[Coco] MAME problems .186

[Bill Pierce]

Steve, to understand what people do with multiple drives and huge hard drives, all you really have to do is look at your modern day computer. The computer (or phone, tablet, laptop etc) that you use everyday evolved from this kind of usage.

As you stated, your main use of the Coco is entertainment, and mostly in RSDOS. One game, one disk. Maybe (if your lucky), the game may span 2 disks. If you ever do stray into OS9 territory and get into what can be done in that environment, you'll begin to see where computers and operating systems started evolving into what you use now.

In OS9, the disk/drive architecture is much like the modern computer... Multiple drives containing multiple directories (and subdirectories), each containing hundreds (if not thousands) of programs/files.

I use my Coco (be it the real Coco, Coco3FPGA, or emulator) to develop software for the Coco as well as archiving software. I have many VHDs containing nothing but source files, each in it's own nice, neat directory, readily accessible at any time. I have other VHDs containing just music, or graphics, and yes, even games (just to mention a few).

Take you current project of making videos and podcasts as an example... Imagine if you had to change a disk for every program you use to produce your videos... (in RSDOS, this would be the case). You would go nuts just swapping disks and keeping up with where everything is stored. Not to mention actually storing the videos...

The last thing I want interrupting my work flow when I'm on a roll and the programming ideas are coming like hot flashes, is to have to stop and remember what disk (out of literally thousands) that contains that one source file I need and where it is located. I don't have to, it's right there on my source drive where I put it and already online.

I also have drives that are shared between my real Coco, Coco3FPGA, VCC and XRoar (and occasionally Mame, but Mame keeps breaking the drives, so I don't bother). I can assemble a program on VCC (overclocked for assembling speed), turn slightly in my chair to my Coco keyboard, and run that very software without changing any disks or drives. Coco software development was never faster.

My current development system on VCC consists of:
VCC @8 meg, 6309 CPU and running 89mhz 3 floppy drives (2x 720k, 1x 158k for compatibility), one VCC native VHD (128meg), and DW4 with 8x 128meg Drives!!
VCC Native HD - NitrOS9 system & cmds (the cmds dir alone has over 600 cmds)
DW4 /x0 - OS9 modules for making boots for every form of Coco (even Dragon) and all storage media types, all catagorized by machine, CPU, and type
DW4 /x1 - my hot swappable drive for what ever I'm currently working on or checking some software someone has questions about.
DW4 /x2 - MShell source archive/backup (5 years of incremental backups, already on the 3rd 128meg VHD).
DW4 /x3 - Music files (All Coco formats including Ultimuse3, Lyra, Orch90, Musica, Mod, MIDI, CMF0 etc, each in it's own directory and categorized by genre). Shared between systems.
DW4 /x4 - My main source archive with almost every OS9 ASM & C source I can find
DW4 /x5 - Graphics files.. GIF, MGE, MAX, VEF, BMP, PIC, etc, each format having it's own directory. Shared between systems.
DW4 /x6 - General work drive... could be anything
DW4 /x7 - General swap drive. Loaded in all instances of DW4 for sharing files between the Coco, Coco3FPGA, and VCC instantly.

My real Coco 3 system consists of 1meg memory, cooling fan, Eagle AT keyboard interface (PC keyboard), MPI, FD-502, Glenside IDE (2x 4gig IDE partitions), MIDI pak, Orch90 and DW4 (8x 128 meg VHDs), with CM-8 RGB monitor (still crisp display). No floppy drives connected, the FD-502 is only used for the HDBDOS rom for DW4.

As you can see... I'm not a typical "Turn on the Coco, insert disk, and play a game" type. I turn on my Coco/Coco3FPGA/VCC, auto-boot straight into NitrOS9 and go to work.
I use my Coco system(s) daily as a "real world" development system and not just for entertainment, though it entertains me very much :-)
I also help maintain the NitrOS9 repository, the CocoPedia WIKI, the Coco3FPGA WIKI, plus my own Coco source repository and websites, not to mention the internet update FTP for MShell, Ultimuse3, and Sound Chaser (done from the Coco or VCC), so I keep a lot of stuff online and handy for reference when I need it.

Never a dull moment in CocoLand :-)
And if there is, I just play Skyrim and kill stuff :-)

 

 

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

E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com