Re: Just an inspiration I had suddenly
On Thu, 9 Mar 2000, Laurens Holst wrote:
It is only me who thinks that we need with some urgence a C or BASIC
compiler with the same integrated interface of Compass??
Perhaps I am the only one, but really prefer the unix way, where all is
separated, so you can use your own editor with any programming language
and you don't have to learn the editor commands that come with the
integrated environment.
I did it that way. TED for editing, Gen80 for compiling...
Compared to Compass: SLO (no tokenizing), and uneasy (in Compass: press
^A (or F4-Space-Space) to assemble (to disk), switch between sources with
CTRL-1/2/3/4, switch to 60 Hz with CTRL-6, load and save almost every
fileformat, from .COM to raw sector access, advanced memory management,
highly configurable,DOS or Basic shell by simply pressing shift-ESC,
quitting the shell by -again- easily pressing shift-ESC, and TONS more...
Really, I love it! And Compass 2.0 will be -- HOLY --, faster assembling,
better shell, better debugging...).
That is not why you need a integrated thing. It's why you need a good
environment (multitasking to be exact). I haven't seen uzix, but I think
it should be good... I'm making something myself, but I don't think it
will be finished anytime soon, since I don't spend much time on it.
I think you know how it works (fast) in linux, when you use ALT-Fx to
switch beween anything you like, not just the things you might use with
your assembler (drawing program, calculator, assembler, anything...) This
is a more flexible way, but I agree it takes some time to build it.
Bye,
shevek
/***Use gcc to compile***Don't mind the warning/
int*a,k ,v[9];int*main (){int i,j,s=1, x,z ,c[
]={1,4,7,4,3,4,5,4 ,1,1,1 ,2,
3,3,3,4};for(i=0;( i++9) !k
;s=-s){k=0;scanf("%d",z);v [--z ]=s;for(j=0;j
8; j++){z=v[ c[j ]];k|=z==v [c[
j]- c[j+8]]( z(v[ c[j]+c [j+
8]]==z));;;}}printf(" %d won\n",- s*k );}
/***Tic-tac-toe.use 1-9 to play/
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Re: Just an inspiration I had suddenly
On Thu, 2 Mar 2000, Nestor Soriano wrote: It is only me who thinks that we need with some urgence a C or BASIC compiler with the same integrated interface of Compass?? Perhaps I am the only one, but really prefer the unix way, where all is separated, so you can use your own editor with any programming language and you don't have to learn the editor commands that come with the integrated environment. Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes) in the body (not the subject) of the message. Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] More information on MSX can be found in the following places: The MSX faq: http://www.faq.msxnet.org/ The MSX newsgroup: comp.sys.msx The MSX IRC channel: #MSX on Undernet
Re: No interrupts? (coding question)
On Wed, 5 Jan 2000, Laurens Holst wrote:
You can turn off the interrupts in VDP also, but this does not
interrupt IRQs from another devices (assuming there is strange hardware
connected in your machine).
I think this is what I'm searching for... Could you provide me with more
information about that?
I don't know exactly... take a look at the v9958 (or v9938) specs... in
registers 0 and 1 there should be three bits called IE0, IE1 and IE2. Those
can enable/disable the interrupts. One of them represents the line-interrupt
(I think IE2), one represents the light pen interrupt (I think IE1), and one
represents the 'normal' interrupt (I think IE0).
Complement that one to disable the VDP interrupts.
The lightpen one is in register 0, bit 4. No matter what you set it to,
the lighpen will never give an interrupt on the MSX, since the lightpen is
not connected to the VDP. In register 1, bit 5 (IIRC), is the vertical
scanning interrupt flag. It controls if the VDP gives an interrupt every
time the screen has been built (when it starts with the lower border).
This is the usual interrupt which you might want to disable. There is one
last one, I thought it was in register 8 or 9, for the horizontal scanning
interrupt. If you set that right, the VDP gives interrupts when it starts
with the building of the line set in register H18 (vdp(H19) in basic).
Normally it is set to no interrupts, but it is very useful for
split-screen things.
Bye,
shevek
/***Use gcc to compile***Don't mind the warning/
int*a,k ,v[9];int*main (){int i,j,s=1, x,z ,c[
]={1,4,7,4,3,4,5,4 ,1,1,1 ,2,
3,3,3,4};for(i=0;( i++9) !k
;s=-s){k=0;scanf("%d",z);v [--z ]=s;for(j=0;j
8; j++){z=v[ c[j ]];k|=z==v [c[
j]- c[j+8]]( z(v[ c[j]+c [j+
8]]==z));;;}}printf(" %d won\n",- s*k );}
/***Tic-tac-toe.use 1-9 to play/
MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
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Re: Piping
On Wed, 1 Dec 1999, Adriano Camargo Rodrigues da Cunha wrote:
If you think that spawning many processes for a pipe is a waste of resources
on low-end systems like MSX you should use the temporary file approach, just
like MSXDOS and MS-DOS do.
Yeah, I could, but it's not the right way (and it's t
dirty...), since the pipe() system call exists in UZIX kernel.
For a unix system like uzix, the MS-DOS method is totally useless, indeed.
Last night I tried my first implementation of pipes in sash (UZIX
default shell). I tried only with one pipe.
My algorithm is:
1. put arguments from prompt into char *argv[]
2. check for the pipe symbol ("|")
3. if not found pipe symbol, run as a single executable file
4. pipe(pipe_fd) (result: pipe_fd[0]=read, pipe_fd[1]=write)
5. first fork:
close(pipe_fd[0])
close(1)
dup2(pipe_fd[1], 1)
argv = all arguments before the pipe symbol
execute(argv[0])
6. second fork:
close(pipe_fd[1])
close(0)
dup2(pipe_fd[0], 0)
argv = all arguments after the pipe symbol
execute(argv[0])
7. [wait for all processes to terminate? only last one?]
7. return to prompt
This sounds ok. I presume that process 1 and process 2 are running
simultaniously and are put to sleep when they ask for data that isn't
there yet? If not, that is a problem.
Well, it works for the cat/more pair. Doing a cat fudeba.txt |
more works. But it doesn't work for the ls/more pair. System hangs after
displaying the last file in directory (NOTE: system doesn't crash, just
all processes goes to sleep mode).
Did you think of sending a wake-up signal to the process waiting for data
when there is put data in the buffer after is was empty?
Another question is: shouldn't shell wait for all processes to
terminate? Or just for the last process?
I should say both, since the first can still receive input when the last
died. But most of the time it doesn't matter, since when the last process
dies, the first will recieve a "broken pipe" signal for any output it
sends.
By the way, the pipe() syscall implementation is (well, seems to
be) right, since 'man' works (and it uses a pipe to 'more' to display
manual pages).
It sounds like the process isn't awakened. If that is so, only the pipes
that do not block the second process work. So if the data flow is not
enough, it doesn't work.
Bye,
shevek
/***Use gcc to compile***Don't mind the warning/
int*a,k ,v[9];int*main (){int i,j,s=1, x,z ,c[
]={1,4,7,4,3,4,5,4 ,1,1,1 ,2,
3,3,3,4};for(i=0;( i++9) !k
;s=-s){k=0;scanf("%d",z);v [--z ]=s;for(j=0;j
8; j++){z=v[ c[j ]];k|=z==v [c[
j]- c[j+8]]( z(v[ c[j]+c [j+
8]]==z));;;}}printf(" %d won\n",- s*k );}
/***Tic-tac-toe.use 1-9 to play/
MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
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RE: LHA-PMA for UNIX released
There is a very popular port to pc made by Linus Torvalds. It can be
downloaded via ftp on:
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.2/linux-2.2.13.tar.gz
For more info on how to use it or how to get a complete system, see
e.g. http://www.linux.org
Sorry, couldn't help it, but I just can't stand incorrect synonyms... PC
is NOT the same as "a computer running Microsoft DOS or Microsoft
Windows"... Just like linux is not very similar to unix, it IS unix. Just
like solaris, freeBSD, HP-UX, irix, etc.
Anyway, you guys probably aren't interested in this, so I'll shut up now.
Bye,
shevek
On Thu, 25 Nov 1999, Frits Hilderink wrote:
Anyone made a PC port yet ?
Hi MSX-ers,
I'd like to inform you that LHA-PMA is released.
