RXB - Rich Extended Basic

[Gazoo]

 

So—Tony is now: Two! Two! Two Guys in One!

 

...lee

 

Yea, those two guys are inseparable.

[RXB]

Well just tested a new RND for RXB and here are the results after 1 hour of running this program.

100 X=RND
110 Y=Y+1
120 GOTO 100

Results are after 1 hour:

Normal XB RND: 55232

New RXB RND: 207497

 

Now to test against TI BASIC.

[+InsaneMultitasker]

 

Yea, those two guys are inseparable.

Tutu?

[Gazoo]

Tutu?

 

Haven't heard that word in quite some time. I wonder how Bill is doing.

[Gazoo]

Just watched the video again and you are correct. Years of the habit of pushing 3 for REA.

 

I hope you can also appreciate menu selection 2, Rich. Selecting it only searches for DSK1.LOAD and goes to the RXB prompt if not found.

It's also got the 'hold a key to skip loading' modification, so if you select 2 and hold the key you go right to the RXB prompt.

It also makes the cart compatible with BOOT, maybe Funnelweb too, I haven't tried it yet with Funnelweb.

 

Gazoo

[RXB]

Yea I have the FW and Boot working with RXB 2014 I think and no menu at all, still working out the selections for BATCH or UTIL1.

 

I may just not include them anymore at all. So to run them you need to type out the command which of course is much slower.

 

Also the DSK#.LOAD search of 1 to 9 is gone too.

[RXB]

OK here is a video of RXB 2014 new RND that uses the TI BASIC version of RND instead.

 

 

As you can see the new RXB RND is 3 times faster then normal XB RND.

[RXB]

Preview of RXB 2014

 

Let me know any suggestions or ideas.

 

[Omega-TI]

Preview of RXB 2014

 

Looking good Rich!!

 

 

 

Let me know any suggestions or ideas.

 

 

How about an easy way to turn those I/V254's into E/A 5's!

[RXB]

 

Looking good Rich!!

 

 

 

 

How about an easy way to turn those I/V254's into E/A 5's!

LOL well XB256 does that already.

 

At one time I was working on XB to GPL but speed wise was no comparison to Assembly.

I mean so few people care about GPL in the community that I could not rationalize that project anymore.

 

I do think that using the tokenized format would be much easier to convert then Text format as the work on what needs to be converted is already partially done.

 

Example:

100 A$=RND

in tokenized format is:

>00 empty byte

>00 top half of line number

>64 bottom half of line number 100 in decimal

>FF end of line indicatior

>05 length of program line

>41 is A

>24 is $

>BE is =

>D7 is token for RND function

[Omega-TI]

LOL well XB256 does that already.

 

 

Really? I must be losing my mind. I thought XB256 was just a set of call link commands that allowed for extra stuff WITHIN the Extended BASIC environment. Let me be clear with what you are saying, you are saying that XB256 will take an XB program, that was saved in I/V 256 format, and convert it into an E/A 5 program that can be run WITHOUT XB but by using the Editor Assembler module?

[RXB]

 

Really? I must be losing my mind. I thought XB256 was just a set of call link commands that allowed for extra stuff WITHIN the Extended BASIC environment. Let me be clear with what you are saying, you are saying that XB256 will take an XB program, that was saved in I/V 256 format, and convert it into an E/A 5 program that can be run WITHOUT XB but by using the Editor Assembler module?

Well the XB compiler 2.1 or TML or XB256 do offer a wide range of help.

 

The biggest issue is converting to Assembly creates tons of problems with timing and execution of the original code.

1. Can not attack the problems the same way, what works in Assembly is the opposite of XB.

2. Memory allocation is different, no variables in Assembly let alone any form of multi-dimensional Array methods.

3. Assembly is a memory pig compared to any other language.

4. Speed is good and bad at same time for things like timing critical loops to be right it takes more work that is almost unneeded in any other language.

5. No garbage collection of memory unless you use C but then that is not really Assembly any more.

[+Vorticon]

I know I have asked this question before, but how hard is it to create a real cart for RXB? How many people here would like to have the real thing?

[RXB]

I know I have asked this question before, but how hard is it to create a real cart for RXB? How many people here would like to have the real thing?

TONY KNERR ALREADY SENT ME A RXB 2012 REA 2011 CART HERE IS THE VIDEO.

 

Edited August 10, 2014 by RXB

[+Vorticon]

Nice! So are there plans to sell them? Who do I need to beg to in order to get one??? I would wait however for the 2014 version since it looks like you are making many enhancements.

[RXB]

Nice! So are there plans to sell them? Who do I need to beg to in order to get one??? I would wait however for the 2014 version since it looks like you are making many enhancements.

Have to talk to the hardware guys that make them. Tony made mine and sent it to me. Owe him big time now.

[+arcadeshopper]

Nice! So are there plans to sell them? Who do I need to beg to in order to get one??? I would wait however for the 2014 version since it looks like you are making many enhancements.

 

I expect the ubergrom will be made available to the masses as soon as the grom code is done/tested.. The hardware is working as advertised but it's still a pita to program them manually.

 

Greg

[Gazoo]

 

I expect the ubergrom will be made available to the masses as soon as the grom code is done/tested.. The hardware is working as advertised but it's still a pita to program them manually.

 

Greg

 

It's my understanding that the holdup is the board itself. It needs to be modified to work with the widget, and there were several ideas thrown out, but I don't know if they've been tested yet. As long as you don't use a widget, it works fine.

 

The Grom emulation code works fine as long as the loader program is not needed. Personally, I don't see the need for the loader. If you have a cartridge, you're going to have to program the Rom chip anyway, so why not program the Grom chip while you're at it? If anyone can't program either of them, there are enough of us here that can program the chips to the users specifications. I agree there's quite a steep learning curve involved to be able to program the AVR chip, but once you figure it out, it's really quite simple.

