[Coco] l2update and bbs dsk images in nitros9 source tree

Mon Feb 10 12:15:45 EST 2014

You did the most on Grfdrv and Windint for documentation and optos. till this day I still havn’it delved into it.

On Feb 10, 2014, at 11:04 AM, L. Curtis Boyle <curtisboyle at sasktel.net> wrote:

> Yes, and the Windint code had a lot of extra stuff. I found the Filled Circle/Ellipse commands added to the display command table. But there was a lot of stuff in there that I don't think we completely figured out (not surprising, since it was about 1.5K larger than the original).
> 
> L. Curtis Boyle
> curtisboyle at sasktel.net
> 
> 
> 
> On Feb 10, 2014, at 10:54 AM, Bill Nobel <b_nobel at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I do remember this Curt as when we originally disassembled the SCF code from the TC-9 I discovered the Fillbuff code that we eventualy implemented to it’s full extent.
>> 
>> On Feb 10, 2014, at 9:46 AM, L. Curtis Boyle <curtisboyle at sasktel.net> wrote:
>> 
>>> I have no idea... I haven't seen him in over a decade.
>>> 
>>> L. Curtis Boyle
>>> curtisboyle at sasktel.net
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Feb 10, 2014, at 9:39 AM, Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> @ Curtis,
>>>> You wouldn't by any chance know if Kevin is still living in North Carolina do you? I know in the Coco days, he was in Raleigh, NC.  If he's still in NC and does have the sources, I might could get up with him personally. I'm ocassionally near Raleigh quite often. Even though I'm in Wilmington NC, my hometown is Rocky Mount NC which is about 20-30 minutes from Raleigh. I'm in that area uite often visiting relatives.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Bill Pierce
>>>> "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
>>>> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>>>> Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
>>>> http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
>>>> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
>>>> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>>>> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: L. Curtis Boyle <curtisboyle at sasktel.net>
>>>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>>> Sent: Mon, Feb 10, 2014 9:40 am
>>>> Subject: Re: [Coco] l2update and bbs dsk images in nitros9 source tree
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> The original commercial version of NitrOS-9 did contain a manual that described 
>>>> anything new we had added (new Set/GetStat calls, etc.). When we decided to make 
>>>> it free, I know both Alan and I would have some sort of release notes with each 
>>>> version (or new module) that stated what extra things were added (as well as bug 
>>>> fixes, etc.). We also sometimes put the notes up as webpages (you can see an 
>>>> example from my original web page through the Internet Archive wayback machine: 
>>>> http://web.archive.org/web/20020413224533/http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/~af960/NitrOS9.html 
>>>> )
>>>> 
>>>> Bill and I received the "accidental" level 2 upgrade modules after we were far 
>>>> into the NitrOS9 project... and with no documentation at all. We did start to 
>>>> disassemble the Windint/Grfdrv modules (we noticed the 3d look was in it), but 
>>>> we later abandoned it in favor of keeping NitrOS9 going in the direction it 
>>>> already was going, which was to speed things up as much as possible (Level 2 
>>>> version 3, while adding a lot of new features, is/was way slower than NitrOS9 
>>>> was even at that earlier stage). 
>>>> 
>>>> I did end up adding a couple of things that we had figured out (filled circle 
>>>> and filled ellipse DISPLAY commands being 2 that I remember), and I think Alan 
>>>> may have done a few too, but we never did finish disassembling what parts we had 
>>>> to figure out what else had been added, and we never did have all of it (until 
>>>> Brother Jeremy got it later). I do know that in order to fit all the new stuff, 
>>>> plus the stuff we added/optomized, that GRFDRV would likely have had to expand 
>>>> to 16K to fit it all in. Of course, the level II upgrade stuff that was released 
>>>> independently by Kevin Darling (RBF undelete, Christmas GRFDRV patch, SCF 
>>>> in-line editing, etc.) prior to NitrOS9's development are all included, so any 
>>>> documentation from those is still applicable. As a side note - we also wanted to 
>>>> implement Chris Dekker's additional stuff that he had in his own package; this 
>>>> included double-wide/double-high fonts and other goodies that are not in NitrOS9 
>>>> or the Level II upgrade. Again, we were well along with NitrOS9 by the time we 
>>>> saw it, and (particularly in GRFDRV) running out of room.
>>>> 
>>>> I know Alan sped up pipes drastically, and he was working on getting named pipes 
>>>> (from what I understand, Chris Burke did the Level II upgrade version), but I 
>>>> can't remember if he finished them or not.
>>>> 
>>>> I agree that somebody who is still active in NitrOS9 should (at the very least) 
>>>> make a document of everything that has been added from stock Level II and, 
>>>> ultimately (although it is a huge project), update the existing Level II 
>>>> documentation with all the new stuff.
>>>> 
>>>> I really hope Boisy, or Mark, etc. can convince Kevin to get them the source to 
>>>> the Level II upgrade... it would make trying to add those features much easier 
>>>> (vs. finishing disassembling/documenting everything... and we are still not sure 
>>>> we have everything. I distinctly remember Kevin mentioning at one point at one 
>>>> of the Fests that even Brother Jeremy's version wasn't the absolute latest).
>>>> 
>>>> L. Curtis Boyle
>>>> curtisboyle at sasktel.net
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Feb 9, 2014, at 9:33 PM, Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> @ Curtis (and anyone else who has knowledge of this),
>>>>> After you stated that some of the "Upgrade" features HAD been included into 
>>>> the Nitros9 repo, I started taking a look around.
>>>>> In looking through the latest "defs" files, I'm finding quite a few of the 
>>>> system calls and gets/setstat parms that are mentioned in the docs and notes in 
