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UCSD Pascal disk/file format


retroclouds

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No, the p-system, or rather the dformat program (it's not built into the operating system) calls the formatting subprogram on the controller. It does that with all of the different controllers, but it doesn't know how to make a custom interlace with the CorComp controller.

Edited by apersson850
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Well, I don't have any equipment that easily transfers a disk, or files, from the TI to a disk image for PC use. But one way would be to transfer the source files to the PC, get them into Classic 99 and create the disk image there. That should work, shouldn't it?

Then you can also see the source, if you are interested, to see how I did it.

Edited by apersson850
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1 hour ago, apersson850 said:

Well, I don't have any equipment that easily transfers a disk, or files, from the TI to a disk image for PC use. But one way would be to transfer the source files to the PC, get them into Classic 99 and create the disk image there. That should work, shouldn't it?

Then you can also see the source, if you are interested, to see how I did it.

Yes that would work.

You should consider talking to Fred Kaal about upgrading your RS232 card with the HDX board. That way you will be able to transfer disk images and files  back and forth between the TI and a PC via serial.

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Here it is as a text file. Both the assembly and Pascal source is in the same file.

 

The Pascal program uses the extrascreen unit. It's a library unit I made to mitigate the unstable data entry functions in Pascal. In this program, the function validint is used. Calling validint(2,digit) means that you are sure you'll get a response that consists of max two digits, and nothing but digits.

 

When I realized this will not run without my library routine, I decided to wait with the attempt to create a disk image file.

 

 

dformat.txt

Edited by apersson850
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This HDX software transfers normal files, doesn't it? Thus it can't directly transfer a Pascal file, I presume. It would be running in the wrong operating system for that to work.

You can copy a whole disk up to hdx with dsk2pc or vice versa

 

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

 

 

 

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Yes, you're right, there's more than one. But it must be the DDCC-1 that's mostly equivalent to the CorComp disk controller. No hard drives involved.

Perhaps no point in solving that issue unless somebody specifically needs it. It does take that you run it on the real machine, and that you need to format disks under the p-system. Or you can get by without it.

I wrote my dformat program just as much to learn how to access the disk controller card as to get a formatter working from the inside of the p-system. My next step was to not use the formatter subprogram on the controller card, but to drive the controller myself.

Edited by apersson850
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I just wanted to point out that the HFDC differs most from all controllers, because it has some kind of a processor on board (HDC9234), while the others have a simple controller (WD17xx). Things like floppy track layout can be directly written via the WD17xx, while the HDC9234 requires a layout definition in its RAM, and then you say "go for it", and listen for the "DONE" flag.

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