baktra

Early adopters, I recommend you get the turgen.jar from the most recent commits. The plugin management is now fully functional. You can reorder and disable/enable plugins to your liking. You can move more plugins at once. Do not forget that the changes will take effect only after you restart TURGEN. This limitation reduces the complexity of the implementation. The "Ignore all turbo plugins" option is gone, as it is obsolete Overriding the plugins.list file doesn't work anymore, as it is obsolete If you change the plugin settings, In the .turgen_9.0.0 configuration directory, you will find a new plugins.conf file. Explore it. The GENCAS CLI is not affected by the plugin management. All plugins are always available. What happens when you disable all plugins and restart TURGEN? Will TURGEN go to oblivion? In this situation, TURGEN will include a hidden “Dummy” plugin that does nothing, but allows TURGEN to function.

Behold the new "Manage Plugins" dialog.

The baud rate is beyond hardware capabilities (1400 bps) of any non-modified Atari data recorder. So what is going on here?

Is it this Injektor? If so, it will be a challenge. There is no emulator supporting it and no support in the .cas format. Still doable, though. I believe there is also a decoder that can decode wav files in this format.

Time to think about the next version. The minimum JDK required will be JDK 9 (done) Will fix bugs reported for TURGEN 9.1.5. (none reported so far) The 'turbo' mode of the GENCAS CLI will be renamed to 'full' mode; it is because in this mode, you can create both standard and turbo tapes anyway (done) GENCAS CLI will get the -a option finally implemented. This allows appending to an existing tape image. No FUJI chunks are appended (done) Plugin Manager - This will provide a simple GUI for reordering and enabling/disabling the plugins. You can do these things now using the plugins.list file, but that's not too convenient. (ideation in progress) Perhaps some new systems from Poland, Chile or elsewhere. Turbo 2600, Turbo Rapider, STAC, SIECOD? Who knows? (not started) Did you know that with 9.1.5, you can create, for example, SITRE tapes from the command line as follows? gencas.exe -mode:turbo "-conv:Standard Plus SITRE" test16k.xex With latest commits of 9.2.0-dev, the syntax is slightly different: gencas.exe -mode:full "-conv:Standard Plus SITRE" test16k.xex

Version 9.1.5 is out Given the vast number of changes, it might not be as stable as the previous versions. Testing of the NHP and SITRE tapes is, of course, encouraged and welcome. This version is still JDK 8, the next one will not be.

Thank you. I assume your XC12 was modified to support the Turbo 2000 system. What is the exact set of steps that you use? I am asking that, because the "BOOT ERROR" message typically appears when the computer fails to boot a standard cassette boot file. The standard set of steps is the following: 1. Computer off 2. Insert cartridge with T2000/Universal turbo loader 3. Computer on 4. Activate the loader on the cartridge (if not activated automatically) by pressing the button on the cartridge and hitting RESET 5. Press a key if needed by the loader 6. Press PLAY on the data recorder 7. Load the program. Alternatively: 1. Computer off 2. Insert tape with a cassette version of the T2000/Universal Turbo loader 3. Press and hold START+OPTION 4. Computer on 5. Beep 6. Release START+OPTION 7. Press a key 8. Boot T2000 loader from tape. Insert tape with a program stored using the T2000 system. 9. Press a key if needed by the loader 10. Press PLAY on the data recorder 11. Load the program.

Can you describe the symptoms of the failure and equipment that was used for testing?

The memory usage of the SITRE loader is taken into account when you press the 'Check loader' button. The same is for NHP too. The neutral signal actually is generated automagically; you don't need a silence list. The plugin honors the silence list if it exists, but always ensures there is a minimum 2650 milliseconds of the neutral signal after each block with INIT segment. If there are multiple INIT vectors in one block, the duration of the neutral signal is cumulated by default.

The silence list holds the durations of the neutral signal after blocks that hold INIT segments. If you specify "2,0,1.5" then there will be: 2 seconds of neutral signal after the block that holds the 1st INIT segment 0 seconds of neutral signal after the block that holds the 2nd INIT segment 1.5 seconds of neutral signal after the block that holds the 3rd INIT segment. No neutral signal after blocks that hold 4th and consequent INIT segments. You can click the "S" button to automatically populate the silence list with the default value. The "Check loader" button will analyze the segments of the input binary file and tell you if the binary file will destroy the selected binary loader. This is not 100 % reliable, especially for files that have some INIT segments. The "Auto set" button will populate the options in the panel automatically. In case of SITRE, it is the program name only. Note that the plugin takes the values in the silence list only as a clue. For example, for all standard SIO tape records, the minimum duration of the neutral signal is 2.4 seconds, even though you specify 1.0. On the other hand, the PWM-based turbo system honor the values precisely.