It's LHA UNIX modified so it can extract PMA archives.
Now you can unpack PMA files in an instant on your favourite UNIX-like
system.
/***Use gcc to compile***Don't mind the warning/
int*a,k ,v[9];int*main (){int i,j,s=1, x,z ,c[
]={1,4,7,4,3,4,5,4 ,1,1,1 ,2,
3,3,3,4};for(i=0;( i++9) !k
;s=-s){k=0;scanf("%d",z);v [--z ]=s;for(j=0;j
8; j++){z=v[ c[j ]];k|=z==v [c[
j]- c[j+8]]( z(v[ c[j]+c [j+
8]]==z));;;}}printf(" %d won\n",- s*k );}
/***Tic-tac-toe.use 1-9 to play/
MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the
quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
RE: Piping
On Thu, 25 Nov 1999, Boon, Eric wrote:
[Howto]
cat fudeba.txt | head 20 | tail 10 | less
I know for sure (i.e. 95% ;-)) that Messy DOS uses temporary files in this
case...
(so actaully does something like:
cat fudeba.txt tmp001
head -20 tmp001 tmp002; del tmp001
tail -10 tmp002 tmp003; del tmp002
less tmp003; del tmp003
(DOS might even postpone the deletion of the tmp... files to the end!))
This is correct. Unix uses a much more flexible approach. It uses a
buffer, that is filled by the first process and emptied by the second. If
the buffer is full, the first process blocks (stops executing), until
there is some space. If the buffer is empty, the second process is put to
sleep. This way, there is no problem when the piped data is much (like an
endless pipe, for which in DOS the second process would never be
executed). That is why it is not considered a waste of resources.
I hope you understand it.
Bye,
shevek
/***Use gcc to compile***Don't mind the warning/
int*a,k ,v[9];int*main (){int i,j,s=1, x,z ,c[
]={1,4,7,4,3,4,5,4 ,1,1,1 ,2,
3,3,3,4};for(i=0;( i++9) !k
;s=-s){k=0;scanf("%d",z);v [--z ]=s;for(j=0;j
8; j++){z=v[ c[j ]];k|=z==v [c[
j]- c[j+8]]( z(v[ c[j]+c [j+
8]]==z));;;}}printf(" %d won\n",- s*k );}
/***Tic-tac-toe.use 1-9 to play/
MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the
quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Authors for MCCW (MSX Computer Club magazine on the Web) wanted!
On Mon, 22 Nov 1999, Laurens Holst wrote:
underlining **will** do (while waving my hand).
No, it won't.
ps. I bet no-one understands my wave-hand joke... *sigh*...
:P
Bye,
shevek
ps: I don't really have an opinion about the discussed topics, so I don't
reply to it... sorry
/***Use gcc to compile***Don't mind the warning/
int*a,k ,v[9];int*main (){int i,j,s=1, x,z ,c[
]={1,4,7,4,3,4,5,4 ,1,1,1 ,2,
3,3,3,4};for(i=0;( i++9) !k
;s=-s){k=0;scanf("%d",z);v [--z ]=s;for(j=0;j
8; j++){z=v[ c[j ]];k|=z==v [c[
j]- c[j+8]]( z(v[ c[j]+c [j+
8]]==z));;;}}printf(" %d won\n",- s*k );}
/***Tic-tac-toe.use 1-9 to play/
MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the
quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Authors for MCCW (MSX Computer Club magazine on the Web) wanted!
On Mon, 22 Nov 1999, Laurens Holst wrote:
underlining **will** do (while waving my hand).
No, it won't.
No, underlining **will** do! (while waving with my hand again).
No, it won't. And stop waving with that hand like you're some kind of jedi
or something.
ps. I bet no-one understands my wave-hand joke... *sigh*...
:P
Okay one smart (?) person here.
Nah, I just saw the movie
Bye,
shevek
/***Use gcc to compile***Don't mind the warning/
int*a,k ,v[9];int*main (){int i,j,s=1, x,z ,c[
]={1,4,7,4,3,4,5,4 ,1,1,1 ,2,
3,3,3,4};for(i=0;( i++9) !k
;s=-s){k=0;scanf("%d",z);v [--z ]=s;for(j=0;j
8; j++){z=v[ c[j ]];k|=z==v [c[
j]- c[j+8]]( z(v[ c[j]+c [j+
8]]==z));;;}}printf(" %d won\n",- s*k );}
/***Tic-tac-toe.use 1-9 to play/
MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the
quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: PMA
On Tue, 9 Nov 1999, Maarten ter Huurne wrote:
What I'm _really_ after is a Linux util to decompress PMA's.
I prefer option 2. I already added "-pm0-" support, but "-pm2-" support is a
lot harder. The main problem is that I'm not that experienced with C. Help
is appreciated.
I can help you there. If you have the packing format specs of PMA, I could
as well write a whole new unpacker/packer for unix. Just let me know what
you need/what you have.
Bye,
shevek
/***Use gcc to compile***Don't mind the warning/
int*a,k ,v[9];int*main (){int i,j,s=1, x,z ,c[
]={1,4,7,4,3,4,5,4 ,1,1,1 ,2,
3,3,3,4};for(i=0;( i++9) !k
;s=-s){k=0;scanf("%d",z);v [--z ]=s;for(j=0;j
8; j++){z=v[ c[j ]];k|=z==v [c[
j]- c[j+8]]( z(v[ c[j]+c [j+
8]]==z));;;}}printf(" %d won\n",- s*k );}
/***Tic-tac-toe.use 1-9 to play/
MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the
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Re: JOYNET information and MISC
On Tue, 27 Apr 1999, Martial BENOIT wrote:
Hello everyone,
Just have two questions:
1/ where to get the JOYNET BIOS and latest specifications for the cable?
On my homepage there is something like a BIOS:
http://fmf.fwn.rug.nl/~shevek
Bye,
/***Use_gcc_to_compile***Don't_mind_the_warning/
int*aaa ,v[ 9];int*main (){int i,j,s=1, k,z ,c[
]={1,4 ,7,4,3,4,6,4 ,1,1,1 ,2,
3,3,3, 4};;;;;;;for (i=0;i ++
9!k;s=-s){k=0;;scanf("%d" ,z) ;v[z]=s ;for(j
=0; j8 ;++j){ z=v[c[j]];k|=z ==v
[c[ j]- c[j+8] ](v[c [j]+c[ j+8
]]==zz); ;}}printf(" %d won\n",- s*k );}
/***Tic-tac-toe.use_0-8_to_play/
MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the
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Re: Joynet game at Tilburg 99
On Wed, 21 Apr 1999, Maarten ter Huurne wrote:
Can everyone who is bringing JoyNet cables confirm this to the list? Then
we know if we have enough to do some serious playing and we also know who
to gather when we set-up the network.
I'm bringing 2, maybe 4 (real ones). But I need 3 of them myself...
Bye,
/***Use_gcc_to_compile***Don't_mind_the_warning/
int*aaa ,v[ 9];int*main (){int i,j,s=1, k,z ,c[
]={1,4 ,7,4,3,4,6,4 ,1,1,1 ,2,
3,3,3, 4};;;;;;;for (i=0;i ++
9!k;s=-s){k=0;;scanf("%d" ,z) ;v[z]=s ;for(j
=0; j8 ;++j){ z=v[c[j]];k|=z ==v
[c[ j]- c[j+8] ](v[c [j]+c[ j+8
]]==zz); ;}}printf(" %d won\n",- s*k );}
/***Tic-tac-toe.use_0-8_to_play/
MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the
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Re: Speed difference between disk formatted on PC and MSX
On Tue, 20 Apr 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
What the threat was about is that when you format a disk, the
formatting program decides the number of bytes per gap. MSX diskROMs
seem to use more bytes per gap than PCs. Then we started wondering
what difference this makes.
Indeed. But I didn't reply to that. Never mind.
So this is your long-awaited new signature?
Indeed. Do you like it?
