Just a note for anyone interested: Birt was right. A Model T *can* tokenize a BASIC program one line at a time from any serial port. This is much better than converting a .DO file which can easily fill up RAM. If you weren't lucky enough to get a Backpack before they sold out, here's how I've been tokenizing on the fly:
1. On my Tandy 200:
LOAD "COM:98N1ENN"
2. On my GNU/Linux box, hooked up via a NULL modem:
* (cat FOO.DO; read) > /dev/ttyUSB0*
3. When the Model T says "Ok",
1. On my PC, I hit *Enter*
2. On my Tandy 200, I type: SAVE "FOO"
This looks simple but the serial port handling for Linux is a bit funny. I
needed the *read* command because the port data was getting cut off as soon
as *cat* finished. Also, it is necessary to preconfigure the serial port
using *stty* to make sure it has the right baudrate, etc. I do that once,
in step 0
0. Configure serial port the way the Tandy portables like.
*s*
*tty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 ixon ixoff stop ^S start ^Q -onlcr -icrnl eof ^Z
19200*
Since that's a mouthful to type, I put all of the above steps in a shell
script, which also includes commentary on what the settings mean and
possible sources of errors. (Please see attachment).
Of particular note for troubleshooting is that, if some of the data gets
transferred, but it is garbled or you get a ?DS ERROR, then the problem is
that your PC's serial port does not support "ON CHIP SOFTWARE FLOW
CONTROL". One solution is to buy a serial card or USB cable with an FTDI
chip in it. (Other companies make ICs that support on chip software flow
control, I even have a cheap Prolific 2303 device that does, but FTDI is
the only company I know of whose chips are supposed to always work. )
Of course, the simplest solution is to get a backpack once Birt has them
back in stock.
—b9
P.S. Why on chip xon/xoff is needed: It took me a long time to figure this
out, but software flow control no longer works on most modern PCs. For
speed, serial ports use long FIFOs (buffers) which increases throughput at
the cost of latency. By the time the ^S character (XOFF == "please stop
transmitting") from the Model T gets to the PC, the PC will have already
written a lot of data that the Model T has to discard.
On Wed, Jul 27, 2022 at 5:15 AM <[email protected]> wrote:
> Supply chain issues still abound for all. We are working on trying to get
> some more Backpacks made. I think you could use this same idea for any sort
> of serial loading of programs.
>
>
>
> Jeff Birt
>
>
>
> *From:* M100 <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *B 9
> *Sent:* Wednesday, July 27, 2022 2:28 AM
> *To:* [email protected]
> *Subject:* Re: [M100] Questions about tokenizing BASIC in UNIX
>
>
>
> What a nifty use of the Backpack's command line interface! I saw your
> YouTube on the Backpack last year and thought they looked intriguing. Did
> the supply chain issues ever get resolved?
>
>
>
> —b9
>
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