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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Firmware Wish List
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donmck Guru  Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
I decided to start a wish list, not to give Geoff heaps to do, but to start a healthy exchange of messages, and hopefully give him less to do, as the individual wishes can be thrashed out by users before any commitment. It will also create a priority level. Speaking of Priority, I know right at the top, we have a couple of contenders that Geoff has already spoken about, and will be writing at his first opportunity. I have given them numbers, so we can refer to them: [code] Wish List: Wish 1: Serial I/O Geoff is working on this. Has been discussed in the support forum. Wish 2: Edit Basic Line Numbers Geoff is working on this. Has been discussed in the support forum. Wish 3: Ready Prompt I just coined the phrase "TRS-80 Mode" when running with a PS2 keyboard, and VGA display, and every time I think about this, it reminds me of the "Ready" on the screen from 33+ years ago on the TRS-80 Model I. Geoff, I think for nostalgic reasons, many users would love to see this. Wish 4: Flash Power Led. On power up, instead of just turning on the power LED, how about flashing it 3 times quickly, then turning it on. I have always done this with controlled LEDs on power up, and I feel it gives the user an added sense of "All Systems Go". Many large Electronics hardware manufacturers do this also. Many users in the industry will know about this type of feature. I remember 7 segment displays running circles, and outputting various power on self test codes. Wish 5: Basic Language Control of Power and Activity LED. The power LED gets used on power up, then just sits there. How about BASIC control over it, so we can use it as a status or debugger LED. I know PEEK and POKE will possibly need a more choreographed memory map, so perhaps just a couple of straight LED commands. Same with Activity LED. It gets used for Card I/O. Be nice to control it, and have it revert back to normal for card I/O. Wish 6: PEEK and POKE. Many users have asked for this, but I think it may be awkward at this stage, because of the continual recompiling of the firmware. And I doubt there will ever be a final version of the firmware. Perhaps it needs a bit of lateral thinking to implement P&P commands. Wish 7: ?? [/code] Comments very welcome. And it's over to you happy little Vegimites, I mean Maximites. Explanation required for non-Australians: Google Vegimite. An OZ breakfast spread released in 1922. There were many ads for many years on radio and TV that sang a little song about happy little Vegimites. In fact I still hear it today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegemite Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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captainbill Newbie  Joined: 16/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 37 |
Great minds work alike. I was late by a few minutes. I will yield to Don's post. My fish can swim away. Bill Old school. Still interested. Head in the clouds. |
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Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
1) Line Editor is a must. 2) PEEK / POKE / EXEC This will allow machine language programs, making the Maximite into a great way to play with PIC32 assembly programming. I can see a PIC32 editor/assembler written in BASIC being a possibility, even games. But I think there may be a problem because the PIC is also generating the video so any Machine Code may interrupt this. The Maximite doesn't have the benefit of a separate Video Display chip/circuitry. 3) Better screen font 4) Horizontal resolution expanded to 512 pixels to reduce the amount of "rescaling distortion" when run on a 15" 1024x768 LCD display. All CRT's are fine, it's just that these 15" 4:3 aspect screens are easy to come by and they take up less desk space. :) |
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| captainbill Newbie Joined: 16/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 37 |
I don't know exactly how the video is generated. she source for MMBasic is available but I haven't dug into it yet. I would imagine the video routines are called by a periodic tick interrupt. If ML code doesn't disable interrupts then it shouldn't interfere with video generation. As a bit of nostalgic trivia, There were no interrupts on the trs80. Event the keyboard was polled as basic looped around doing its thing. If a ML routine got stuck or took too long to return control to the interpreter, you had no keyboard input. Wow. Bill Old school. Still interested. Head in the clouds. |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Thought the best way of collating this was to have polls set up in a blog, so I picked the simplest question I could find, just in case I haven't set the poll up correctly. So it is almost a test at this point. Poll 1: Do we need a TRS-80 READY prompt on MM-Basic? http://www.themaximitecomputer.com/do-we-need-a-trs-80-ready -prompt-on-mm-basic/ I set it to run for 30 days. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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BobDevries Senior Member  Joined: 08/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 266 |