The SITRE support is taking shape (with the most recent commits) The default speed for SITRE is now 760 bps You can enable SITRE in the Wizard and use it through the Wizard The 'Check loader' button works for SITRE The Standard Plus panel remembers the last selected conversion type across sessions (other plugins will get this capability too, where reasonable) The Chilean flag is there There can be some rough edges, but most of the work is done.

I don't have any explanation

A practical example, how I did it for one of my older production. https://github.com/baktragh/train3ose/blob/master/train_routines.asm Refer to the "pre-initialization" code. How I included it in the .cfg file: https://github.com/baktragh/train3ose/blob/master/linker.cfg

If there will be no drastic change in the voting, the next release will be still JDK 8 (finalizing infrastructure for the Standard Plus plugin + SITRE). After that, TURGEN will go modular and at least JDK 9. Looking forward to new language features and APIs.

There were 5 votes so far in the poll above, all favoring moving on to the newer JDKs. Those who oppose that, place your votes. The public opinion is against you.

I am walking the streets of Madrid now, it would have been a good opportunity to practice my Spanish, if I knew it. Yet Chilean Spanish is not exactly the same as Spanish Spanish anyway...

The refactoring is done, bugs and missing support for NHP 3.6 Rainbow in the Wizard is also there. SITRE is almost complete. When I am done with SITRE I will take a deep breath and see what else I can 'export to Chile'. I have also two todo 'export articles' for Poland: Turbo 2600 and Turbo Rapider. As for the i18n. It is 17 years behind the development. The only viable way of doing that seems to be an iterative approach. With each version, make one or two dialogs translatable and provide the English translation. Other translations will be up to the volunteers: "Here is your .properties file and make yourself useful". I did not make my mind about i18n yet. Still trying to weight its business value.

How was your personal experience with JavaFX? Is it much better than Swing or SWT?

The work on the SITRE system is going well. TURGEN just performed its first conversion, including setting the number of the blocks and program title in the obfuscated stage 1 loader.

I have a green light from @vitoco to implement support for SITRE, provided that I will not modify the loader. So, the immediate plans are the following: Finish refactoring of the way the transfer speed is specified in the GUI and CLI. Up to the present time, you were specifying “pulses” (an id string) to identify the transfer speed. After the refactoring, you will be specifying a "transfer speed", which is an integer. It will be up to the plugins to convert the transfer speed to PWM pulses or do anything else with the value. The point of this refactoring is that the implementation of what is the "transfer speed" is a private matter of the plugin. Of course, most of the plugins will be using the repository of the pulses as before. This also involves a documentation update and many updates to the screenshots. There will be also an incompatible change in the GENCAS syntax. Fix bugs in the NHP 3.6 (Rainbow) support. So far, there is only one known, the transfer speed is displayed as 0 in the Project. It is a cosmetic issue. Allow to use the NHP 3.6 (Rainbow) system from the Wizard for Files. Implement support for the SITRE system. Further thoughts Since the Standard Plus will support up to 3-4 systems (NHP, STAC, SITRE), I will have them under one umbrella of the Standard Plus plugin. Project items and sub-items seems to be working. If there will be a need to have multiple flags for one plugin, I will implement them. I will consider localization. It would be a good opportunity for me to learn about Java Resource Bundles, which are used for i18n. However, making the strings translatable is brutal work. Only slightly less brutal than the translations. To cover the most of the user base, it would have to be Czech, Polish, English and Spanish.

Another possibility is to allow multiple flags for a plugin.

Haha. The Standard Plus might eventually include loading systems from other countries, hence the 'international flag' for now. However, the conversion types combo box can have country-specific flags. So the Chilean flag will make it to TURGEN. I am also thinking of changing the default order of the plugins, because when I think about it, the current order is not logical but 'patriotic' and still favors Czechoslovakia over others. There The Standard and Tape image plugins should go first. Or perhaps I can make a small UI that allows customizing the order and presence of the plugins. Something to think about.

What will be next? The Standard Plus plugin needs a configuration mechanism that allows its conversion types to be either included or excluded in the Wizard for files. The Omicron Turbo plugin has something similar. Steal more loaders for the Standard Plus plugin, perhaps SITRE. But what if @vitoco sues me for copyright infringement? Read this thread again and find all forgotten enhancement proposals and choose those I am willing to work on. Keep an eye on the JDK version poll above and make the right decision

Release 9.1.4 is out. Blog post: https://sourceforge.net/p/turgen/blog/2023/04/turgen-914---santiago-de-chile/ Downloads: https://sourceforge.net/projects/turgen/files/turgen/turgen_9.1.4/ Please be advised that the NHP 3.6 Rainbow system doesn't appear in the Wizard for files. This function will be added later.

More updates for the NHP 3.6 in the latest commit Project items of the Standard Plus plugin can be saved and loaded Silence list is working Baud rate selection works The program title is centered Almost there. Some testing, polishing of the code, and documentation updates are to go.