Altirra 2.60 released

[morelenmir]

You may be out of luck, he does not drink

 

(true)

Box of wine guns maybe?

 

How about Liquorice Allsorts!?!?!? No one can turn those down and look you square in the eyes while doing it!!!

[Mclaneinc]

Box of wine guns maybe?

 

How about Liquorice Allsorts!?!?!? No one can turn those down and look you square in the eyes while doing it!!!

 

Wine guns, bit extreme

 

Liquorice can be a bit Marmite in taste..

 

Anyway, way OT now

[The Usotsuki]

I dunno, I find licorice allsorts taste funny and not at all like the licorice candy I'm used to (black ropes)...

[phaeron]

Are you sure you have the correct version of pclink.sys? It should say v.0.7, 1393 bytes, dated 11-07-2014. The problem you describe was in older versions and I remember fixing it. It (the bug showing up) was one of the side effects of the new ext memory management in SDX 4.47. This is why SDX 4.47 release notes say:

 

Yes, I'm getting this with SDX 4.47 and the 0.7 driver from the 4.47 toolkit disk. It only happens when PCLINK.SYS is set to use the OS SIO routines (/S); it doesn't occur when the SDX I/O routines are used (default). If I run the SDX 4.47 with the 0.6 driver, then the corruption occurs either way. Could it be that the fix that was added to 0.7 didn't apply to the SIOV path?

 

The zero byte issue is definitely a separate issue; that's definitely a bug in the emulator's PCLink server protocol code and is separate from this corruption issue.

[morelenmir]

 

Yes, I'm getting this with SDX 4.47 and the 0.7 driver from the 4.47 toolkit disk. It only happens when PCLINK.SYS is set to use the OS SIO routines (/S); it doesn't occur when the SDX I/O routines are used (default). If I run the SDX 4.47 with the 0.6 driver, then the corruption occurs either way. Could it be that the fix that was added to 0.7 didn't apply to the SIOV path?

 

The zero byte issue is definitely a separate issue; that's definitely a bug in the emulator's PCLink server protocol code and is separate from this corruption issue.

Good to know you're on it Phaeron! I have been thinking about trying out the PCLink facility now I have sorted out what to do with the *.VHD hard drive.

[gozar]

@gozar: you are probably looking for the IDE+2.0 interface. It is pass-through, it contains SDX, it has a battery-backed RTC on-board, it is an IDE/ATA-3 HDD interface, it is flashable (separate ROMs for SDX and the hard disk firmware).

 

 

 

I do have one, which I really like. Is anyone selling them right now?

 

An IDE+ 3.0 with 512K memory upgrade and flashable OS would be a really nice upgrade for most people, since it would be plug and play. But this is getting way off topic in the Altirra 2.6 thread... :-)

[drac030]

 

Could it be that the fix that was added to 0.7 didn't apply to the SIOV path?

 

True, the /S mode does not work correctly. Better do not use that.

[fujidude]

Feature request: Allow for selection of color scheme for XEP80 output, or maybe at least add an amber on black and green on black option. Back in the day, I had my XEP80 hooked up to an amber monitor.

 

As always... this is just a request. Love the emulator!

[phaeron]

From what I hear about the XEP80, I should add a mode where the top and bottom lines are cut off too, for a truly authentic experience.

 

Update:

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.70-test13.zip

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.70-test13-src.zip

 

Changes:

• PCLink double-ACK in SIO protocol fixed.
• Upgraded Altirra BASIC to 1.41 (also attached). Adds LOMEM and ERR() from Basic XL, fixes IF...THEN allowing line number >32767, fixed some statements not allowing extra whitespace during parsing.
• Added 'gv' debugger command to run until VBI.
• Fixed missing BIT abs,X instruction in 65C02 mode.
• Fixed a bunch of 65C816 issues, after testing on a real one with Veronica. PLY was busted in X8 native mode with a relocated stack, and implemented the odd behavior where new instructions using stack, (dp), or [dp] can index out of page zero/one in emulation mode.
• Changed names of undocumented opcodes, since the existing ones were a random mix. KIL now disassembles instead of showing ???.
• Paste can now handle smart quotes and Unicode dashes, thanks to LibreOffice Writer repeatedly screwing up my copy and paste testing.
• VHD creation limit raised from 4GB to 2TB.
• Audio monitor reworked to handle dual POKEYs and also now saves its enable setting.

If anyone's bored and has a 65C816-based system (not just a Veronica cartridge), I'd appreciate a test on real hardware. In emulation, MultiBASIC 0.35 is not evaluating some expressions properly involving the OR operator. I discovered this when testing ENEMY.BAS, but it breaks some pretty simple cases:

Ready
S=1

Ready
PRINT S
1

Ready
PRINT S=3
0

Ready
PRINT S=3 OR S=3
1

Originally I thought this was an emulation issue, but it looks like this is happening due to an error in MultiBASIC's precedence tables. Unfortunately, I don't have a real system that can run MultiBASIC to double-check.

