TIMXT Terminal Emulator Dev

[+Vorticon]

I tried TELCO and it hangs as well, but very early in the booting process. I think you're right: it must be a cable issue.

I tried using the custom made cable I made for the Winmodem32 to connect to BBS'ses and it does not work either.

Do you have the ideal serial cable pinout to use with TIMXT?

[+InsaneMultitasker]

I stumbled across a few TIMXT-related posts while browsing the forums today and it got me thinking about the ugly challenge I ran into, where the RS232 interrupt handler periodically dropping characters. The problem seemed to start sometime after adding the Ubergrom UART code and the PETSCII interpreter code to the core routines.

 

Having not looked at the program source for some time, I started walking through the TIMXT rs232 routine. Everything looked fine. On whim I cracked open "TI Intern", thinking maybe I was missing something related to the ROM interrupt handler.

 

While reviewing the ISR ROM source I noticed that during a VDP interrupt, the ISR re-enables the 9901's VDP interrupt mask. The TIMXT routine expects this mask to be disabled, so as to trick the ISR into handling a PEB external interrupt as a VDP interrupt, forcing execution of the user interrupt routine, which in turn promptly services the RS232 interrupt.

 

It seems that when I added nanoPEB support, I commented out a CRU instruction to disable the 9901 VDP interrupt mask. I suspect I did this to account for the extra CRU instructions needed to enable and disable the nanopeb ROM cru bit. (The nanopeb incorrectly requires its RS232 rom to be enabled before enabling the 9902). At the time I did not notice any problems and since I had shifted to implementing the ubergrom UART I eventually forgot about the change.

 

Once I returned to using the PEB RS232 I started experiencing lost characters, usually when connected at slower speeds or to slower BBSs. When the TI ISR and TIMXT hndler capture an incoming character the VDP interrupt mask is re-enabled, and the ISR immediately fires off a second time to service the still-active VDP interrupt. The TIMXT interrupt handler doesn't find a pending RS232 interrupt so it defaults into thinking there was a spurious interrupt, disables the 9901 prioritization bit/VDP mask, then exits the ISR. (This 'safety measure' explains why the ISR is not stuck in an endless loop after the first character is received). When the next RS232 character is received the whole cycle begins again - the ISR is called, RS232 interrupt is handled, control is returned to the caller, and the ISR is called an unnecessary second time.

 

Depending on the timing of other routines, such as the keyboard scan and reception speed, rs232 characters are randomly dropped.

 

Although I am not able to fix the routine program at the moment, I am hopeful the fix will eliminate what has been a very annoying and difficult problem to figure out.

 

I'm not sure why the test release for the ubergrom UART drops characters as all of my usage seemed pretty flawless. I'll revisit that at another time as well.

[globeron]

I downloaded the TIXMT  for ubergrom (the plop1, plop2, plop3) version (TIFILES Headers)

is this the latest version or is there a newer one?

 

(some issues I saw is if I entered from TI to PC (TeraTerm 2.3) the same letter on the same line

it does not work (e.g. RR,   but RTR works, if you use another letter, thus HARRY POTTER you cannot type)

 

Also to set the colour some items do not go okay (e.g. set text colour, via FCTN-1 and 1) and 

using FCTN-7 and FCTN-9 returns a black screen, press again it is back.

 

 

[+InsaneMultitasker]

On 7/23/2020 at 12:28 PM, globeron said:

I downloaded the TIXMT  for ubergrom (the plop1, plop2, plop3) version (TIFILES Headers)

is this the latest version or is there a newer one?

 

(some issues I saw is if I entered from TI to PC (TeraTerm 2.3) the same letter on the same line

it does not work (e.g. RR,   but RTR works, if you use another letter, thus HARRY POTTER you cannot type)

 

Also to set the colour some items do not go okay (e.g. set text colour, via FCTN-1 and 1) and 

using FCTN-7 and FCTN-9 returns a black screen, press again it is back.

 

 

I've lost momentum on this and other projects this year.  I pulled open a few source files and it looks like the petscii code is in place but the ansi is not hooked in, so something isn't right.   I probably need to get the files out on github.  I won't return to this until the fall but if I have a chance I'll look for the version with ANSI and the ubergrom changes (related to having no rs232 in the system)  that I thought I completed. 