/Use_gcc_to_compile/
/*xxoxo o*/ intmain()/* */{int i,j,s=1, k,z ,c[
]={1,4 ,7,4,3,4,6,4 ,1,1,1 ,2,
3,3,3, 4},v[9];;for (i=0;i ++
9!k;s=-s){k=0;;scanf("%d" ,z) ;v[z]=s ;for(j
=0; j8 ;++j){ z=v[c[j]];k|=z ==v
[c[ j]- c[j+8] ](v[c [j]+c[ j+8
]]==zz); ;}}printf(" %d won\n",- s*k );}
/***Tic-tac-toe.use_0-8_to_play/
MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the
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Re: Speed difference between disk formatted on PC and MSX
On Fri, 16 Apr 1999, Maarten ter Huurne wrote: Shevek wrote: Even mailers don't understand my name doesn't start with a capital :( I think it is the same reason as putting the boot sector on the outside of the disk (the widest circle). There is more magnetic space reserved for the sector, so it will be more secure. That's not true. A bigger gap doesn't mean the bytes inside sector get more space, it only means they are surrounded by more space. Strange. I always thought of it as very logical that cd's have their first track on the inside:safer against (physical) damage. and disks have it on the outside: safer against magnetic damage. But the last argument doesn't seem to work, then. In that case I would expect it to be on the inside of the disk against physical damage, like on a cd... Does anyone know the reason for putting it on the outside? Or did they just choose something? Bye, shevek My signature will change soon. --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Speed difference between disk formatted on PC and MSX
On Thu, 15 Apr 1999, Adriano Camargo Rodrigues da Cunha wrote: Erik, when the gap size is too small (and he is on a pc formatted disk) he sometimes have to make a complete rotation for the next sector But with a small gap do I gain more disk space, don't I? If not, what is the advantage of having a small gap if, in some cases (as this one), it slow down the reading speed of the disk? I think it is the same reason as putting the boot sector on the outside of the disk (the widest circle). There is more magnetic space reserved for the sector, so it will be more secure. Manuel: Interleaving is putting the sectors of a disk in a strange order, and not linear. This is good for computers that take long to write the data to the memory. If the gap is passed already, it is not in the sector it needs, so it doesn't need to wait a full cycle. This is indeed part of the standard, so all MS(X)-DOS disks will work fine with interleaved settings. Bye, shevek My signature will change soon. --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: New MSX Emulator
On Sat, 3 Apr 1999, TFH wrote: Again there is a new PC Emulator for the PC-Platform. ^^ Hmm... Sounds like a great debugging tool... But why post it here? *grin* Bye, shevek (I'm not blond, I only act like it) --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: mapperports - megademo :)
On Mon, 29 Mar 1999, Maarten ter Huurne wrote:
At 03:35 PM 3/29/99 +0200, shevek wrote:
Is it useful to know if there is a mapper if you don't know where it is?
No, it isn't. ("where" = "slot")
To check the presence of the mapper, you don't have to read the mapper
ports. Just like you can detect a megaRAM, although the megaRAM mapper
cannot be read.
On any slot containing RAM, you use the "count pages" algorithm. If you get
"1" as a result, it is either no mapper or a 1-page mapper (makes no
difference in use).
Not at all. It is the same difference as between 64kB fixed memory and a
64kB mapper. A 16kB mapper can be switched in any page. No mapper is fixed
address.
Bye,
shevek
---
Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002
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Re: mapperports - megademo :)
On Mon, 29 Mar 1999, Maarten ter Huurne wrote: At 03:43 PM 3/29/99 +0200, you wrote: Besides, what kind of program would leave the mapper in a different state than when it was started? I am busy on a muli-tasking system that cuts programs off on the interrupt. It is very well possible that one program sets the mappers is some state and when an other program is called, it's memory-status will be saved. Therefor I need a way to read all settings:slots, subslots and mappers. You don't have to _read_ them, you have to _know_ them! It must be clear by now that remembering what you write to the mapper ports is a reliable way of knowing the mapper settings, unlike reading the ports. Not at all reliable. I don't know what all programs do with it. If they are programmed correctly according to the rules I make for the operating system, it will be ok. But I designed it in a way that all currently existing programs that don't use the bios will probably work fine. And I really don't know when they switch... But I think there is a (very slow) way of checking it by only writing to the ports. You need to switch a bit for that, though, so you cannot "read" all 4 mapper-states that way. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: mapperports - megademo :)
On Mon, 29 Mar 1999, Alex Wulms wrote: ] A very good initiative. ] ] *memorymapped RAM is optional for MSX2 ] ] *The size of a memorymapper is at least 64kB (four pages of 16kB) ] ] I don't agree with this. Although all mappers are at least 64kB, I don't ] see any reason for demanding it to be. Huh? You don't agree with the official specification of the MSX2 system? That sounds rather strange to me ;-) Is it? Hmm... In that case, I must admit it will be ok to demand this Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: MegaRAM
On Thu, 25 Mar 1999, Marco Antonio Simon dal Poz wrote: PLEEZ MAN!!! English... Ok! Next time it will be a private e-mail. But take it easy! Some time ago (2 years) many people answered e-mails in dutch, and I never complained about it! Dutch people did... --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: 64K VRAM?
On Thu, 25 Mar 1999, Ricardo Jurczyk Pinheiro wrote: At 13:19 24/03/99 +0100, you wrote: MSX and DMA??? Seems quite impossible to me... Isn't it? Nope dudez, I've heard a lot about these possibilities, of MSX and DMA... Of course, rebuilding the computer and peripherals. But I don't know hardware enough to talk about. I would expect the hardware to use the busreq-pin on the z80. But is that one actually in the cartridge-slot? Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: mapperports - megademo :)
On Sat, 27 Mar 1999, Jon De Schrijder wrote: Can you all agree with the following? It is important for both MSX software- and hardware-developers that we all can come to an agreement. Probably there are still memorymappers procuded nowadays and also software depending on these. A very good initiative. *memorymapped RAM is optional for MSX2 *The size of a memorymapper is at least 64kB (four pages of 16kB) I don't agree with this. Although all mappers are at least 64kB, I don't see any reason for demanding it to be. It can be any size which is a multiple of 16kB. I think we should not even define that it must have a number of pages which is a power of 2. It may happen somebody wants to make a mapper of 48kB or something as a test. I think it should work on every MSX, the only problem is you cannot read the mappersize from the port, but that can be done in a different way anyway. *There can be more than one memorymapper in an MSX2 or higher. Agreed *Mapperports are of course writeable. It is not required for the mapper to store all written bits. Storing more bits than are actually used by the mapper is not illegal. (see the Philips MSX with 4 bit-mapper and only 64kB RAM connected) Agreed *When powering up the system, the bios should initialize the mapperports by writing the apropriate values to it. I think we could as well state the standard here: They will be filled with 3,2,1,0 for page 0,1,2 and 3 respectively. *Mapperports may be read. However, the returned information is limited (see below) *The read-out mechanism of a mapper should comply with the the following: when reading a mapperport the last written BITS should be returned. So only the bits that were actually stored when the mapperport was written, should be outputted on the databus. The other bits of the databus should remain in a high-impedance state. Hmm... Why not make them undefined? This is easier for the hardware-designer and doesn't matter for the software-designer, since the mappersize cannot be read from it anyway. As a result of this the following things are true: -There occur no short-circuits on the databus; or a databit is not controlled at all (high-imped) or it is controlled by one or more mappers at the same time; in that case all mappers return the same databit (the databit that they stored when the mapperport was written) (Note also the fact that it is no problem when there exists a small delay between the several mappers when outputting their data, because the 'slow' outputs will still be in a high-impedance state and will not affect the 'fast' outputs.) -It is possible that databits not controlled by any mapper return random bits. There is no reason to assume these bits to be 1 or 0. There is. High impedance means 1, since MSX pulls it's databus up. -Since all valid memory mappers contains at least 4 mapperblocks, at least 2 bits are used for the mapperports. When writing data to a mapperport, the two least significant bits can always be read back. (useful to check if there is a memory mapper present in the system) Is it useful to know if there is a mapper if you don't know where it is? I think it could also be useful to have a mapper of only 1 page. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: mapperports - megademo :)
On Sat, 27 Mar 1999, Maarten ter Huurne wrote: Besides, what kind of program would leave the mapper in a different state than when it was started? I am busy on a muli-tasking system that cuts programs off on the interrupt. It is very well possible that one program sets the mappers is some state and when an other program is called, it's memory-status will be saved. Therefor I need a way to read all settings:slots, subslots and mappers. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Betr.:: Re: mapperports - megademo :)
On Mon, 29 Mar 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [Mappers] I have a little idea: What if someone writes a mapper support driver for DOS1? Shouldn't be too hard. Programs could even install such a driver themselves so that they can switch the mapper using a single interface. Ehm... I thought MemMan was just that. A mapper support driver for DOS1 and 2... I think what he meant is adapting dos1 in a way so that it can use dos2 mapper routines. That would be useful, since you don't need dos2 than for good mappersupport. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Problems when changing stack
On Wed, 24 Mar 1999, Nestor Soriano wrote: ld (SAVESP),sp ld sp,NEWSP+100 push all . . (changes slot and segment on page 2, do stuff and restores old status) . pop all ld sp,(SAVESP) jp old interrupt hook SAVESP: dw 0 NEWSP: ds 100 Well, a program executing such code causes the system to crash when any other program is executed. Someone knows where is the problem? You had some hints of what the problem most probably could be. I give you one more, but I don't think you made this mistake: push all and pop all must be in reversed order, this is correctly done? Most probably you get an interrupt while your routine is working. If that happens only once, the system will hang. You can switch them off with vdp(1), so you're sure there'll be really no interrupts, even if some routine might switch them on. This is not really safe, though, since other devices might give interrupts as well, like the gfx9000. So just make sure they're not switched on is the safest. If you disable the bios, don't forget to read vdp status register 0 to reset the interrupt. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: 64K VRAM?
