> > But why would you want to call the SUBROM??? All routines there can be
> > written yourself quite easily...
>
> However its take time.
> If you don't know how to do that, you must to do a research and its take
> time.
> You must test your routine to verify if it works Ok, its take time.
> Only after that you can write and test the program which you want to
> make.
The hell with time! Why would you need time? Figuring these things out,
getting the bottom out of it, that is the most fun on MSX. Knowing your MSX
throughout, from top to bottom.
I'm quite on my way, I hope.
Also, debugging is easier when you have your own routines, because you then
know *exactly* what they do...
> > My motto: never use the BIOS unless it's really useful, because
> > BIOS-routines are SLOW and the interslot-calls to them are even SLOWER.
>
> Sometimes speed is not important.
On MSX???
Okay, I agree. I indeed use the BDOS or the BIOS-routines too sometimes just
because I want to keep my program a bit simple. But the routines in the
SUBROM are mostly not the simpliest routines which don't need the speed, but
those are the routines used by Basic which are mostly very speed-sensitive
(that means that in most cases you would like to have them executed as fast
as possible).
> > Things like setting the palette can very easily be done manually,
without
> > the BIOS. In fact all VDP-things can be done very easily, for example
> > drawing a line (in screen 5-8) is very easy too... Just issue the right
> > command to the VDP.
>
> The problem is, what is the "right command"????
> Do you really thing that all programmers around the world have a big
> bible with all information about MSX programming with all details?
No. I don't have that either. But you *could* try to get hold of some
things, it should for instance not be very difficult to get v9938, v9958,
v9990, OPL4-databooks.
Highly likely some books about MSX have been written in Japan/Brazil/Spain
too.
I have a book called "MSX Handboek voor gevorderden", quite easy to get on
fairs, and although it is MSX1, it contains a lot of info about the PPI,
PSG, Joystickports and pinlayouts, BIOS-routines, Hooks, etcetera.
And I have a book about the Z80 which explains every instruction in the
greatest detail (by Rodnay Zaks).
I don't have the official v9938 datasheet either, but I have dumped Stefan
Boer's "VDP Cursus" (Sunrise Magazine) on paper. It is very useful, also
contains a lot of additional info and things I found out later which aren't
written there I added myself.
Those three are the things I use. Ofcourse I've got more books, and I've
also got the OPL4 and v9990 datasheet, but those I hardly use. So with 2
books, 1 hardcopy and by reading this list, you can become quite an expert
on MSX. And I have no other MSX-pal here in the neibourhood who taught me
those things.
Hey, what about if I'd make some kind of 'library' of subroutines like 'set
palette', 'fade', 'send VDP command' and things like that, wrote some
articles about different parts of the MSX and put it on my homepage???
Or a larger project: Some sort of MiLC, but then with all texts in English
(or English + the native language of the writer), and more possibilities
like downloadable files etc.
I would like to coordinate this... Let me know if you'd like that and if you
are interested in writing some texts or adding some of your routines to the
library.
~Grauw
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