+bob1200xl Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 What hardware, exactly, does the GUI need? For those who might build it into their 1200XL... Is there code we can try? Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Incognito boards should also support it then? Sure - the RAM expansion is suitable for the GUI. Dunno if I'll get any ROM space on there (so we can have the GUI installed internally on the machine); I'd hoped for 64KB of Ultimate 1MB's flash ROM, but Candle found another use for it. i did? really? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmetal88 Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Just wondering... Would there be the possibility of loading this from disk (or SIO2PC) on 384k machines, or is the cartridge version the only version you'll be releasing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 What hardware, exactly, does the GUI need? For those who might build it into their 1200XL... Is there code we can try? It will need a cartridge and at least 128MB of RAM. There's no cart code yet... that's how much work I still have to do. There'll be an ATR demo as soon as I can get my head out of other projects. Can you comment on what that use is and can we un-use it for the gui? lol Better let Candle answer that: apparently my recollection of our conversation is some kind of ether-fuelled fantasy. I'd hoped for 64KB of Ultimate 1MB's flash ROM, but Candle found another use for it. i did? really? Yahoo chat logs verify my recollection of when I asked about the 64KB of ROM space you'd said you could spare a month or so earlier. You said that in the intervening time you'd decided to use it for the game slots requested by certain customers, and then suggested I share space with the SDX banks instead. That's my comprehension of the situation. Feel free to tell me I completely misunderstood your statements Sebastian (wouldn't be the first time, after all). Just wondering... Would there be the possibility of loading this from disk (or SIO2PC) on 384k machines, or is the cartridge version the only version you'll be releasing? I'd love to make a disk version, if only because it would be easier. Trouble with a disk version, though, is that the code would have to go under the OS ROM and into extended banks, leaving little room for applications on a 130XE. Sure we can use overlays, etc, and this would be plenty fast on a PBI HDD, but painful on serial storage. A cartridge is very well placed to have complete unbuffered access to all the banked areas on the machine. Fact is the heap organisation and memory banking was under review when I peeled off to finish these PBI drivers, so I'm under no illusions that there's a LOT of work to do in this department now the visuals are basically sorted out. So I won't absolutely rule out anything. It's a pivotal stage in the design of the GUI, with a lot of important decisions pending (the recent decision to allow cooperative multi-tasking informing a few of them). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Jon, you still have 64k 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 Jon, you still have 64k Great - thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 OK - guess I asked the wrong question... what will the demo require? Will the cart be bank switched or will it just run as a normal cart? Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 OK - guess I asked the wrong question... what will the demo require? Will the cart be bank switched or will it just run as a normal cart? Bob The demo runs inside of 64KB, but uses the shadow RAM (the finished product needn't). The cart needs to be bank-switched, probably at least 64KB (8x8). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmetal88 Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 Just wondering... Would there be the possibility of loading this from disk (or SIO2PC) on 384k machines, or is the cartridge version the only version you'll be releasing? I'd love to make a disk version, if only because it would be easier. Trouble with a disk version, though, is that the code would have to go under the OS ROM and into extended banks, leaving little room for applications on a 130XE. Sure we can use overlays, etc, and this would be plenty fast on a PBI HDD, but painful on serial storage. A cartridge is very well placed to have complete unbuffered access to all the banked areas on the machine. Fact is the heap organisation and memory banking was under review when I peeled off to finish these PBI drivers, so I'm under no illusions that there's a LOT of work to do in this department now the visuals are basically sorted out. So I won't absolutely rule out anything. It's a pivotal stage in the design of the GUI, with a lot of important decisions pending (the recent decision to allow cooperative multi-tasking informing a few of them). Why'd I say 384k? I meant 320k. But yeah, I'm just saying, for those of us that have already upgraded to more than 128k, an alternate version that could load from disk would be much easier than tracking down a cart to use! I'm not saying you should leave anyone out by concentrating on a disk version over a cart version, but if you can get the one on the way to the other without too much trouble, it'd be cool to see a release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey Z Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 What hardware, exactly, does the GUI need? For those who might build it into their 1200XL... Is there code we can try? It will need a cartridge and at least 128MB of RAM. There's no cart code yet... that's how much work I still have to do. There'll be an ATR demo as soon as I can get my head out of other projects. 128MB? I thought this was supposed to be (relatively) small and compact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted June 29, 2012 Author Share Posted June 29, 2012 ...for those of us that have already upgraded to more than 128k, an alternate version that could load from disk would be much easier than tracking down a cart to use! I'm not saying you should leave anyone out by concentrating on a disk version over a cart version, but if you can get the one on the way to the other without too much trouble, it'd be cool to see a release. Certainly it would, but if a cart turns out to be the only realistic option, purchasing one is probably a small inconvenience in the bigger scheme of things. It may boil down to what's more difficult: me making the system run from disk for the few users who don't want to use a cart, or the user obtaining suitable media to run the free software. Not being obstinate here: a disk version would be nice if it proves possible, but seriously: a flash cart isn't so hard to track down these days (I recently bought a Sic! cart for less than 20 GBP), and most flash carts are emulated in the (free to download) emulators. 