On Wed, 24 Mar 1999, Laurens Holst wrote: MSX and DMA??? Seems quite impossible to me... Isn't it? Ehm... well, in the BDOS specs the term DMA-address is used for the start address of disk-actions (read-write). This is NOT the same as DMA on PC's... Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: page 1 diskloading (was: 64K VRAM?)
On Wed, 24 Mar 1999, Jon De Schrijder wrote: But this routine is only provided in MSX-DOS(2) environment; when in BASIC, a RET instruction is placed at #F36E. So: disktransfer in page1 in BASIC is probably not possible (or perhaps the F37D entry temporarily changes the #F36E hook; didn't test it); This is logical: BASIC ROM is normally selected in page 1. It is not that logical. I want to make a program that is started from basic but switches ram to page 1. Than calling the diskrom on f37d with dma in page 1 would be useful. Until now, I always avoided it, but I would like to know if it would work on every MSX. If so, I could just as well use it... Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: 64K VRAM?
On Mon, 22 Mar 1999, Marco Antonio Simon dal Poz wrote: On Mon, 22 Mar 1999, shevek wrote: On Mon, 22 Mar 1999, Marco Antonio Simon dal Poz wrote: For the most part of diskroms, DMA can be in page 1, because they have access to FDC through addresses 7FF8h-7FFCh and also BFF8h-BFFCh, and they transfer a small routine to F1BFh (or something like that) that allows a disk transfer to happen in page 1. Is that MSX-standard or just the case on many MSXs? The standard doesn't say anything about the method that the diskrom should use. So, it's just the case on many MSXs. The standard only says that the interface should use memory addresses to transfer data between CPU and FDC. Ok, but this means that using DMA in page 1 is against MSX standard, or not? Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Discdrive
On Tue, 23 Mar 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: - can you put a normal doublesided drive in a nms8245? Yes - And where can I get one..?? Any elektronics shop You probably wonder how to do this... simple: read the FAQ:www.faq.msxnet.org Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: R: LOG(x) BASIC function
On Fri, 19 Mar 1999, Stefano Fronteddu wrote: Taylors rule says that log (1+x) = x - x^2/2 + x^3/3 + + (x^(2n+1)) / (2n+1)! so log x = (x-1) - (x-1)^2/2 + ... +(-1)^n-1 * ((x-1)^n) / n This is correct, but remember that this is an approximation near x=0 (in the original form), so if you want to know log(100), it will have a large error. For more correct values over the whole interval (you need to specify one, preferribly not being infinitely long), there are other ways that take longer for each step, but come much closer to the desired function if x is large. Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: 64K VRAM?
On Fri, 19 Mar 1999, Laurens Holst wrote: What if you want to load code (in Dos) from # using the BDos-routines??? Yup, right, you load it in #4000 and then switch it to #. I never tried, but as far as I know the DMA can never be in page 1, since that is where the disk-rom is switched during the actual reading process... You can load it to #8000, of course :-) Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: mapperports (was MegaRAM)
On Sun, 21 Mar 1999, Erik wrote: So that rumor is solved , you are allowed to read them. The only problem is that the unused bit's of the registers can return unexpected data.( always 1 or 0 or the data you did write to it or maybe crap) You first have to calculate the amount of memory and the number of used bit's. If you have done this you can use this information to mask the return data of the registers. The only thing you need to expect is that writing the data you read from the mapperport will set it back to the state it was in when you read it. All other info about the mapper can be obtained by writing to the port and reading and writing the memory. You also have to take care that some people have more then 1 mapper (however this is technically not allowed , but who cares) Not allowed? Hmm, didn't know that. Well, many people have it anyway, so it better be supported, I guess... Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: 64K VRAM?
On Mon, 22 Mar 1999, Marco Antonio Simon dal Poz wrote: For the most part of diskroms, DMA can be in page 1, because they have access to FDC through addresses 7FF8h-7FFCh and also BFF8h-BFFCh, and they transfer a small routine to F1BFh (or something like that) that allows a disk transfer to happen in page 1. Is that MSX-standard or just the case on many MSXs? Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: 64K VRAM?
On Thu, 18 Mar 1999, Marco Antonio Simon dal Poz wrote: Is there a program that takes profit of the 64kb memory mapped? There once was a basic-database that used the mapper. I guess it worked with 64kB as well... Most flexible memory programs do, I think. The memman filecopier BK does... I wrote some string management routines that use all memory it finds in page 2 and 1 page in page 1, so that would also be of more use when it has a mapper. I think there are many other programs. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: LOG(x) BASIC function
On Thu, 18 Mar 1999, Patriek Lesparre wrote: Hi all, I was wondering how BASIC calculates LOG(x). Does it use a look-up table (would require massive amounts of memory), some sort of algorithm (would require massive amounts of CPU time), or some mixed method? I'm trying to speed up multiplication and division (in machinecode) by using the following: log(x) + log(y) = log(x*y) log(x) - log(y) = log(x/y) I calculated I'd need about 96kB for a look-up table with reasonable accuracy. Because log(256*256)=4.8164 I'd need 48164 x 2 bytes. Although I don't mind wasting that much memory, there has to be a smarter way... There is, though it's slower, of course. I believe the usual way calculators do it is with an aproximation curve. If you ask for the log, it gives you the result of a function (usually a polynome) which looks very much like a log. You could use the taylor-series, which can be calculated quite quick, but is not a very good approximation. I don't know the taylor-series by heart, but I could look it up. In case you want to start programming, it will be of the form: y=a+bx+cx^2+dx^3+ If i'm working on it anyway, I could find a more optimal way of choosing the parameters. If you tell me on what range you want to use it, I could optimize it for you. A faster way is to have a small lookup table and expect the parts in between to be lineair. It shouldn't be very slow to calculate that. Than you can make your own desicion how much memory you want to spend on it (96kB is really too much, I think...) I hope this helped, Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Linux 4 MSX????
On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, Ricardo Jurczyk Pinheiro wrote: At 22:47 16/03/99 +0100, you wrote: On Tue, 9 Mar 1999, Ricardo Jurczyk Pinheiro wrote: Well, I'll start a group to develop Linux 4 MSX What? I'm a linux user too. But it's a pity that our Z80 hasn't multiprocess features. Sure, but there isn't any problem to do a multitask Unix system... =) That is true, but you can't really prevent a crash. What would a multitsker do against one of its program doing: DI LABEL: JP LABEL ? With no non-maskeble interrupts (Z80 has them, but MSX doesn't), it is impossible to get out of the loop, except with a reset... So a multitasker on MSX probably couldn't even stand a comparison with W95, which imo means it's really bad Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: 64K VRAM?
