[Coco] Program won't stay loaded under NitrOS9/OS9

Sat Jan 2 13:45:20 EST 2016

Camillus, using the SWI in os9 would be disasterous. That instruction is reserved for OS9 system calls and any SWI you insert manually would make an unwanted system call.
The better solution would be to use a user interrupt and/or sleep calls. The system definately should not be halted while waiting on sound to play..
A good example of this is Ultimuse3. When using the serial port as a MIDI output, Ultimuse3 has to block interrupts briefly for the data to be sent through the port without interrupts (comm programs do the same), then turns interrupts back on even though data is being sent at a pretty fast rate (think playing 128th note runs). The program then waits until the next needed clock tick (timed MIDI event) to occur before taking another action, so what was done is after sending data, interrupts are turned back on and the program sleeps for a small ammount of time (milliseconds) thus halting program execution, then checks the clock to see if it's time to wake up, if not, it loops and sleeps again until it's time. There's even a clock "compensation routine" in the serial port routine that, based on the number of bytes sent, adds milliseconds to the software clock tick count to make up for the time the interrupts were off. It's pretty ingenious.
This method allows any other processes running in OS9 to continue working until the the program needs to send more data.
You base the sleep time on the estimated length of time until the next note (a known value). So Kelly could disable interrupts, send his data, enable interrupts (the SS pak should not need interrupts blocked while actually playing), then when the time is up, wake up and do it again..
Another thing is giving the program higher priority so that it gets bigger and more frequent time slices on the interrupt polling table.
Ya gotta luv OS9 :-)

Bill Pierce
"Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull

My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
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-----Original Message-----
From: Camillus <camillus.b.58 at gmail.com>
To: Bill Pierce via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Sat, Jan 2, 2016 12:42 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] Program won't stay loaded under NitrOS9/OS9

Hi K.Just my $0.02 worth. Would it not easier to divide the clock  to 1/2 system clock on your sound chip card. I presume the clock is from the cartridge clock out? Then it would not be that difficult to half the clock rate with some discrete logic. That gives you the freedom of NOT have to mess with the HALT* interrupt. On the other hand if you really draw the card of using interrupts, then why not write a good interrupt handler, and using SWI for example? That code would store the system state on stack, transfer the data to the sound ship and then resume normal operation.  I'm just not feel comfortable with using the *HALT, which to me is just needed to do what it said, HALT. I also do not understand very well why you wait to have the chip done making the noise you want, ( wait states ), because I would presume that the processing in the chip is pretty fast. Well, just some more things to think about...lol Success with your future endeavors.cb    Sent from Mailbird [http://www.getmailbird.com/?utm_source=Mailbird&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sent-from-mailbird]On 1/2/2016 10:37:20 AM, K. Pruitt <pruittk at roadrunner.com> wrote:Hi Bill,Executing it from the command line works fine. It's just when it is loadedit won't say in memory after execution. There are no external calls fromthis program. I've created a little sandbox so to speak by shutting offinterrupts. I have tried not turning off interrupts but then the speech getsterminated prematurely when I do so. Ultimately to be at all useful it willhave to work with interrupts enabled - but that's something for down theroad a bit.I'm just screwing around with the speech and sound cartridge here and tryingto learn some more about hardware programming. I've pretty much crashed myCoCo every which way imaginable in the process. I am learning in the processthough.Here is what I am doing...The code loads the parameter in to a buffer, turns off the interrupts anddrops the Coco down to 0.89Mhz.. Passes the parameter to the Speech./Soundcartridge a byte at a time, wastes some time while the cartridge is speakingand then returns the CoCo to 1.79Mhz, turns the interrupts back on and exitsthe program.Thanks for the info on the link and load stuff. I will explore that area.Thank you Bill.----- Original Message -----From: "Bill Pierce via Coco"To:Cc: "Bill Pierce"Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2016 8:10 AMSubject: Re: [Coco] Program won't stay loaded under NitrOS9/OS9> Did you "load" the file before executing it? or just 'run' the file?> Even calling another module from within a program, it must be loaded first> to keep it residing in memory and unloaded when finished or it stays in> memory even after you exit your program.> There is also another 'undocumented" method of loading that allows you to> load a module without it's data space being assigned and it will only use> up the amount of memory equal to the size of the module (as opposed to the> 8k OS9 assigns on 'load'). It uses the "NMLoad" call which is used the> same as load. This actually a low level call and has been there for a long> time, but was never documented in any of the docs. A sister call of> "NMLoad" is "NMLink" which does the same, but links the file, again, using> less memory.> I also have "external" versions of these commands "NMLoad" & "NMLink"> which are used like "Load" & "Link" from the command line.>>>>>>> Bill Pierce> "Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way to> slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull>>>> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page> Global Moderator for TRS-80/Tandy Color Computer Forums> http://www.tandycoco.com/forum/>> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com>>>>>>> -----Original Message-----> From: K. Pruitt> To: Coco> Sent: Sat, Jan 2, 2016 10:59 am> Subject: [Coco] Program won't stay loaded under NitrOS9/OS9>> What conditions would cause a module to not stay loaded but remove itself> from memory after it is executed one time? I'm not generating an error of> any sort and the system does not destabilize.In my code I am halting the> interrupts and turning them back on when I am done. Would that cause such> a scenario to occur? -- Coco mailing> listCoco at maltedmedia.comhttps://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco>> --> Coco mailing list> Coco at maltedmedia.com> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco>--Coco mailing listCoco at maltedmedia.comhttps://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco-- Coco mailing listCoco at maltedmedia.comhttps://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco