| The Apple /// project that broke my brain [message #377408] |
Tue, 04 December 2018 10:32  |
Steve Nickolas
Messages: 2036
Registered: October 2012
Karma: 0
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So I'm not sure where I went wrong in the initial stages, but I was never
able to really get anywhere on this project.
I was working on porting EHBASIC for the nth time to the Apple - I think
it was the third attempt that was running on ProDOS, and this was one or
two more tries after that, but this one was meant to be for the Apple ///.
I was thinking of baking a sort of DOS 3.3 clone into it, using the "other
A" type for its files, and making as full-featured a BASIC as space would
allow, keeping in mind that this "space" would include a lot more memory
than FPBASIC.
In fact, "program space" would have been limited to 2000-9FFF - in the
second bank, so that there would be no interference from the hi-res
graphics screen. I'd also consider doing something like EXTRA.VARIABLES,
in order to use the Apple ///'s memory more efficiently. And I wanted to
support color text, color graphics, DHGR, etc.
It never got off the ground because a barebones port of EHBASIC bombed on
me, and I couldn't for the *life* of me figure out why. :/
-uso.
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| Re: The Apple /// project that broke my brain [message #377432 is a reply to message #377408] |
Tue, 04 December 2018 16:23  |
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Originally posted by: cb meeks
On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 10:32:41 AM UTC-5, Steve Nickolas wrote:
> So I'm not sure where I went wrong in the initial stages, but I was never
> able to really get anywhere on this project.
>
> I was working on porting EHBASIC for the nth time to the Apple - I think
> it was the third attempt that was running on ProDOS, and this was one or
> two more tries after that, but this one was meant to be for the Apple ///.
>
> I was thinking of baking a sort of DOS 3.3 clone into it, using the "other
> A" type for its files, and making as full-featured a BASIC as space would
> allow, keeping in mind that this "space" would include a lot more memory
> than FPBASIC.
>
> In fact, "program space" would have been limited to 2000-9FFF - in the
> second bank, so that there would be no interference from the hi-res
> graphics screen. I'd also consider doing something like EXTRA.VARIABLES,
> in order to use the Apple ///'s memory more efficiently. And I wanted to
> support color text, color graphics, DHGR, etc.
>
> It never got off the ground because a barebones port of EHBASIC bombed on
> me, and I couldn't for the *life* of me figure out why. :/
>
> -uso.
Have you asked the guys over at 6502.org for help? Some of those guys like Klaus are EhBASIC gurus. They helped me get it working on my homebrew 6502 SBC (Potpourri6502) which only has 16K of RAM.
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| Re: The Apple /// project that broke my brain [message #377455 is a reply to message #377408] |
Tue, 04 December 2018 20:19 |
David Schmenk
Messages: 374
Registered: December 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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Are you trying to combine a DOS 3.3/ProDOS environment with your EnhBasic, replacing SOS? Perhaps a piecemeal approach might be easier to debug and figure out where the failure is. A SOS interpreter isn't hard to write, but does have a few requirements. PLASMA sets up an environment similar to what you describe. You can check out the source for the Apple /// PLASMA interpreter here:
https://github.com/dschmenk/PLASMA/blob/master/src/vmsrc/app le/plvm03.s
If you forgo disk I/O initially, you just need to initialize the console for screen I/O.
Putting something out on GitHub or something similar would allow other eyes to look it over as well, as qkumba said. No need to go completely alone and frustrate yourself.
Dave...
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| Re: The Apple /// project that broke my brain [message #377456 is a reply to message #377455] |
Tue, 04 December 2018 21:11 |
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Originally posted by: theusotsuki
On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 8:19:26 PM UTC-5, David Schmenk wrote:
> Are you trying to combine a DOS 3.3/ProDOS environment with your EnhBasic, replacing SOS? Perhaps a piecemeal approach might be easier to debug and figure out where the failure is. A SOS interpreter isn't hard to write, but does have a few requirements. PLASMA sets up an environment similar to what you describe. You can check out the source for the Apple /// PLASMA interpreter here:
>
> https://github.com/dschmenk/PLASMA/blob/master/src/vmsrc/app le/plvm03.s
>
> If you forgo disk I/O initially, you just need to initialize the console for screen I/O.
>
> Putting something out on GitHub or something similar would allow other eyes to look it over as well, as qkumba said. No need to go completely alone and frustrate yourself.
>
> Dave...
While my intention was to basically create a reduced DOS 3.3, I was going to focus on getting the most basic stuff up first - and not bother with file I/O. (Note that I'm already able to use the DOS 3.3 filesystem to bootstrap stuff.)
[It looks like my previous post (where I said that in a minimal port I was just getting Syntax Error for everything) got eaten. Both Eternal September and MacGUI seem to be having issues right now, and I'm posting through (SHOCK HORROR) Google.]
On one hand GitHub might be a good idea, on the other, Git feels like using a machine gun to swat flies.
-uso.
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| Re: The Apple /// project that broke my brain [message #377461 is a reply to message #377456] |
Wed, 05 December 2018 02:44 |
Steve Nickolas
Messages: 2036
Registered: October 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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(Test post)
Anyway, my original plan was to utilize the ROM as much as I could, but
later I decided to use my own version of the code - no avail. Now, I've
ported ehbasic before (to the Apple ][), so theoretically this should have
worked, but it didn't. :/
-uso.
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| Re: The Apple /// project that broke my brain [message #377477 is a reply to message #377461] |
Wed, 05 December 2018 09:26 |
David Schmidt
Messages: 993
Registered: October 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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On 12/5/18 2:44 AM, Steve Nickolas wrote:
> Anyway, my original plan was to utilize the ROM as much as I could, but
> later I decided to use my own version of the code - no avail. Now, I've
> ported ehbasic before (to the Apple ][), so theoretically this should
> have worked, but it didn't. :/
There's very little in the /// ROM that's of much use, really. In order
to use the 40-column screen routines as part of the built-in monitor, I
needed to copy that out and modify it so it wouldn't be making all of
its assumptions about the machine configuration switches that it was.
(Recall that the monitor runs in its own special setup configuration.)
It's not really like the ][ ROM - it's not nearly as general-purpose in
that way.
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