[Coco] Who worked on the coco3dw1 implementation for MESS?

[Robert Gault]

Robert Hermanek wrote:
> I loaded mess for the first time using 158.  I noticed on the console screen
> that it indicated it was trying to reach out to a drivewire server via TCP, so I
> made my home-brew DW server available on the matching TCP port.  It connected
> when coco3 emulation started, but did not issue any commands.  And HDB-DOS
> commands like DRIVE# were not supported, my coco3.zip must load stock DECB 2.1.
> So in the end I had no idea how much "support" was there, or if it had ever been
> fully implemented.  I'd be curious how mess dw support should (or if it can) be
> used...
>
> Thanks
> -RobertH

MESS .158b can 'support' Becker Drivewire in any Coco emulation mode. Strangely, 
the worst support is in the coco3 HDB-DOS mode.

As an example with coco3 NTSC HD6309 (aka coco3dw1), you will need the 
hdbdw3bc3.rom in addition to the coco3.rom and disk11.rom. When you start 
emulation without any rom mounted in the cart slot, you will get the Disk Basic 
sign-on. With hdbdw3bc3.rom mounted in the cart slot, you will get the HDB-DOS 
1.4 Becker Coco3 sign-on message. At this point with Drivewire running, you can 
access any of the Drivewire drives.

If you want to mount a typical .vhd disk in Drivewire, the best way is to use a 
$5A000 offset in the ROM and no offset on the Drivewire drive. Then you can 
(with a Becker boot disk on the .vhd) boot into NitrOS-9 on Drivewire as well as 
using the Disk Basic drives on the .vhd.
Alternatively, you can have RGBDOS mounted in the MESS cart slot with a .vhd 
mounted in MESS. You can boot NitrOS-9 off the MESS .vhd and with Drivewire 
modules in your OS9Boot file, again access OS-9 disks in the Drivewire drives.
With the required modules either in OS9Boot or loaded later, you can use the dw 
commands.

What is buggy is use of a .vhd mounted on Drivewire running coco3dw1 emulation.

Robert