128MB? I thought this was supposed to be (relatively) small and compact. Yeah - good point. I need to tighten up that code a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twh/f2 Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Mhmm.. nothing new in my favourite topic! Summer break? I mean you deserve it, but where are my morning news and weekly in-progress videos? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Here's some progress from my side. I've updated the font converter to have a text display screen and updated the font display screen with better formatting. Also, Jon and I are possibly going to change the current font format over to one that supports more flexible spacing parameters, which will increase the quality (of the spacing metrics) and simplify the conversion process for certain portions. There are some performance tests that Jon needs to perform first before we can make our decision. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 (edited) Here's some progress from my side. Thanks for those shots - looking great. It's really nice to see these fonts in some real body-text. Hopefully the scope of these wonderful 256-character codepoint-oriented fonts is also apparent from the top screen grab. Language support will be very comprehensive. Mhmm.. nothing new in my favourite topic! Summer break? I mean you deserve it, but where are my morning news and weekly in-progress videos? Thankfully MrFish has been beavering away doing work on fonts, etc, while I've been tied up with SIDE / Ultimate / Incognito drivers. Honestly, I need to clear the decks a bit at the moment since I find it hard to jump from one project to another. Most of the hard slog with the HDD drivers is done, however, and I actually wrote some GUI code the other night - the first in almost two weeks. I really don't want the GUI to lose momentum, but "natural breaks" are inevitable. I think we're still set to make great progress during the second half of the year. Of course I must redouble my efforts to find a "regular" job now, since the bills are piling up... feels unpleasantly like a reality check. Hopefully I'll find some low-stress office work to tide me over until my dream career takes off. Edited July 4, 2012 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Of course I must redouble my efforts to find a "regular" job now, since the bills are piling up... feels unpleasantly like a reality check. Hopefully I'll find some low-stress office work to tide me over until my dream career takes off. If you find "low-stress" work, please let me know what it is, because I am getting to the point where I am done with my kind of work!!! I might take a job mowing grass or walking dogs or some such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 5, 2012 Author Share Posted July 5, 2012 If you find "low-stress" work, please let me know what it is, because I am getting to the point where I am done with my kind of work!!! I might take a job mowing grass or walking dogs or some such. Sounds great, Stephen! Honestly, life's too short. I've had several stressful full-time jobs in the past and I didn't get a damned thing done in my spare time: I just spent the week in a zombie-state, willing the weekend to arrive, and then being miserable on Sunday night. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Sure can relate to all this. I'm a Respiratory Therapist at a local hospital. Have had so many "code", "stat", "now" and emergency situations that I wear Peril Sensitive Sunglasses as standard equipment when I'm on duty... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl_R Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 If someone's health or life depends on what you do, then it's certainly easier to motivate yourself for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Wasn't talking about motivation, rather the stress... Its like anything, you either learn to deal with it or you get out. I'm a +30 year veteran so I guess I learned to deal with it. Sadly, I'm the only one left of 8 techs who started out originally in a small class at a local facility. (this was before state licensure went through). But hey, we're offtopic here - so lets get back to encouraging flashjazzcat and his most excellent GUI. I've got a lonely 800XL that's dying to show up his NeoDesk/Geneva, MagiC/ Jinnee equipped ST cousins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macgoo Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Will we be able to use this as a front end inside an emulator? Say we emulated a 320kb A8 and inserted this as a virtual cartridge and run the emulator with it in order to launch other applications? Would be so nice to actually have a virtual machine to use like that, I have a serious setup with hard drive folder for both STEem and WinUAE and it's really nice to have Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 Will we be able to use this as a front end inside an emulator? Say we emulated a 320kb A8 and inserted this as a virtual cartridge and run the emulator with it in order to launch other applications? Do you mean to launch stuff from the host (i.e. "H:")? I see no reason why not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 (edited) Of course I must redouble my efforts to find a "regular" job now, since the bills are piling up... feels unpleasantly like a reality check. Hopefully I'll find some low-stress office work to tide me over until my dream career takes off. If you find "low-stress" work, please let me know what it is, because I am getting to the point where I am done with my kind of work!!! I might take a job mowing grass or walking dogs or some such. Ha! I quit my high-stress job 6 years ago and started my own lawn maintenance (and painting) company. Even though at times I have been much poorer than I used to be, I actually like to get out of bed in the morning and have never looked back! Edited July 8, 2012 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bf2k+ Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Of course I must redouble my efforts to find a "regular" job now, since the bills are piling up... feels unpleasantly like a reality check. Hopefully I'll find some low-stress office work to tide me over until my dream career takes off. Dream Career = Coder / Jazz Guitarist?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 Dream Career = Coder / Jazz Guitarist?? Basically... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariNerd Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Dream Career = Coder / Jazz Guitarist?? Basically... I know you probably prefer the rawer sounds, but patch your guitar through a Moog synth and you sort of get that, on a very basic, analogue level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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