 

atbasic.bin

atbasicx.xex

[drac030]

Yes, that is a bug in MBI.

[fujidude]

From what I hear about the XEP80, I should add a mode where the top and bottom lines are cut off too, for a truly authentic experience.

 

I don't remember mine missing any lines at all. If it did, it would have bothered me quite a bit, to the point I might not have used it. And I remember liking using it, especially with Bobterm. Menu on "standard" screen, terminal on XEP80. White on black still works fine for me fine though. Truthfully, with the emulation of the excellent VBXE, I use that for 80 column almost always anyway now.

 

So how about this for a feature request:

 

In the disk drives dialog, when selecting an image to attach to a drive letter, have the ability to select multiple images and have them attached to multiple drives, one after the other. For eample, lets say you hit the "..." (load disk image) on drive 1, and you selected four image files, they would attach to drives 1 through 4. If you did the same thing on say, drive 3, they would attach to drives 3, 4, 5 & 6; in the same order of the selected files.

 

Also... while I'm on a roll... another thing that would be awesome would be to add a couple extra small button controls on each drive's line in the disk drives dialog. These would be a "move up in list" and a "move down in list" set of controls. I envision them causing the acted upon line to swap positions with the line above it, or below it, as the case may be. A different approach would be to allow a line to be dragged to the spot you want, but the buttons would probably be just as useful.

 

And, as always... I'm just throwing out ideas on what I think would be handy features. I have no expectations, only dreams.

 

Any of you other folks like any of this, or is it just me who would find that real handy?

[flashjazzcat]

Being able to drag and drop ATRs into the disk drive dialog might be useful (although the matter never occurred to me in the past). As for re-ordering slots: the existing "Swap with another drive" feature (which I didn't realize existed until a short while ago) seems to take care of that requirement.

[fujidude]

Being able to drag and drop ATRs into the disk drive dialog might be useful (although the matter never occurred to me in the past). As for re-ordering slots: the existing "Swap with another drive" feature (which I didn't realize existed until a short while ago) seems to take care of that requirement.

 

I have nothing against dragging and dropping currently unattached images into the dialog (not a bad idea actually), but that's not what I was describing. I was talking about buttons to move an image up or down within the list, or being able drag an image within the list to a new position within the list. The problem wiith the swap positions option, is that is is labor intensive and slow. It would be a lot of clicks to move an image up say three or four positions. With the buttons, it would be just 3 or 4 clicks to do the same thing, or 1 drag and drop.

 

But even more convenient (to me at least) would be the ability to select multiple images at once (or drop multiple onto, if your idea gets included). Say you want to run a multi disk game (one that can make use of multiple drives), you could have some images named something like this:

 

cool game d1.atr

cool game d2.atr

cool game d3.atr

 

You could select all three from drive 1's load disk image control, and they would drop in (in order) into drive 1 - 3 within Altirra. And I am not asking that Altirra somehow analyze the names and determine which drives. I am just wanting the order they are presented by the selection dialog to be used. I can name them appropriately so that they are already sorted by the OS in the way I need them to load.

 

And it's not just a few multi-disk games that this would be handy for. I find many instances where I want to load in several (related) disk images at once into multiple drives. A multi-selection capability would be a real time saver. But again, I am not complaining with what we have already. I absolutely love Altirra.

Edited May 16, 2015 by fujidude

[flashjazzcat]

I have nothing against dragging and dropping currently unattached images into the dialog (not a bad idea actually), but that's not what I was describing. I was talking about buttons to move an image up or down within the list, or being able drag an image within the list to a new position within the list.

Even without the emphasis, I understood perfectly what you were describing first time around. My drag and drop suggestion was not intended as a synopsis of your idea: I was simply describing something entirely different, namely dropping ATRs into the dialog.

 

The problem wiith the swap positions option, is that is is labor intensive and slow. It would be a lot of clicks to move an image up say three or four positions. With the buttons, it would be just 3 or 4 clicks to do the same thing, or 1 drag and drop.

I don't understand how "Swap with another drive" is labour intensive, since you simply select the target slot which can be any number of positions distant from the ATR's original location. So: to swap TEST.ATR on Drive 1 with whatever is on Drive 5 takes exactly three mouse clicks.

[fujidude]

I don't understand how "Swap with another drive" is labour intensive, since you simply select the target slot which can be any number of positions distant from the ATR's original location. So: to swap TEST.ATR on Drive 1 with whatever is on Drive 5 takes exactly three mouse clicks.

 

In the following tables, the 1st position represents the emulated drives. The 2nd position refers to unique disk images. Let us say we start with:

 

01 A

02 B

03 C

04 D

05 E

06 F

07 G

08 H

09 I

10 J

11 K

12 L

13 M

14 N

15 O

 

But we want to rearrange so that it is set like:

 

01 A

02 O

03 B

04 C

05 D

06 E

07 F

08 G

09 H

10 I

11 J

12 K

13 L

14 M

15 N

 

Notice that the only drive that did not have it's attached image changed was drive 01. With my button control suggestion implemented, it would require exactly 13 clicks to move disk "O" up to drive 02 (from drive 15). With a drag and drop, it would take a mere 1 long click and a drag to get the job done. With the swap with another drive option that is currently available, I don't want to even try and count how many it would take.