On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, Marco Antonio Simon dal Poz wrote: How can 64kb of RAM be memory mapper? Memory Mapper with only 4 memory blocks is a bit unuseful! Not at all. With a mapper every 16kB page can be switched on , 4000, 8000 or C000. This is useful for example when you want to use a lot of memory under BASIC. You can lift the bottom of your program to C000 (F676 if I remember correctly) and then use page 2 as data-area. With a 64kB mapper this still gives you 48kB to use, in stead of the 16kB you would have without a mapper. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Joynet cables
On Wed, 10 Mar 1999, Frengo wrote: On Tue, 9 Mar 1999 13:48:08 +0100 (MET), shevek wrote: Hi Shevek, Hi, As you might know, I am programming some things for the joynet. Of course I would like everyone to have one joynet-cable per computer. Great idea :-))) Two Question : 1) How about using the Joynet cable to connect the MSX also to a PC (parallel port) ? I know there was just a cable to do that, but I think that Joynet is a standard... I know cables like that have been made, although there is no standard about it. Actually, I don't really see the use of it... If you want power, you take a PC (or a unix, of course) and forget about MSX. If you want fun, you take a MSX (or some other cool home computer). 2) Why not programming something to read a PC hard disk from a MSX ? It would be useful for MSX with no IDE o SCSI interface... It would be really slow, it wouldn't work with normal things like disk-roms and it wouldn't even be that much cheaper. An IDE interface costs about 41 euros. A PC to MSX cable would cost about 8 euros. I agree the difference is 33 euro, which is not little, but if you want a harddisk, it is worth it... Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Joynet cables
Hi, As you might know, I am programming some things for the joynet. Of course I would like everyone to have one joynet-cable per computer. Many people will be able to make their own cables. A description can be found on the hmepage of Laurens Holst: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/2328/joynet/joynet.html For people who can't/don't want to make their own cables, I am willing to make them. I will sell them at the fair (meeting, whatever) in Tilburg, but only to people who have reserved them. They will cost about 15 guilders (equals about 7 euros), maybe less. If anyone wants me to make cables for him/her, or has any questions, mail me. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: AW: Alest 2
On Mon, 8 Mar 1999, Robert Vroemisse wrote: Did you know that on the back of the original Aleste 2 box are pictures that aren't in the game? There is a picture there of a weapon select screen which isn't used at all. Strange isn't it? I saw the same thing in Konami's Vampire Killer. Probably they did it on purpose. On the back cover of the box there is a screen shot from level 14 (I think), in which the great key for the end-of-level-door can be seen. But in the game it is located somewhere else. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Joynet syncronous protocol
Hi Last week I read somebody was writing a synchronous protocal for joynet. At least that's what I would call it :-). The idea was to send data in packets, during which the interrupts are off. There are 3 ways I could imagine this being done: 1 - Synchronise both interrupts and start sending/receiving at interrupt time. 2 - Just start and wait for the other computer to react. 3 - Use a line-interrupt to synchronise to the other computer's main interrupt. This is really the same as the first one, but easier to implement. If you use the last option, it is possible that the interrupts are timed "wrong", so it is not possible to put a line-interrupt at the right spot. That means you have to count on a long wait time. This is even worse in case 2, of course. If you use that one, you should only send large packets, and not too often. This is not useful for all aplications (and games). The first option is the one my question is about. I know you can change the timing of the interrupt by switching between 50Hz and 60Hz, but this looks bad and I'm not sure how long both computers are timed equally. I think the 50/60Hz is not so accurate, that it stays synchronous for long. My question is: Is it possible to force a vertical interrupt on the VDP, so you can really have both interrupts synchronous? If it is, how is it done? Or is there some other way to do it? Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Joynet and BIOS
On Thu, 4 Mar 1999, Patriek Lesparre wrote: Shevek wrote: And well, I have my own page-0 routines already anyway. Including memory manager, device manager and string handling routines. Now you're calling it a device manager yourself too, eh? ^_^ You were right it is pretty confusing to call it a file manager. And I am always open for good suggestions :-) Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Your Opinion
On Mon, 1 Mar 1999, jam wrote: Hi, Lauren LH I say just make the memory-requirements higher. All the serious LH MSX-ers (well almost all) have at least 256k of RAM. And the people And what about those Japan users with a MSX2+ machine? Note that in Japan, only Turbo-R machines have more than 64KB! Is this 64kB mapped, or is it fixed on a certain address? Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Joynet and BIOS
On Thu, 4 Mar 1999, Laurens Holst wrote: Yeah ok but I was talking about a universal driver. Using this trick you can easily implement it in other programs; you don't need to write an entire new interrupt. That is true, but if you want to use your memory optimal with multiple tasks, it gets pretty unorganised and you might have other programs overwriting your hook, or something. Indeed, switching off the interrupts is a good idea too. Hey, you know what? I'll add those triks to the JoyNet-page... Now I'm going to do that, has anybody else written (but not yet programmed) (or programmed, even better!) some "protocols" for JoyNet??? I have made a comm-protocol for 2 computers using JoyNet, and a ring connected-protocol which detects if the ring is closed. However, I still haven't made up a protocol which determines how many computers there are and which assigns the computers a number... I have done that. I'm planning to write a small program, that should be loaded from cassette on a MSX without a diskdrive and that will read a program from the net and execute it. In the protocol I use, it is nessecary that every computer knows it's ID, so it is also sent (and incremented by every computer is passes). Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Joynet and BIOS
On Wed, 3 Mar 1999, Laurens Holst wrote: Use Dos... :) Just in case I didn't just mention I don't WANT to use dos, I DON'T!!! OK? (I'm not really angry, I just want to let you know it is totally out of the question that I'm using dos) ...or... That sounds better :-) I recently took a look (- :) -) at the BIOS, and I saw that it only looks at the Keyboard when the keyscan-counter SCNCNT reaches 0. What computer was that? I looked into the bios of my NMS 8250 (not recently, ok) and I'm pretty sure it reads the keyboard every vdp-interrupt. Hey, I just found the solution! I'll just switch off the interrupts, using vdp(1). When my program returns from the dos-call, I can switch them on again. :-) Hey, you got that??? Now you don't even have to do difficult things to a *complete new* interrupt-routine, you can still use your own, and IT WORKS UNDER BASIC!!! And Basic is cool because you can then easily program little test-progs or small games etc... Good idea of me, eh??? The idea is good for small things. But actually, I was planning to make big things. Sorry, I mean BIG, or even HUGE. And well, I have my own page-0 routines already anyway. Including memory manager, device manager and string handling routines. I want to add my joynet routines in it. I also will add a multitasker soon. Those are not the kind of things you want to run under BASIC, or with BASIC switched in memory... But thanks for the help. Now I do have the answer anyway :-) Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Joynet and BIOS
On Tue, 2 Mar 1999, Laurens Holst wrote: The MSX BIOS changes the pins of the joystickport while reading the joystickports. Therefor, you can only send/recieve while interrupts are disabled, or -I perfer this option- you can write your own interrupt-routine which doesn't modify the pins of the joystick-port on which JoyNet is connected. Of course, that is what I do as well. But when I want to access the disk (BDOS), I need to have the bios in page 0 (or at least the slot switching routines). I don't have them in my own 0-page code, or at least not in a dos-compatible way. (They will be dos2-compatible, but they don't switch the usual way on rst 20). So does the BIOS always switch 1's in the buttons and a 0 in the strobe, or is it random? Thanks, bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Joynet and BIOS
On Tue, 2 Mar 1999, Martial BENOIT wrote: why don't you use the DOS? I mean you are talking of BDOS, by the way buy making the game directly load from DOS prompt, you'll have the DOS and BIOS entry in page 0 that is RAM in DOS mode, therefore you just have to modify RST38 RAM location so it jump to your own interupt driver, this way you still have acces to CALL 0005h for disk rouitnes and still use your interupt driver at the same time. just copy the data at location RST38 (5 byte if I remember well...) and restore the 5 byte when exiting you application. I don't want to call it from the dos-prompt, because I am not allowed to distribute the game with dos included. I prefer to have my own "bios" in page 0, because I have rewritten more than just the interrupts. I make use of all the RST commands a lot more efficient then the bios does. Therefor I would really like a way in which I can keep my own RAM in page 0... Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: MSX tape interface
On Tue, 23 Feb 1999, Patrick Kramer wrote: Hi, Does someone know what is the maximum speed a MSX can accept when reading tapes? I mean, if I were to generate perfect FSK (so drop the cassette quality problems). Or is it possible to skip the FSK part and connect a TTL (or alike) signal right BEHIND the FSK decoder in the MSX ? This way I could connect it to my PC to download data to the MSX, and leave the MSX on forever, connected to my TV and running a database kind of application (with data like what I have on video, or an index of all of my CD's, maybe even IR controlled) Just some of my crazy ideas... Perhaps this is possible, but it would not be the easiest way. Connecting MSX to PC is possible via the joystickport(s) or printerport (depends on the direction of the stream). I heard people are working on a standardized connection via joynet. But for the applications you want to use, why should you want to connect it to the PC at all? The MSX can handle those things very well on it's own. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: [real coding] DOS2 and Memory...
