[Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

[CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts]

Bill, yes, it's a little slow on updating the list, but even slower had I used standard system calls (I tried). The text is non-standard and draws it's own chars with an ML sub. The base interface is based on Mike Knudsen's Ultimuse3's screen routines. It's about as fast as it gets without going to a HW text window. I just didn't want to write a "text mouse cursor" and Mike's interface already had the menu systems, window systems and text writer in place as well as a good mouse interface. At this stage, not much of his original code is left as I spent the last 6 months stripping it of "music" stuff. The only thing left is the menu styles and the base graphics routines. I even rewrote the virtual memory so I have 3 independent dynamic buffers. Currently, I'm only using two of them for the two panels, but when I add the "Boot File Creator" module, I may go to 4 panels and 4 buffers.

The subroutines are "fragged out" meaning they are pulled in as 8k blocks specially coded to become a part of the main. The subs can call any function in the main and the globals are available to everything. These are pulled in and out as needed.

The graphics handler is a seperate routine in it's own 64k with all cmds on the pipe from the main and subs. Anything I "fork" also inherits the main's pipe to the graphics handler, so I can still print and draw to the screen. I have to fork some subs as they won't fit the 8k fragged sub's constraints.
So far there's about 15 subs in planning and development (see the website). The whole MShell framework can be manipulated into any form Ineed for any type of display... Graphics editor, database, word processor, etc.

Also, there's already an update ready which speeds up the RSDOS disk reads a little by preloading the rsdos sub at startup. If you're running DW4, just make sure your DW4 server host is connected to the net and use the "Update MShell" under "Utils" and watch the Coco update itself from the internet.
If you're not using DW4, I should have the updated disk up by tomorrow as I want to fix a couple of things I've found first.

GShell ain't got nuthin on this baby. This thing has been in planning for 3 years now. When I start the support modules, you'll see this simple file manager is just the core file system so I can read disks and manipulate files. The real beauty of it will shine when I get the "Boot File Creator", "FTP Browser", & "Programming Environment" going, 

Bill, what kind of system are you running MShell on?

I do all development in Vcc (overclocked) for compiling speed, then copy it to my real Coco 3 6809 for testing. My Coco 3 has no real drives, complete DW4 file system, with 1-meg of mem.

If you really want to see MShell fly, just use Vcc 1.4.3b with DriveWire4 and overclock Vcc to about 71 mhz... It's like running a PC :-)
But that stuff can spoil ya.. you go back to the Coco and wonder why it's so slow :-(
 

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: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Mon, May 12, 2014 11:52 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell


Well I d’loaded and installed and I actually like it.  Interface is good , 
Arrows or mouse clicks on down arrow icon is a little slow moving on large 
directories.  Once you get the launch of apps could be a good alternative to 
gshell.

Bill Nobel