[Coco] bootlink progress

[Lothan]

From: Gene Heskett

> So now I have maybe 2 bugs, as it appears that dump doesn't like a 
> filename
> like bootlink-trace, it won't dump it, but doesn't return an error either!
> ded can look at it just fine, and the data is correct.
>
> Yes, its a bug in dump, I renamed the file from bootlink-trace to
> bootlink.trace, and dump works just fine.  Makes me wish I had a gallon 
> jug
> of an old insect killer called Cooks Real-Kill.

Probably parsing the command line to find the "-" options, and oops... hosed 
the file name. I never really used dump much after dEd came into existence, 
though.

> Tomorrows project will be to parse the command line and recover the vdisk
> number entered and convert it to a hex number in one byte.
>
> No one has said whether they think this utility might be useful to them.
> Perhaps I haven't explained it enough?

This is something I could have really used way back when I was using a real 
CoCo 3 with Bruce Isted's hard-disk system and boot ROM. Back in those days, 
if I screwed up OS9Boot on the hard disk, it was a pain in the backside to 
recover. After the first time, I got in the quick habit of renaming OS9Boot 
to OS9Back before generating a new OS9Boot, scribbling down DT.BT and 
DD.BTSiz, and having a boot floppy with dEd on it in a safe place. I can't 
remember if the boot ROM was in the hard-disk controller or the floppy 
controller, though. I do remember modifying the Multi-Pak Interface to 
logically OR all the interrupts together... pretty much a required mod for 
decent interrupt handling in OS-9. Seems I remember doing something to break 
out CART select from ROM select and using the switch on the front to select 
which ROM to boot from, although I don't remember if tying the interrupts 
together did that by itself or if it was a separate surgery.