 

Gazoo

Edited August 10, 2014 by Gazoo

[RXB]

 

It's my understanding that the holdup is the board itself. It needs to be modified to work with the widget, and there were several ideas thrown out, but I don't know if they've been tested yet. As long as you don't use a widget, it works fine.

 

The Grom emulation code works fine as long as the loader program is not needed. Personally, I don't see the need for the loader. If you have a cartridge, you're going to have to program the Rom chip anyway, so why not program the Grom chip while you're at it? If anyone can't program either of them, there are enough of us here that can program the chips to the users specifications. I agree there's quite a steep learning curve involved to be able to program the AVR chip, but once you figure it out, it's really quite simple.

 

Gazoo

Gazoo

 

Did you see the new RXB 2014 start up?

 

You can still do a press of any key to do the disk to run DSK#.LOAD and it works with any letter or number.

Or press 0 (zero) and it does a WDS1.LOAD

Or press . (period) and it goes to REA 2011

Or press space key to go to command mode in XB.

 

I took out , (comma) for DSK1.BATCH

And I took out the Auto search for LOAD.

Edited August 10, 2014 by RXB

[+arcadeshopper]

 

It's my understanding that the holdup is the board itself. It needs to be modified to work with the widget, and there were several ideas thrown out, but I don't know if they've been tested yet. As long as you don't use a widget, it works fine.

 

The Grom emulation code works fine as long as the loader program is not needed. Personally, I don't see the need for the loader. If you have a cartridge, you're going to have to program the Rom chip anyway, so why not program the Grom chip while you're at it? If anyone can't program either of them, there are enough of us here that can program the chips to the users specifications. I agree there's quite a steep learning curve involved to be able to program the AVR chip, but once you figure it out, it's really quite simple.

 

Gazoo

 

Imho it would be nice to be able to load different loads from the TI.. without having to do that..but as far as I am concerned the widget is a non-issue.. I thought we were waiting on tursi's grom/rom loader sw..

[Gazoo]

 

Imho it would be nice to be able to load different loads from the TI.. without having to do that..but as far as I am concerned the widget is a non-issue.. I thought we were waiting on tursi's grom/rom loader sw..

 

I don't really care about the widget issue either, but I'm not the one making the decisions.

 

In regards to Tursi's loader, it is not a "grom/rom" loader as you refer to. It is a 'grom only' loader. So carts that have both Grom and Rom will need to be adjusted and a ROM file burned to the 512k chip for them to work. The Rom chip will have to be created by someone with a burner unless one wants to run 'grom only' software.

With that information, do you see my point that the loader software isn't really that important? No offense intended to Tursi, he has done great work in providing the grom emulation for the cart, but the loader isn't going to provide the functionality required to use the cart as fully as one would expect. He has explained that in the past, but apparently that aspect was missed by many in their haste to see the cart completed.

 

As I see it, there will be requests by users for a cart with 'this and this and this' in it and a few of us will provide the chips for those users. I'm ready to help fill that need, if only partially. It's within my expertise to create the files for the chips one might request, but don't relish the thought of actually burning the chips and sending them out. There's a few individuals here that can perform that task, and a team effort would seem the best approach.

 

Lemmee' know if I'm not making any sense.

 

Gazoo

Edited August 10, 2014 by Gazoo

[+arcadeshopper]

 

I don't really care about the widget issue either, but I'm not the one making the decisions.

 

In regards to Tursi's loader, it is not a "grom/rom" loader as you refer to. It is a 'grom only' loader. So carts that have both Grom and Rom will need to be adjusted and a ROM file burned to the 512k chip for them to work. The Rom chip will have to be created by someone with a burner unless one wants to run 'grom only' software.

With that information, do you see my point that the loader software isn't really that important? No offense intended to Tursi, he has done great work in providing the grom emulation for the cart, but the loader isn't going to provide the functionality required to use the cart as fully as one would expect. He has explained that in the past, but apparently that aspect was missed by many in their haste to see the cart completed.

 

As I see it, there will be requests by users for a cart with 'this and this and this' in it and a few of us will provide the chips for those users. I'm ready to help fill that need, if only partially. It's within my expertise to create the files fot the chips one might request, but don't relish the thought of actually burning the chips and sending them out. There's a few individuals here that can perform that task, and a team effort would seem the best approach.

 

Lemmee' know if I'm not making any sense.

 

Gazoo

 

Yep..

[Omega-TI]

 

And I took out the Auto search for LOAD.

 

That pretty much means it's useless for my needs.

[RXB]

 

That pretty much means it's useless for my needs.

You mean you are one of the few that liked the search for LOAD off of drives 1 to 9?

 

You can still press a key for where you want to load DSK#.LOAD from including if you use a RAMDISK like DSKA.LOAD works still.

 

The only problem is RXB 2014 is missing that and DSK#.BATCH from pressing the COMMA key.

I was forced to do this as some people did not like the menu.

[Omega-TI]

You mean you are one of the few that liked the search for LOAD off of drives 1 to 9?

 

 

Oh, hell NO! I hated it, took too damn much time and got in my way. I thought you meant it would not automatically load DSK1.LOAD upon entering RXB. My misunderstanding, apologies.

 

I have multiple configurations I work with, for instance the Super Cart handles my HDX stuff, when I switch the widget to XB I load off of disk. It's only now that I'm regretting not getting a multiple bank Super Cart because with the HxC coming, I can see that I'll be needing 4DOS again, and I don't want to keep having to reload 4A DOS and Quickload in and out of the Super Cart. It's always something.