>>>> the upgrade. A lot of these "new" features are the kind of things that poeple 
>>>> often "wish" OS9 had... And they were already there!
>>>>> The thing that bothers me, I've stated it before and I'll state it again and 
>>>> again....
>>>>> Where's the documentation?
>>>>> There's things in the additions that would make handling windows, mouse, 
>>>> get/put buffers, graphics, and much more... much easier. Why was all this stuff 
>>>> added then no documentation created on how to use it or even notes that it was 
>>>> there? The only indication of the existence of these calls is the sparse 
>>>> comments beside the calls in the defs files.
>>>>> Pretty soon, no one will be around that knows what these feature are and how 
>>>> they work.
>>>>> For instance, were the named pipes ever implemented?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Just food for thought :-)
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Bill Pierce
>>>>> "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
>>>>> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>>>>> Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
>>>>> http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
>>>>> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
>>>>> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>>>>> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: L. Curtis Boyle <curtisboyle at sasktel.net>
>>>>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>>>> Sent: Sun, Feb 9, 2014 8:34 pm
>>>>> Subject: Re: [Coco] l2update and bbs dsk images in nitros9 source tree
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>> From what I recall, it is in there (and is part of WindInt, for the most 
>>>> part). 
>>>>> I think the bouncing ball demo let you resize the window on the fly. Boisy, I 
>>>>> know Kevin Darling had, at one time, mentioned that he was probably the only 
>>>> one 
>>>>> out of the Level 2 upgrade project that had all of the source; have you tried 
>>>>> seeing if he would be willing to release it now (I believe the repository has 
>>>>> just disassemblies like the ones Bill and I worked on, when we "accidentally" 
>>>>> got some of the level II upgrade from Frank Hogg when we were working on the 
>>>> 2nd 
>>>>> version of the TC-9 drivers).
>>>>> 
>>>>> L. Curtis Boyle
>>>>> curtisboyle at sasktel.net
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Feb 9, 2014, at 7:14 PM, Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Boisy,
>>>>>> I've booted the "Br Jeremy" boot disk and played around with it.
>>>>>> I really like the look of everything. From the notes I read, there were a lot 
>>>> 
>>>>> of things being worked on.
>>>>>> Do you know if the :resizable/movable" window driver is on those disks 
>>>>> anywhere? Or was that still in planning and not make it to the disks?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Bill Pierce
>>>>>> "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
>>>>>> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>>>>>> Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
>>>>>> http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
>>>>>> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
>>>>>> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>>>>>> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>> From: Boisy Pitre <boisy at tee-boy.com>
>>>>>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>>>>> Sent: Sun, Feb 9, 2014 7:41 pm
>>>>>> Subject: Re: [Coco] l2update and bbs dsk images in nitros9 source tree
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> It has always been my intention to fold some of the features of the L2 
>>>> Upgrade 
>>>>> 
>>>>>> into NitrOS-9. That’s mostly why those disk images exist in the repo.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Feb 9, 2014, at 5:29 PM, Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Tormod,
>>>>>>> The "Upgrade disks" are most likely there for safekeeping. They are 
>>>>> "possibly" 
>>>>>> the only disks ever preserved of the work being done in the 90s by the 
>>>>> "Upgrade 
>>>>>> Team" before Tandy dropped the Coco and Microware then desolved the team. 
>>>>> There 
>>>>>> are a few features on those disks yet to be implemented in Nitros9 and some 
>>>>> that 
>>>>>> were. There are no sources, only the demo disks and many notes in text files 
>>>>> by 
>>>>>> members of the team, mostly Kevin Darling.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Yes, those disks exist on almost every archive on the net, but as in the 
>>>>> past, 
>>>>>> archives come and go. 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Bill Pierce
>>>>>>> "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
>>>>>>> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>>>>>>> Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
>>>>>>> http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
>>>>>>> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
>>>>>>> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>>>>>>> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>>> From: Tormod Volden <lists.tormod at gmail.com>
>>>>>>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>>>>>> Sent: Sun, Feb 9, 2014 6:10 pm
>>>>>>> Subject: [Coco] l2update and bbs dsk images in nitros9 source tree
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> I am cleaning out my TODO list for NitrOS-9 3.3.0 and there are a few
>>>>>>> items left. One of them is the presence of disk images under
>>>>>>> 3rdparty/packages/l2upgrade/ . I believe these are upgrade disks for
>>>>>>> OS-9. So why are they in the NitrOS-9 source repo? I suppose they are
>>>>>>> safely archived somewhere else for anyone needing them.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Also, under 3rdparty/packages/os9l2bbs/ there is an old os9l2bbs.dsk
>>>>>>> image. The build creates its own under
>>>>>>> 3rdparty/packages/os9l2bbs/6809l2/ Is the prebuilt image something
>>>>>>> checked in by mistake, or does it have something that the created
>>>>>>> image does not have?
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> I would be happy to get these blobs out of the source tree.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Tormod
>>>>>>> 
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