[Coco] OS-9 Floppy / Printer configuration?

Tue Jul 27 09:48:00 EDT 2010

On Tuesday, July 27, 2010 09:14:17 am Chad H did opine:

> Thanks you're your help with the floppy drive config/OS-9 issue
> everyone, sorry if there was any confusion.  I was finally able to
> strip down NitrOS9 enough using SAVE to extract the modules and OS9Gen
> to get what I needed back into a new boot disk (which was DS 360k) and
> copied over the entire DeskMate files to that disk.  Only other issue,
> albeit a small one, was that deskmate refused to load at bootup.  SHELL
> had to load first before DeskMate would load properly....weird.  I
> checked the original DeskMate disk and this wasn't the case with it,
> shell didn't load until you exited DeskMate.  No biggy, I just type a
> command once at the OS9 prompt to load it.
> 
> Now....I will see if I can figure out something on the Printer
> driver...should be a bit easier since I got this far on NitrOS9 I hope.
> Setting the Baud rate at 1200 should be easy I'm thinking but I would
> like to have the driver set a initialization ASCII string to the
> printer (for CRLF, etc.) before it prints....if this is even possible.
> 
> - Chad e

Yes, that is one of the beauty's of the *os9 way.  The descriptor can be 
set to output both a linefeed and a carriage return at the end of the line 
if the printer requires it.  ISTR you can also set the page length such 
that a FormFeed is output on line xx, which will cause the printer to 
advance to TOF (top of form) on the next page of paper.  I can recall doing 
printouts of stuff I was writing, and using that to keep the 'pages' from 
getting out of time with the tractor feed perforations on an Xerox 1650ro 
printer I still have but cannot get ribbon cartridges for any more.  Its 
strike on the daisy wheel just shatters the ribbon of the 15 year old 
ribbons I have.

Guard that old HP-540 well, most newer printers do not know what to do with 
plain old ascii.  When I needed a printer for my coco3 a couple of years 
ago, all I could find that was black & white and cheap, was Brothers little 
$120 laser, so in order to print from the coco3, I send the listing to /p 
in the usual way, but at 9600 baud, which is fed to an FTDI 232 to USB 
convertor, then up the cables to this machine, where it is captured by a 
script I wrote, then through cups for rasterising, and that data then sent 
back to the Brother laser sitting on top of the coco3's desk, on the same 
usb extension cable & hub.  It works fine except I have to use the tuneport 
facility to actually get 9600 baud as the printer drivers default at 'xmode 
/p bau=6' is about 15 kilobaud and the FTDI serial to USB device gets 
confused.  It is 20x faster too, as that printer is a 22 ppm printer where 
the xerox, at 40cps, is about 1 page a minute.  However, my 'end of 
document' detector in the script is 3 consecutive attempts to read data 
timing out and coming back empty, before the script hands the captured file 
over to cups to process and print, so the printer doesn't start its warmup 
cycle till about 4 seconds after the prompt in that shell comes back.  It 
works, so that lag is a shrug.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com]
> On Behalf Of Gene Heskett
> Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 10:53 PM
> To: coco at maltedmedia.com
> Subject: Re: [Coco] OS-9 Floppy / Printer configuration?
> 
> On Monday, July 26, 2010 11:49:47 pm Bob Devries did opine:
> > Chad,
> > 
> > I *think* the joystick routines are built into the VTIO module. Unlike
> > Level 2 NitrOS9, they are not a separate entity/module.
> 
> Then I am incorrect, Bob.  Its been yonks since I last built a level 1
> boot disk, and so far back that Nitros9 hadn't made it back to level
> one hardware.  That was when I last made a new boot disk for the Grass
> Valley E-DISK emulator I had written in 1985.
> 
> > Regards, Bob Devries
> > 
> >   ----- Original Message -----
> >   From: Chad H
> >   To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts'
> >   Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 12:53 PM
> >   Subject: Re: [Coco] OS-9 Floppy / Printer configuration?
> >   
> >   
> >   Update...  I went back and added the SHELL to the OS9Gen and it
> > 
> > finally booted.  DeskMate did load from this NitrOS9.  However, it
> > acted like there was no joystick attached.  Which NitrOS9 module deals
> > with joysticks? - Chad
> > 
> >   -----Original Message-----
> >   From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com
> > 
> > [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Chad H
> > 
> >   Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 9:42 PM
> >   To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts'
> >   Subject: Re: [Coco] OS-9 Floppy / Printer configuration?
> >   
> >   Ok, I've backed up a little bit.  My current thinking tells me the
> > 
> > easiest way to get a slimmed down "OS-9" that works well with
> > Double-sided drives is going to be to take the NitrOS9 and strip out
> > the bootstrap modules I don't need.  I've been toying around with
> > saving the original bootstrap modules and then using OS9Gen to rebuild
> > the bootstrap leaving out some of the modules.  So far, I've only
> > gotten a NitrOS9 copyright screen but it goes no further.
> > 
> >   Here was the last list of original bootstrap modules...
> >   
> >   REL KRN KRNP2
> >   INIT BOOT IOMAN
> >   RBF RB1773 D0
> >   D1 D2 DD
> >   SCF VTIO COVDG
> >   TERM SCBBP P
> >   SCBBT T1 PIPEMAN
> >   PIPER PIPE CLOCK
> >   CLOCK2 SYSGO SHELL
> >   
> >   
> >   
> >   Latest OS9Gen I used included...
> >   RB1773
> >   D0
> >   VTIO
> >   TERM
> >   IOMAN
> >   RBF
> >   SCF
> >   SYSGO
> >   CLOCK
> >   CLOCK2
> >   SCBBT
> >   SCBBP
> >   COVDG
> >   
> >   This resulted in bootup to NitrOS9 logo...went no further
> >   
> >   Which modules are a must to include for proper bootup?!
> >   
> >   Thanks.
> >   
> >   - Chad
> >   
> >   
> >   --
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> >   Coco at maltedmedia.com
> >   http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> >   
> >   
> >   --
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> > 
> > --
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-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
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