On Mon, 22 Feb 1999, Alex Wulms wrote: Thinking that you should set the interruptvector at #C000 when you set I to #C0 is a commonly made mistake in the MSX world. You should set your interruptpointer at address #C0FF instead. As some of you might know, the databus in the MSX is connected to VCC with pull-up resistors. As a consequence the Z80 will always fetch the value 0xFF when reading from the databus at a moment that no device is writing to the databus. For example, when the Z80 reads the databus in IM2 after having received an interrupt request. This is true on a standard MSX with correct devices connected to it. If on the other hand a device only checks IORQ and not M1, it might put data on the bus when it is read at interrupt-time (In this mode IORQ and M1 are both active). Conclusion: Putting the interrupt vector on [I]fe (I believe the last bit is set to 0, since a 2-byte address is fetched) should be enough on a corruct machine, but it is more secure to fill the whole table from [I]0 to [I]fe, so: jumptable: equ hc000 ld a,.high. jumptable ld i,a ld hl,interrupt_routine ld (jumptable),hl ;fill table up ld hl,jumptable ld de,jumptable+2 ld bc,Hfe ldir Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: disk image formats
On Sun, 21 Feb 1999, Alwin Henseler wrote: Conclusion: -If you want to use DOS1, use one of the standard MSX disk formats (360/720 K) But is it possible to do what the utility was originally made for? Make smaller disk-images for games that aren't going to read from higher sectors anyway. If you just use a normal header-structure (boot, fat 1, fat 2, dir, data) and it will give a 'disk offline' or something when you try to read from higher sectors, the program will be very useful. It still won't be a harddisk emulator, of course. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Zip
Hi, For this zip-(de)cruncher I'm planning to write, I found out only one method is used nowadays. I got a file describing a packing method from Ricardo Jurczyk Pinheiro. I hope it is this one... I didn't get the pictures with it, by the way. Please send them to me as well. Does anybody know if just implementing this method would be enough? If not, I will need the other packing methods as well and in that case it will definitely not be finished before Tilburg. If this is all, it might. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: AW: English Snatcher
On Mon, 22 Feb 1999, Coen van der Geest wrote: Suggestion: what about Shalom, Knightmare 3? I was hooked on Maze of Galious and I want to complete the trilogy :-) Yes! me too! --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: NOVAXIS scsi and general questions added! HELP!
What's the story about SCSI terminators? SCSI has a start and an end. The start assumes the cable to have a certain impedance, which is the value it would have if the cable is endless. Any device not being the last should have impedance 0. This is not possible, but it will be very low. The last device should still look like the cable is endless, iow the impedance should be the same as that of an infinitely long cable. That is what a terminator is. It adds this impedance to the cable. (Which explains the name: it terminates the cable) SCSI systems are quite stable. I have heard of people putting a terminator on every device, or none at all, and the system still works. But it should have one terminater at the end, and none at other places. I hope this helps. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Speeding up novaxis SCSI
On Wed, 17 Feb 1999, I-ball wrote: There is a lot to improve in this rom The man used a lot of JR's instead of JP (If no jump is made then JP is faster) This is not true. JP nn uses 10 T-states. JP cc,nn uses 11. No matter if there is a jump or not. JR rr uses 11 t-states as well, but JR cc,rr uses 12 if there is a jump, and 7 if no jump is done. Even with twice as many jumps as non-jumps, JR will be faster. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: AW: AW: AW: msx-ers
On Tue, 9 Feb 1999, jam wrote: I'll stop 'writing' tag lines if you wish .. No, don't stop. they're cool! Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: NMS8280 HELP !!!
On Wed, 11 Feb 1998, Frengo wrote: On Tue, 9 Feb 1999 13:28:49 +0100 (MET), shevek wrote: On Sun, 8 Feb 1998, Frengo wrote: The are more original MSX floppies working today ? :-) I opened my 8245 some time ago. It has a weird connector (1 line of 15 pins, or something). It uses normal 3.5" floppies, though. Normal 3.5'' Floppies ? Are you sure ? I have seen more than one 8245 and they have 730Kb floppy with a non-pc connector. 730 kB? what do they look like? Normal floppies fit in mine, anyway. Are you sure we're talking about the same computer? The connector is indeed non-pc, that's right. (that's what I said in the first place) Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: MSX Mouse ?
Valery wrote: Hi all, Who know information about MSX mouse intreface and protocol (time diagramm )? Valery Hi, I don't know exact timing, but I can tell about how to access. It is done through PSG, registers 14 and 15. Just in case you don't know: PSG is written to in the following way: Don't ever use this method for register 14! It is said to kill you PSG! LD A,register_number OUT (HA0),A LD A,data OUT (HA1),A For register 14, it should be: LD A,14 OUT (HA0),A IN A,(HA2) As you can see, PSG 0-13 and 15 are write only, while 14 is read only. Register 14 has the following form: Bit Function 0 up 1 down 2 left 3 right 4 button A 5 button B 6 I don't remember 7 cassette input bit 0-5 refer to the joystick selected by register 15, bit 6 Register 15: Bit Function 0 button A joystick port 1 1 button B joystick port 1 2 button A joystick port 2 3 button B joystick port 2 4 strobe joystick port 1 5 strobe joystick port 2 6 joystick select (0=port 1, 1=port 2) 7 kana-led (at least that is what I was told, I don't have a japanese MSX myself, so I couldn't test it) I'm not sure if I mixed up bit 1 and 2... Anyway, when using this keep the following in mind: R15, bit 0-5 are used to put 0 or let-go-high on the pins. If you push a button on the joystick, it will connect the pin to earth (0). By reading the stick (through R14), it checks the voltage on the pin. If it is high, it returns 1, if it is earth, it returns 0. This means that if you write 0 to R15, bit 0-3, and than read the button status, it will always be low (forced by the computer itself), so it will return low as well (code for pressed button). You have to watch out with that. Even worse: The joysicks I have at home (arcade they are called, not official MSX, but they work good) have their switches connected to strobe in stead of earth. This means that if you set the strobe bit to 1 and than try to read the stick (buttons or direction), it will always return 1 (except if they are forced to 0 by writing 0 in bit 0-3, in that case it will always be 0). So even when reading joystick, don't play with the strobe bit... Now why do I tell this, when you ask about reading the mouse? Because the MSX-computer uses what is called a joystick-mouse. It is read out as a joystick. The mouse returns the displacement from last read-out, not the position or something like that. If 2 programs both read out the mouse, 1 of them probably doesn't work, because the same data is not output twice. Anyway, how to read it? It is easy. There is 16 bit output (one byte for each direction) and it is read as follows: set strobe to 1 wait k clockpulses read data xl set strobe to 0 wait n clockpulses read data xh set strobe to 1 wait n clockpulses read data yl set strobe to 0 wait n clockpulses read data yh This makes clear why sometimes you have to unplug a mouse from the computer and than plug it in again. The mouse cannot see if you are asking for x or y data, so if it gets mixed up once, it will stay that way. By the way, MSX mouse does, of course connect the pins to earth. So don't worry about reading it with strobe high. The data is read from R14. Bit 0-3 are the wanted data, bit 4+5 are button-status, as usual. Other people might have wanted to know this, but I think this is not the answer to your question. I think this, because you ask for a time diagramm. That means you want to know the minimum values of k and n. I'm sorry, those values I don't know. I have seen programs with the following wait-loop: LD B,xx LABEL: NOP DJNZ LABEL for k, xx was taken 40 and for n 20, but this is probably not minimum. Therefore, I also want to ask the question: What are the minimum values? By the way: using minimum values might of course give problems to 7MHz (Ok Alwin, it's not 7, it's 3.59*2=7.2Mhz) MSX's and TR's. Since I don't have any of them, I don't know if there is a built in hardware solution for such problems, but if not, it would be advisible to make it a bit slower. Of course TR _can_ run on it's Z80, but the users will not like to do this just to make the mouse work a fraction faster on other MSX's. Still, it is the choice of the programmer. If you make it working fast on a 'normal' MSX, it is standard. So everything that doesn't work than, is not a MSX... But of course, this is not a very nice way to look at it. Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: MSX game: an idea
On Mon, 7 Dec 1998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [RobotZ] -move (1 step). And how is "one step" defined? As only north, south, east and west (4-neighbourhood)or also north-east, north-west, south-east and south-west (8-neighbourhood)? IMO, the nicest would be a 4-neighbourhood for moving, attacking and dropping energie and a 12-neighbourhood for looking (I'll explain further on). Tell me if you don't agree. -scan In your earlier idea, you mentioned two types of scan, a inaccurate long range scanner and a precise short range. Is this the long or the short version? What can be scanned? What is the result delivered by the scan? The earlier idea wasn't mine, it was Stefano Fronteddu's. But it was mentioned, indeed. This would be the long range. I was thinking of having a short range scan which reaches out 2 cells away in a 8-neighbourhood (covering a 5x5 square with the robot in the middle) giving an exact map, and a long range scan which must be performed in a certain direction (to be passed as parameter) which only gives the number of enemy robots, enery supplies, etc. in that direction up to the borders of the playing field. Nice idea. That would be very good, I think. -attack Which raises the question: do we have one large enery supply from which attacks, shield and propulsion are supplied, or do we separate those? (which could leave a robot immovable, but still able to attack...) I was thinking of one large energie-supply, since I didn't put shields in it anyway, but perhaps this should be different. What's your opinion? Moving and scanning should cost energie as well. Agreed Looking is also possible (only short-range), but I don't think it should cost you a turn. Ok, that could be equal to my proposal for the short range scan, while the long range scan will cost you turn... Indeed, only I think you should be able to look at least one square further than you can walk (12-neighbourhood): _ /+\ /+++\ |++X++| \+++/ \+/ - Eric Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Old Stuff, Same Problems...
