I my pieces of the code.. sure. Need to check with Philip for the other pieces.
I would think that there would be some small changes to make it work on a px8. For example you would need to know how to access the serial port etc. ..steve On Saturday, April 3, 2021, Brian K. White <[email protected]> wrote: > On 4/3/21 7:40 AM, Stephen Adolph wrote: > >> HI all, >> >> I've been toying with ways to read and write normal CP/M files to real >> TPDD hardware. I'm happy to report that, as I thought, TPDDs don't care >> about the format of the filename. So they will accept filenames that are >> 8.3 format vs normal M100 files which are 6.2 format. >> >> There could be 2 ways to use TPDD with CP/M: >> 1) use the TPDD in "operation mode" which is the normal mode for use with >> M100/ TS-DOS etc,. (TPDD1 and TPDD2 support this) >> 2) use the TPDD in "FDC mode" (TPDD1 only) >> >> CP/M disks are typically block devices, so option (2) would be the >> natural choice if one was really integrating TPDD as a B: drive. But.. >> this is a lot of work and would eliminate TPDD2. >> >> The other way to go is to just write CP/M utilities that can load, save >> and kill files, as well as provide directory. In the end this is what I >> did. I used Philip Avery's code for Import and Export, and reworked them >> to deal with native 8.3 format file names. >> >> Much of the work was done on VirtualT, but not without some challenges. >> 1) changing serial ports (USB or actual) requires a lot of restarting of >> VirtualT (Deselect, exit, restart, select, exit, restart) >> 2) to get VirtualT to communicate with real TPDD, I had to run everythign >> at 9600 baud. 19200 was unreliable. >> 3) TS-DOS itself does not run reliably between VirtualT and real TPDD. >> >> Happy to report I have working utilities now for CP/M to use TPDD 1 or 2 >> at 19200 baud. They are >> TD: TPDD directory >> TL: Load file from TPDD to CP/M A: >> TS: Save file from CP/M A: to TPDD >> TK: kill named TPDD file >> >> Interestingly, LaddieAlpha tolerates 8.3 format names ALREADY! You have >> to change the start up batch file parameter from "6" to "8". In my >> testing, LaddieAlpha is perfectly happy to accept such file names. >> >> The command programs are in the ZIP attached here. >> The extensions are .CO to support initial loading using IMPORT/EXPORT as >> 6.2 files. Once you get them in CP/M, make sure they have.COM extensions. >> >> Feedback welcome. >> Steve >> > > This is wonderful. > I am surprised there wasn't already some 30 year old CP/M TPDD utilities. > Maybe there were but just never got archived anywhere. > > Could these be ported to other cp/m machines? Are you releasing the > source? I have a PX-8 that has cp/m in rom. > > -- > bkw >
