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Currently in Omega's Den: 30 year old dream *FINALLY REALIZED* (Updated)


Omega-TI

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The more I use this DOS cartridge, the more I love it.

But as you all know, I have 'issues' with, 'what if's' and 'wouldn't be great if's" as well as, "too bad it does not do's".

 

Remembering my early TRS-80 days with TRSDOS and DOSPLUS, and my early PC DOS day's, it was as easy to load a BASIC program as it was an assembly language program from the command prompt. Sadly, no can do with 4A/DOS.

 

4A DOS is only 8K and it's on a 512K chip. I believe the 1284P also has enough room to house Extended BASIC too, I'm imagining a 'killer DOS'...

that will never be.

 

Even so, if you guys have a spare UberGROM laying around, make yourself an auto-booting DOS cartridge, it's fantastic with TIPI!

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Omega, you should make a video about the DOS cartridge and what it does/adds/gives you. That might help encourage more interest in adding an extended BASIC to it.

 

As shown earlier in this thread, I did make a small video on how I use it to load TIPI stuff. Interesting suggestion though, I might try to make a video in the next week or two showing more of the benefits of using 4A/DOS in an auto-booting cartridge, but not to influence anyone other than possibly making their own cartridge.

 

Now on the other aspects, the TIPI combined with the F18A and an UberCart does have the power to change the TI into something way more powerful. We'll never be on par with Geneve users, but there is really no reason we couldn't have a more powerful DOS residing on a 49F040 (up to 512K) and controlled by the GROM capabilities of the 1284P. Combining BASIC with the DOS would be fantastic.

 

The syntax to load an assembly program from a BASIC program would not have to be too different.

 

For instance in 4A/DOS to load an assemby language program you type: LOAD DSK1.PROGRAM

Loading a BASIC program could be as simple as typing: BASIC DSK1.PROGRAM

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One of the things I have been looking at is loading of BASIC programs. The need to differentiate BASIC from XB was always a bit of a concern for me -- unless maybe RXB is used to solve that.

 

Is that the only feature 4ADOS is missing? (I am not offering to hack up 4ADOS at this time... that's a much bigger task than what I did...)

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RXB does run TI Basic programs and in over 20 years has only found one bug you can create and crash.

 

But then it was doing something no one else ever did and no one ever repeated this step to a crash.

 

Hard to say it is a bug when looking for something no one will ever use just to crash a program on purpose.

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One of the things I have been looking at is loading of BASIC programs. The need to differentiate BASIC from XB was always a bit of a concern for me -- unless maybe RXB is used to solve that.

 

Is that the only feature 4ADOS is missing? (I am not offering to hack up 4ADOS at this time... that's a much bigger task than what I did...)

I don't think you would need to have software do it, the user could do it.

 

 

For example from the DOS prompt:

BASIC DSK1.PROGRAM or XB DSK1.PROGRAM

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  • 2 months later...

Tursi to the rescue... AGAIN! :) :thumbsup:

 

Okay, many of you know I simply L :lust: VE 4A/DOS in my auto-booting cartridge, but until now, there's been a 'slight inconvenience' when trying to run a few programs. For example: I was not able to run DM2K or the 9640 Menu System directly from 4A/DOS. That problem is no more. This new 4A/DOS SUPPORT PROGRAM makes 4A/DOS even more useful.

 

The ZIP file contains a couple examples of the loader program. You can rename this file whatever you want, and sector edit between the arrows with your 'file path' and all will be good. Example: BLOAD simply loads TIPI.BOOT.BOOT

 

Yeah, I know... "Using one program to load another?" Well, yeah... truth is TIPI loads stuff pretty dang fast, so it's not really an issue.

 

BTW - ONE SUGGESTION: If you put these files in your TIPI's root directory, you also be able to load the programs WITHOUT having to type the entire path! Another plus! :) :thumbsup:

4A-DOS Support.zip

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fred Kaal's EDIT80 is so easy to use within 4A/DOS, that I'm now starting to organize, specialize and grow my batch files, especially since the TIPI is able to hold so much stuff. I'm sure a little bit more tweaking is in line before I settle on an easily expandable format, but so far, this is what I've come up with.