[globeron]

I've lost momentum on this and other projects this year.  I pulled open a few source files and it looks like the petscii code is in place but the ansi is not hooked in, so something isn't right.   I probably need to get the files out on github.  I won't return to this until the fall but if I have a chance I'll look for the version with ANSI and the ubergrom changes (related to having no rs232 in the system)  that I thought I completed. 

No rush, no problem, was just testing the term emulators to see if my rs232 ubergrom is working


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[+OLD CS1]

Yo!  Have you had a chance to make headway on this?  I have built a cart with Bluetooth and I need to communicate with it via the UberGROM UART.  Also, do I understand correctly that TIMXT requires the F18A, or can I use it on a non-enhanced console?

[+InsaneMultitasker]

20 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

Yo!  Have you had a chance to make headway on this?  I have built a cart with Bluetooth and I need to communicate with it via the UberGROM UART.  Also, do I understand correctly that TIMXT requires the F18A, or can I use it on a non-enhanced console?

80 column F18A only.  If you are looking to test with a standard console and a terminal program, grab the ubergrom patch I created for Telco.  I'm not working on anything complicated right now due to current workload though (and I hope this is true) it seems that the craziness will slow down enough by November to revisit this and a few other items.  

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, InsaneMultitasker said:

80 column F18A only.  If you are looking to test with a standard console and a terminal program, grab the ubergrom patch I created for Telco.  I'm not working on anything complicated right now due to current workload though (and I hope this is true) it seems that the craziness will slow down enough by November to revisit this and a few other items.  

Tah.  I assume I can find that on WHT?  I am going to head over and look.

[+InsaneMultitasker]

3 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

Tah.  I assume I can find that on WHT?  I am going to head over and look.

Dunno if anyone has placed it on WHT.  Here's the topic...  I meant to copy it into my earlier post.

 

S

[+InsaneMultitasker]

I had planned to do some Geneve OS work this weekend but ended up being away from home, so I've been chewing on this old bone to while away the time. 

 

To simplify the terminal emulator, I've eliminated the primary menu in favor of invoking a few smaller functional menus.  Some menu options only update on the status bar (e.g., duplex, IAC), some only within the menu, and a few in both.  With the simplified menus comes some color enhancement as I was tired of flipping to monochrome.   Alas, with Covid restrictions lifted/lifting, I may not have much spare time until mid-fall, so if I get far enough for a test release I'll put it out here this week.   F18A only. 

 

 

[+InsaneMultitasker]

Headway.  TIMXT running in Classic99 using the TIPI simulation.

[+InsaneMultitasker]

Been contemplating how to implement a simple phonebook without a lot of complexity.  For the time being I settled on a DF80 file with fixed field positions.  TIMXT is able to load and display the entries, though it doesn't yet interpret the flags to tell the emulator the interpreter (ansi, petscii),  device (rs232,uber, tipi),  raw/telnet, baud, parity.  I intend to allow the user to select a BBS which will then connect according to the flags.  Editing in-program might be a stretch hence why I am starting with a simple file format.  Duplicate entries are intentional - I got lazy after typing four    Phonebook stays resident after it is loaded; I will probably keep the 'load' option to allow for multiple phonebooks. 

[+InsaneMultitasker]

A few people mentioned TIMXT recently, so I went looking for the most recent source. Seems I left this in limbo with one or two other projects. 

 

I don't have much of an update right now other than to say that I can connect via js99er TIPI emulation (and QEMU) and the scroll routine that wasn't working last year is functional.  It seems the menu bar is incomplete (e.g., the TIPI device shows up as UberGROM) and repeat keypresses are problematic.  And there is PETSCII / palette code in weird places. I have no idea what I was thinking last year.  Anyway... here are a few clean screenshots showing the terminal display and the menu: 

  

 

Geneve OS development is on my front burner right now but I will try (eventually) to return to a few of the older projects like this one. 

 

[+Vorticon]

Keyboard input is a bit slow in TIMXT, which precludes fast typing. Any way this could be optimized? 

[+InsaneMultitasker]

The last time I worked on the program it was a frustrating ordeal because I had updated some of the build tools and ended up 'breaking' TIMXT and a few other lumbering projects in the process.  That became one hurdle too many for my limited availability.  Anyway, I will try to take another pass at sorting things out over the holidays.