[Coco] Have no idea what to call it, but, it WAS New tool: WIRED

Luis Antoniosi retrocanada76 at gmail.com
Wed Dec 5 10:39:07 EST 2012


DW

On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 10:37 AM, Charlie Pelosi <chazbeenhad at hotmail.com> wrote:
> No, I play DECB games daily. Honestly, for most if my life. :)
> I never used DW so much because I really don't like the highspeed mode of the coco3.
>
> Seriously it is a pain to poke normal speed before exec all the time. For this reason I started using a coco2, and now a coco1.
>
> I'd like a DW HDB-DOS for coco3 that ran at coco2 speed with no high speed mode. It's more than fast enough for working with DECB games.
>
> Nitros9 is a fantastic OS that shows off that coco power. But if there is a game for I'm glad they all come with self booting images ::)
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: Luis Antoniosi
> Sent: 5 Dec 2012 15:09:03 GMT
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Have no idea what to call it, but, it WAS New tool: WIRED
>
> Brian, I am on very same position as you: family, kids, house, car,
> dog, cat and bird. When I got the SuperIDE my first move was: to copy
> DECB disks into it and I found out it was nearly impossible.
>
> First the Aaron's tool Sidewalk was broken. For this reason I made a
> small command line tool to put and get disk from the CF card using the
> PC. After a month, Aaron fixed his tool. The Sidewalk is great because
> it has the GUI to browse all image but it still gets a lot of time to
> read all the disks so I still use my command line tool which take a
> second to write or get a disk on it.
>
> The stock NitroOS-9 on superIDE does not access the RS-DOS drive (the
> IH). Nor it has support for any of the sierra or VDG games. So I had
> to learn a lot until I got a working copy of the nitros and manage to
> solve the problem with the rbsuper descriptors. That was a lot of
> learning curve. I do not have much time available on real hardware so
> it took a lot of time for me. Even when I got the /IH working I found
> out the pain it was copying from DW to it. Again I need to make a
> BASIC09 tool for it. Also I had to figure out how to install a fresh
> nitrOS-9 on a superIDE without a MPI.
>
> This what motivated me to make the WIRED tool. The Sidekick I did
> because I was sick of typing commands and the coco basic doesn't like
> typos, you made one you're screwed. Other BASIC like C-64 or even MSX
> they have a free screen cursor, you can just return the cursor there
> and fix it. But no my Coco. (hmmmm this gives me an idea!)
>
> But then I realized: why nobody else did it before ? Maybe nobody
> plays DECB games anymore ? Does everybody else use nitrOS-9 only ?
>
> I just love DECB and all its games. I also love the 32 column screen.
> I don't like using the 80 column display doesn't look like a coco for
> me :P
>
> Felipe.
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 9:51 AM, Brian Blake <random.rodder at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 12/4/2012 4:43 PM, Robert Gault wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Luis Antoniosi has demonstrated one approach which can handle Drivewire
>>> plus one type of HDBDOS; one ROM loaded to RAM, the second the current ROM.
>>> Extend it to a 16K ROM with the main package in the first half and hardware
>>> specific routines in the second half, and there just might be room to
>>> support all flavors of drives.
>>>
>>> Aside from the difficulties and work needed to attempt this, the
>>> requirement of a 16K ROM may make the concept Coco3 only. That would not be
>>> desirable.
>>
>>
>> I'd fully agree that you'd want to support all CoCo models - however, WHY
>> would the move to a 16k ROM be CoCo3 only? Roger claimed CoCoNet would work
>> an any CoCo and I believe it's on a 16k ROM. I've only used it on a CoCo 3
>> so I don't know.
>>
>> Not trying to be difficult, just want to understand...
>>
>>>
>>> As things stand right now, the point is moot for NitrOS-9 as you can have
>>> driver packages for any type hard drive and Drivewire co-existing in
>>> OS9Boot. I have this currently going for my SCSI drives and Drivewire.
>>
>>
>> Not everybody works in or wants to work in NitrOS-9. And really, there's
>> quite a few people who have no clue how to set this stuff up under NitrOS-9
>> - myself included.
>>
>>
>>> So this Super HDBDOS really is needed only for Disk Basic. Far as that
>>> goes, it is only needed to transfer files back and forth as Luis' Wired does
>>> right now.
>>>
>>> Robert
>>
>>
>> Maybe I'm the only person who sees the utility in having your DOS be able to
>> see and access all the storage devices on the CoCo system, I don't know. For
>> those who like to play their RS-DOS based games, I'd think being able to
>> copy files from your PC to help set up your SuperIDE in the easiest way
>> possible would be a benefit. I know NitrOS-9 is powerful and can do lots of
>> things RS-DOS cannot.
>>
>> However, with three kids and a grand-daughter, working full time, and a
>> house and cars to maintain, I personally do not have the time to learn how
>> to set up a NitrOS-9 boot disk, decide what modules to add to it, learn all
>> the methods of scripting and customization, etc... Yes, I'd LOVE to learn
>> these things, as well as learn to write BASIC programs better and learn
>> Assembly language as well. Right now, Disk Basic suits my needs.
>>
>> Now, I'm not saying one person's needs outweighs the needs of the many - if
>> I'm indeed the only person to see a need or the usefulness of these changes,
>> then I probably should shut up. But, I'd imagine for people coming back to
>> the CoCo, or those who have a new-found interest for whatever reason, the
>> first thing they are likely to see is a Disk Basic based OS like HDB-DOS or
>> CoCoNet if they dive in and get a SuperIDE for a storage solution or the
>> DrivePak if the new 'owner' follows through with his promises. These changes
>> would probably be greatly beneficial to these people - especially if Disk
>> Basic is what they've used in the past.
>>
>>
>> Brian
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Coco mailing list
>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
>
>
> --
> Panasonic FSA1-WSX
> Commodore 64
> Commodore 64C
> Commodore 128
> Apple //c
> TRS-Color Computer 2
> TRS-Color Computer 3
> TI-99/4A
> ..and more coming!
>
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco



-- 
Panasonic FSA1-WSX
Commodore 64
Commodore 64C
Commodore 128
Apple //c
TRS-Color Computer 2
TRS-Color Computer 3
TI-99/4A
..and more coming!



More information about the Coco mailing list