Hi, Since I agree with the rest you wrote, I'll just quote this part: CLAUDIO MASSAO KAWATA - 900293 wrote: A trivia about prime numbers: number 1 is not prime, as some people think. If it was, no other number would be, because they all would be multiples of at least one prime number (1 itself). I present here a program that checks if a number is or not prime. It is the fastest code I could think of. Half of it is a classical algorythm: divide X by 2; if no rest, it is not prime; divide X by 3; if no rest, it is not prime... and so on until X divided by X-1. I modified the algorythm in this way: if the number is not a multiple of 2, then it can be, at most, a multiple of 3, so one doesn't have to check till X-1, but (X-1)/2, or in other words, the multiples of the number can be at most (X-1)/2. Line 20 checks if number is 2 or multiple of 2 (with that, you can step 2 by 2 instead of 1 by 1 of the classic algorythm). In line 30, "IF DD=(DN/DD) THEN..." is my modification (the original should be "IF DDDN THEN..."). The program has to evaluate one extra division because of my modification, but it saves a lot with the reduction of the search range at each iteraction. Try it! Note: the program was originally written in C. 10 DEFINTA-Z:DD=3:P=1:INPUT"Number";DN:IFDN2THENPRINTDN"is not a prime number (defined).":END 20 IFDN2THENIF(DNMOD2)=0THENP=0:DD=2:GOTO40 30 IFDD=(DN/DD)THENIF(DNMODDD)=0THENP=0:GOTO40ELSEDD=DD+2:GOTO30 40 IFPTHENPRINTDN"is a prime number.":ENDELSEPRINTDN"is NOT a prime number (multiple of"DD")." ... Cyberknight... Over If you want an even quicker algoritm, you don't need the division in the loop, but you need a sqare root outside it (a bad approximation will do fine). The point is, that when your program ends the loop, dd=dn/dd, or in other words:dd^2=dn, or dd=sqr(dn). If you start with calculating sqr(dn), it will therefor be faster. If this is not an integer, use the first higher integer. That will be, I think, the fastest way to check if one specific number is prime. If, however, you want to calculate all prime numbers until a certain one, there is a faster method: try dividing by all prime numbers already found, until the number to check it with is higher than the square root of dn. I don't have a program ready to show what I mean, but I hope it is clear. Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: MSX game: an idea
On Thu, 3 Dec 1998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [RobotZ] Great idea! I could make it, I guess, but I can't say when it will be finished, since I don't have so much spare time. But please, send me exact specifications on what the condition of an if-statement can be, and how the radar can be used (or am I now asking just one question). Anyway, I think it would be easy to make it hecto-multi-player (257 players at most, simultaneously), by making use of joynet. 257? How did you cook up _that_ number? 255 or 256 or even 65536 :-) are numbers I could imagine, but 257? All robots need a number and it should be not too many bits when communicating. Therefore, you can have 256 external robots plus one for the computer itself. You don't need to send the data of the robot that's listening. It knows what it sent... I'm coding something at the moment so that implementing that will be easy. Anyway, were you planning to make the enemy-robots computercontrolled or humancontrolled? Human would be more fun, of course, but you can't always find a second player... So what? Can't you write two robot-programs? :-) Hehe... It will be boring after a while. If you make the possibility to play against the computer (not using joynet), you could also spread robot-programs. It might even be possible to encode it, so that you can't read the source to see how to beat it, but that would be quite hard. Another thing crossed my mind: Why develop a special programming language for the robot? The only reason for that could be that it's the only way to get more 'programs' running in parallel on _one_ MSX. But: if we take the game to JoyNet, as Shevek proposed, we only have to define the rules of the game (e.g. how the long and short range radar function, what happens if two robots want to get on the same playing field position) and the interface (how does each player receive / send its move). Then everyone can use his favorite programming language, and program his robot in the way (s)he likes. It saves us the definition and implementation of a new programming language and makes a killer app on JoyNet! It is possible, of course, but how do you check if a language does not cheat? Anyway, when I finish the game, I'll make the communication protocol public, so everybody is free to make his/her own language. In a contest you could demand the use of a certain one. Would make a heck of a competition game at a fair (wow!)... Indeed. Eric Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Robotz 0.2
On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, Laurens Holst wrote: And a very good day to you, too :-) No, both drop and atck have as a parameter the amount of energie to use. Ehm... not yet :-) ATCK is only specified with the direction in which to attack as parameter. For DROP, no direction is specified - I assumed that DROP would drop the energy on the position of the robot. When a robot would MOVE to a square which contains an energy packet, it would be scooped up automagically. So: what do we do? Take a fixed amount of energy for attacking or define an extra parameter for it? Is the DROP as I specified now ok, or should a parameter be included for the direction? ::I say let's drop it on the current square. Is logical... ::Unless, ofcourse, those robots can throw... This sounds logical, but we would need an extra command: pick up. Until now, I thought picking up was done by standing on the square, but this is not possible if you drop on the square you're standing on. Unless, of course, you would pick up by moving onto the square, but I don't think that this is a good idea. It would be too hard to pick up energie you just dropped (accidentily, eg. because of problems with communication). ::And another thing, give it a parameter whih determines the amount of ::energy to drop/attack with... Requires more thinking, thus more fun. I agree. This is the amount you lose. Attacking an empty square would cost you energie. My idea is to drop this energie on the neighboring square. I'd say the energy is used by yourself for the attack and will thus disappear. The fact that there's no robot at the other side to receive the damage caused by your attack is a matter of bad luck and lousy programming :-) ::I fully agree. You're right, this would be better. [ATCK = DROP?] This is true, but here I think (since you cannot drop on a robot and you cannot attack an empty square) this is not a problem. Perhaps the name of the command should be changed to use, Hm, USE instead of ATCK is something I could imagine, but DROP and USE sound too different to me... ::Nah... ::Besides, DROP drops on the current square, ATCK attacks one of ::the neigbour-squares... ::Hey, idea!!! ::What about making MOVEing onto another robot equal to ATCK??? ehm no. When you are moving, you specify a direction. When you attack, you should also specify the amount of energy you use for it (imo). You could ignore this when moving, but that would be confusing. ::Or should the 'user interface' take care of that... ::Translating move onto an enemy to attack... ::Well, dunno... Let me hear your opinion. or both names should be valid for the same command... NO Giving one and the same thing two or more different names, is the fastest path to confusion... :: I agree. Ok, relax. It was just a thought. (It wasn't a good thought, ok, but you don't have to start yelling...) Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: BMP loader and MSX GFX formats
I have the complete BMP specifications (windows and os2), but not here. If you want them, let me know, I'll mail them to you. If you're a programmer, it's easy to make a graphic viewer for msx-graphic formats for it (with reduced colors, generally, of course). My email address above might be messed up, it will arrive if you send it to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Bye, shevek On Tue, 1 Dec 1998, IVAN ALONSO BES wrote: Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 10:01:16 +0100 From: IVAN ALONSO BES [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: BMP loader and MSX GFX formats I would like someone told me how to transfer BMP's GFX or GIF ones to MSX compatible GFX mode (screen 12 mainly) through the GFX9000 or with a real good transfer rutine (I tried gifdump, cgif, jld and some bmp programs from Italy and Spain and I didn't like the results that much) I tried BMPloader for GFX9000 and the results where wonderful, but I don't know how to transfer GFX to a MSX compatible GFX mode. Please help me Nyyrikki will kill me if I'm not able to solve this ;) Thanx in advance. Bye. MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/) MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Robotz 0.2
On Wed, 6 Jan 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The ATCK command makes the robot attack another robot at a neighbouring square. What if there is no robot in that square? Is the empty square attacked or is there no attack at all? Since attacking costs a turn, there is a difference. IMHO, the empty square should be attacked, regardless of whether the square is actually occupied or not and it takes a turn. Question is whether you will lose energy attacking an empty square... I'd say it would result in dropping the energy on the square, so you can pick it up afterward. This would imply the DROP command becomes obsolete. The DROP command can drop a variable amount of energy. An invalid attack costs a fixed amount of energy. Right? No, both drop and atck have as a parameter the amount of energie to use. This is the amount you lose. Attacking an empty square would cost you energie. My idea is to drop this energie on the neighboring square. This is, IMHO, a good thing. (simlicity) Simplicity is not the same as compactness. By "misusing" constructs to eliminate others, the design does not become simpler. This is true, but here I think (since you cannot drop on a robot and you cannot attack an empty square) this is not a problem. Perhaps the name of the command should be changed to use, or both names should be valid for the same command... Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Turbo-R ?