[morelenmir]

Something I have never noticed before - because I have never had physical hardware to experiment with - concerns the "SIDE2" emulation and its 'SIDELoader' functionality. When I uncheck the 'System->Console Switches->Enable Cart SDX' option the simulation should drop in to the 'SIDELoader' menu at power-on. Instead it goes to self-test. Is this missing?

 

Obviously I mean when "SIDE2" is being used on its own, not in concert with the "Ultimate1MB" board.

[fujidude]

Not sure about that. I use SIDE in conjunction with U1MB (within Altirra). When I want the SIDE loader, I just hit help-reset to get to the U1MB BIOS setup menu, then hold the L key.

[Mclaneinc]

Oy Fuji, stop stealing my idea re the mounting multiple disks with certain naming conventions, in this thread a week or so ago

 

Also if you look in the Disk drives section there are buttons (of sorts to move up and down images..)

 

(I think that's what you meant)?

[fujidude]

My idea is simply multi-selection of image files, without regard to their names. As long as the selector box has them listed in alphabetical filename order, I can just be sure to name them appropriately so that they are in the order I want. It would be a fair amount of extra coding (I imagine) to develop a system by which there are rules for which drive gets which image based on image name. Plus, as a user, I would prefer not to have to learn and always take into account the rule system. To me it is eaiser to use filename order.

 

As to buttons that do what I am requesting.... OMG I hope they aren't there and I missed them! Let me go check things out better...

 

Nope, still don't see anything like that. What are you referring to? Also, as to what I meant... I'm not sure I can illustrate it any better than I already have with my charts in a few posts previous. Take a look at the charts again, and please ask me any specific questions you may have on what I'm getting at. That will help me clarify. Right now about all I can think to do is make another post just like before.

Edited May 17, 2015 by fujidude

[Mclaneinc]

Don't worry Fuji, I see what you meant, was a wee joke...

 

As for the swapping, I was talking about the rotate option under Attach Disk, also what about the swap disk option under the right pointing triangle in the disk drives dialogue?

 

I may have misunderstood what you meant in the swap idea, trying to do 3 things at once here and getting them all wrong

[fujidude]

Don't worry Fuji, I see what you meant, was a wee joke...

 

As for the swapping, I was talking about the rotate option under Attach Disk, also what about the swap disk option under the right pointing triangle in the disk drives dialogue?

 

I may have misunderstood what you meant in the swap idea, trying to do 3 things at once here and getting them all wrong

 

Sorry, I didn't get the humor. Anyway, yes I know about rotate. That basically shifts all images (with wrap around) up or down, but it does so as a group and the same order is preserved. I'm wanting an easy way to shift a single image up or down within the list of images, without otherwise affecting the order of the other images in the process. As to swapping images (which can already be done now)... as I pointed out, using that method would require a lot of clicks to end up with the final desired order. Let's say you wanted to just move one image up a few positions in the list. Say five positions... you would need to swap the intended image with the one above it. Then you would need to do that again. And again. And keep doing that until it is in the position five above. Each time you do a swap, it takes 3 mouse clicks. With a "move up" and "move down" buttons, it takes 1 click to do the same thing.

 

As I've said, it would just be a nice feature. It certainly isn't essential; far from it. I would value the multiple image selection feature far more than the move up or down feature.

[flashjazzcat]

Let's say you wanted to just move one image up a few positions in the list. Say five positions... you would need to swap the intended image with the one above it. Then you would need to do that again. And again. And keep doing that until it is in the position five above. Each time you do a swap, it takes 3 mouse clicks. With a "move up" and "move down" buttons, it takes 1 click to do the same thing.

As I already explained above, that's not how the swap facility works. You're implying (or labouring under the misapprehension) that you can only swap an image with the one in the adjacent slot. You simply click the right arrow, click "Swap with another drive", then click the target drive. Three clicks to swap images five slots apart.

 

I'm not sure, then, how the current implementation fails to accomplish what you have in mind for single images. As for groups of adjacent images: I struggle to imagine an everyday application for anything not already covered by the Attach Disk->Rotate Up/Down functionality.

[fujidude]

redacted. will make a new post.

Edited May 17, 2015 by fujidude

[fujidude]

 

I don't know what to say to you. Look at my charts again, and please explain to me how one swap action accomplishes it. Please. I don't think you actually have given them much of a look, or else you would understand.

[flashjazzcat]

Ah, I see: you were describing using swap to "float" the entry to the destination. But you could just rotate down and then swap the first two using existing facilities to achieve the same result, although this wouldn't suit more heavily contrived scenarios.

 

I don't think you actually have given them much of a look, or else you would understand.

Hey, I'm interested in how Altirra develops, but it's not my program at the end of the day so have at it.

Edited May 17, 2015 by flashjazzcat