen screen
> immediately (Ultimaterm 4.1).  The CoCo is stuck back in 1988 and
> thinks it's using a real Tandy pak.  :)
>