Hi Gang, The POWER LED is controllable from MMBasic.... just use pin(0)=0 to turn it off, and pin(0)=1 to turn it on. As far as the READY prompt goes, sorry, but I voted NO... My background is the Tandy Colour Computer which just printed OK and flashed the cursor. Regards, Bob Devries Dalby, QLD, Australia |
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| BobDevries Senior Member Joined: 08/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 266 |
I'd love to see the following graphics commands: GET, PUT, DRAW as well as extending the CIRCLE command to allow an arc to be drawn I'd love to be able to find and store the name of the current directory. I'd envisaged using the CHDIR in this way: OldDir$=CHDIR NewDir$ Regards, Bob Devries Dalby, QLD, Australia |
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| Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
Good idea, but I would add all of our wish list items and have a yes/no response. Collect all the data at once. |
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| Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
Sorry Bob, as much as I am a Colour Computer guy too, I always preferred READY. The Colour Computer had the tragic 32x16 screen (improved in the Colour Computer 3 with 40 & 80 column but booted to 32). I guess READY was considered too long for a low density screen and they went with OK. :) Beside, OK.... then what? At least READY is telling you the computer is READY for another command. Personally, if I had my way, I'd go for... "BY YOUR COMMAND" - Cylons, Battlestar Galactica. :) |
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James_From_Canb Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 265 |
How about a SHIFT command? We're dealing with a system that manages bits and already has the logical operators, so a SHIFT command would fit in well. Also, it's only implementing a PIC standard function so there's no fancy code needed. Maybe the format could be SHIFT(variable name, number of bits to shift, direction) Alternately, it could also include ROTATE if it was MOVEBIT(variable, bits to move, direction, shift|rotate) My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention. Hedley Lamarr, Blazing Saddles (1974) |
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| BobDevries Senior Member Joined: 08/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 266 |
An automatic line numbering command would be good also, like the GWBasic AUTO command. AUTO number, increment Only used from the prompt of course. Regards, Bob Devries Dalby, QLD, Australia |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Thanks Bob, Power LED noted. How did you find out about that? I wonder if the Status LED is already catered for too? And I added a don't care option as well on the poll. This may give a much better indication. I'm think we got "OK" on power up too. I can't remember. 33+ years. I tried googling for a TRS-80 Model I power up screen shot yesterday, but couldn't find one. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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| BobDevries Senior Member Joined: 08/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 266 |
Hi Don, info on the POWER LED is on page 11 of the manual under the PIN command description. Regards, Bob Devries Dalby, QLD, Australia |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
I found out about polldaddy, which I just set up an hour or two ago on my wordpress blog. My blog is only Friday old, so I have had to crunch it all fairly quickly. But I think polldaddy as a freebie, I can only conduct 10 polls at once, else it costs $200 per annum. I'll test and see if I can place them all in one post on my blog, so they are all together on a single page. After all, you don't have them all running forever. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2914 |
Don, From memory (probably a soggy old 4116) I think Level 1 basic was just as the MM is and Level 2 basic was READY>_ I know for certain that the SYSTEM 80 was READY>_ Mick Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2914 |
Ok I found this Pic on the internet http://jscustom.theoldcomputer.com/images/manufacturers_syst ems/Tandy-Radio-Shack/TRS-80-Model-I/395482tandy-trs-80-mode l1.system.jpg Hopefully it will not get added spaces in the post.. ok it did just delete the 2 spaces (in SYST EMS and MODE L1 ) Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
thanks Mick, I am having trouble putting it together because of the spaces I think. can you do the link icon thing above, as I would love to see it. 
Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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| bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2914 |
Ok I will try TRS-80 Level 2 Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
I managed to fudge the polls into one blog post. We now have Wish 3 and Wish 4 polls at: http://www.themaximitecomputer.com/do-we-need-a-trs-80-ready -prompt-on-mm-basic/ The URL is the wrong name for all polls, but I'll leave it as is, to save changing the name now. Sort of thing Glenn (Gizmo) was talking about earlier. Leave as it for Mr Google. I'll add to it as time permits, and pressure for some wishes may bump the priorities. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
You have done very well Mick. Thank you. Gee your photo is 30 years old isn't it? 
Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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