 

If anyone has come up with something better I'd love to see it before I invest too much time into developing this scheme.

 

Looks like an edit is already in order... I dropped a T in selection 8 of the main screen.

post-35324-0-84295200-1536242706.jpg

post-35324-0-45581600-1536242722.jpg

post-35324-0-23162000-1536242736.jpg

post-35324-0-36316400-1536242756.jpg

post-35324-0-93460500-1536242771.jpg

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Can someone with an UberGROM and a spare 1284P & 49F040 do me a favor?

 

I read the attached image (START) directly from a 1284P, and from what I understand a straight programming from your MiniPRO should do the trick. I don't have a anymore spares to check this out myself and don't want to risk screwing up a working cartridge.

You'll also have to program the dos512k into a 49F040 as well.

 

I'm trying to get things simplified for people as well as offer multiple acquisition options for an upcoming video. If this works, I'll include it in the video and give you a spot in the credits.

 

Thanks!

START.BIN

dos512k.bin

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To answer a few of questions I've received in PM's from various people, and because I'm just too busy to make a video right now, I'll answer some of the questions here.

 

Yes, the old 4A/DOS on WHTECH is 'nearly functionally the same' as the new cartridge version of 4A/DOS, with a couple of exceptions.

 

1) The cartridge version has CHARA1 built-in, so there is no need to put copies

of it on multiple diskettes or in image files.

 

2) The cartridge version automatically returns to DOS upon exiting a program,

so you don't have to manually and repeatedly go through the title and cartridge selection screens.

 

Some of the things I like about the auto-booting 4A/DOS Cartridge:

1) As already mentioned, it bypasses the title and cartridge selection screens, saving time and freeing
one from extra repetitious and unneeded keystrokes that slow a person down.
2) Customization
One can design their menus or startup screens however they wish and expand them endlessly.
Most programs limit how many selections you can have or the format in which they are presented.
3) Eliminates excessive typing, even automating some procedures, like loading of EA/3's.
4) Long path statements supported
When using TIPI or another storage device that allows for sub-directories, 4A/DOS allows
for long file paths which most programs are unable to accommodate.
4) Runs in 80 Columns
I prefer to see as much on the screen at one time as possible and do not like to skimp on details.
Someone asked why an UberCart and not a FinalGROM?
Well, in cartridges like the SuperCart, FlashROM or FinalGROM, you cannot bypass the TI menu or cartridge selection screens. So whenever you exit a program, you essentially get 'kicked out' of the DOS environment and have to re-enter, which is a pain (at least to me). With this auto-booting version, there is no need to use or write special "re-entrant programs", (like the few obsolete ones that originally came with it).
The chip labeled "START" is the "KEY" to it's operation and it works with the slightly modified version of 4A/DOS on the other chip.
gallery_35324_1027_472477.png

I hope this answers your questions. If I ever do get around to making a video on this, it's months away.

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I should emphasize that 4ADOS is /slightly/ modified. The changes I made were in the original zip file for anyone curious (er, which it looked like Omega didn't include my text files... if anyone wants them let me know and I'll add them). I thought there were two changes but the only one I remember was the auto-loading of CHARA1 -- I patched it to look at a specific place in GROM. If it finds it, it loads from there and continues. If it doesn't, it falls back on the old behaviour of loading from disk. The idea was that my patched version didn't change any old behaviour, it just added the new one. ;) (I think the second patch was just adding the generic name "PROGRAM" to the startup menu so the GROM could find it).

 

The GROM literally just searches the cartridge ROM, with banking IIRC, to see if there are any entries named 'PROGRAM', and if there are, it starts them. It uses the powerup vector, so it could technically override other GROM startups, but those are pretty uncommon.

 

I don't see the character set in the uploaded START.BIN -- does the CHARA1 set load correctly on the produced cartridge (without a disk prompt)? I can't check my notes and I might be remembering wrong...

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I don't see the character set in the uploaded START.BIN -- does the CHARA1 set load correctly on the produced cartridge (without a disk prompt)? I can't check my notes and I might be remembering wrong...

 

I tried making an rpk file from the two files, but all I get is a white screen with a blue border. The start.bin file only contains 256 bytes of data, the rest is >ff.

Edited by Asmusr
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  • 2 months later...

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