On Tue, 1 Dec 1998, Patriek Lesparre wrote: Hi The R800 isn't totally Z80 compatible. For instance, the undocumented instruction SLL doesn't exist on a R800. It's because R800 is derived from Z800 family, not Z80. The story is right, but SLL doesn't exist also on Z80. There are 4 shift-commands, 3 of which documented. Since binary shifting is the same as multiplying/dividing, SLA and SRA are called arithmical shifts. SLA shifts a 0 into bit 0, so a *2 is done. SRA shifts bit 7 into itself, so the sign is not affected. SRL is a logical shift: it shifts a 0 into bit 7. A logical shift left would be the same as an arithmical shift, hence the absence of the command. That would leave a gap in the opcode list, which is filled with the undocumented command (in a book I have, it is called SLI, shift left illogical). SLI shifts 1 into bit 0. I guess everybody knew about this, but for some reason, people keep calling the command SLL, which is quite confusing, since it is definitely not a logical shift. Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: MSX cassette port
Nestor Soriano wrote: My question is: How do I send data to the tape output and what kind of signal will be on it when I do so? On MSX2 Technical Handbook there is a section dedicated to cassette port. If I remember well, it is in the chapter "using peripherals through BIOS". You can download it from my home page. But remember that Turbo-R computers have not cassette port, so you can't do any program 100% compatible if you use this port... Oh? That's not so good. But anyway, I want to use the cassette port by i/o ports, so not using bios. With bios I know how it works. Thanks anyway. shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: F1-Spirit
Jochen Bilderbeek wrote: My brother and I finished this game in the 2 player mode but we were little bit surprised there was no end-demo or something like that. When I played it alone I thought there was one but it can also be "een hersenspinsel" (don't know the English word) You can start the enddemo by entering the password 'MITAIYOENDDEMO'. Yes I know that but can't I get an enddemo by finishing al 16 races??? Jasper. Greetinx Jochen You can, but only if you finish the last one in 1 player mode. This is because in 2 player mode the races are much easier. You finish better if the other player finishes later... In 1 player mode, it actually counts your position, so it's harder to finish first. That's probably why Konami chose to skip the enddemo in that case. Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: DOS 1/2 support (was: Split v1.1)
On Tue, 2 Feb 1999, Manuel Bilderbeek wrote: Maybe it will even work with only the built-in RAMdisk, without even any real drive attached. Does anyone know if this is true? You mean to boot in BASIC mode, to create RAM disk, to copy MSXDOS2.SYS and COMMAND2.COM on it and CALL SYSTEM? Hum... difficult I think... but anyway I never tried it! ;-) I thought CALL SYSTEM can only boot from the A drive? (No matter what the actual drive is.) No, CALL SYSTEM boots from the actual drive (in DOS 1, at least). This is pretty annoying if you go to DOS, type B:, go to BASIC and type _SYSTEM, since MSXDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM might not be available on the disk in drive B. I wouldn't know how to set the ramdisk to actual drive in basic, though... --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Repost: Help! Need softools-c
On Mon, 25 Jan 1999, Frengo wrote: A good advice is to look at a CP/M ftp site. They might have PC to Z80 cross compilers as those compilers are usefull to the CP/M community as well. A stupid question, but i suppose that programs (if they exist) run on a CP/M OS only, and not on DOS , correct ? (I don't have CP/M) If it's a PC to Z80 cross compiler, it will run on a PC and create code for Z80. You decide (by choosing your IN and OUT commands, maybe using calls to system ROM) on what platform it will run. Any Z80-compiler can create code for any Z80 platform... Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Counting
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: You're wrong. In English, the ground floor is the first floor. Only in Dutch you start counting at zero! :-) _You_ are wrong :-) AFAIK (English, German, Frenchm Dutch), only the English start counting at 1, the rest starts from 0... Eric I don't mean to be a wiseguy or anything, but the English do start counting at 0 (..., second basement, first basement, ground floor, first floor, ...) Americans are the ones that start at 1 (..., second basement, first basement, first floor, ...) So if you see this story: ObMSX: In some old MSX Club Magazin was an article about controlling a LEGO elevator with the parallel port of the MSX. Controlling _1_ elevator is not very difficult - doing that with 2 or more with an intelligent 'delivering system' is more fun. I did it once (software only, not on MSX ;-)) for 3 elevators, as an excersise in parallel programming... was fun... They should indeed start at 1, since elevator is an American word. The English word is lift ;-) Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Yamaha FM Synthesizer chips...
Ricardo Jurczyk Pinheiro wrote: At 01:27 PM 10/26/98 +0100, you wrote: NYYRIKKI wrote: Isn't there a JPG file viewer for MSX? Yes there are few, thank god. I'm just suprised, that nobody has done one for GFX9000. (This is a tip for someone) Ok, I can do that. If someone can tell me about the JPG-format, that is. (this is a question for someone) U can find JPEG specifications in ftp://x2.ouli.fi. Doesn't work. Are you sure it's the right address? Bye, Shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Memory...
On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, J. Lautenbag wrote: In MSX INFO BLAD Hans van Oranje wrote how to use SIMMs as MSX-RAM... So I guess it depends on the price of SIMMs and the parts used... Willem Cazander told me this design was not optimal, but I guess the design he was talking about is a little more expensive... Are those schematics online somewhere? Or can somebody mail them to me? Second hand SIMM's aren't that expensive... Please put them online. I would like them too. Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
jpg-format
Hi, As I mentioned before, I want to make a jpeg-viewer for gfx 9000. But it is really hard to find the used compression method. If anyone knows the method or has some source code (any language) of a decoder or encoder? Anything is welcome. Thanks, shevek: [EMAIL PROTECTED] MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Yamaha FM Synthesizer chips...
NYYRIKKI wrote: Isn't there a JPG file viewer for MSX? Yes there are few, thank god. I'm just suprised, that nobody has done one for GFX9000. (This is a tip for someone) Ok, I can do that. If someone can tell me about the JPG-format, that is. (this is a question for someone) CU Shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: BMP format
On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, Robert Vroemisse wrote: Does anyone have a BMP to screen 5 converter? I have the BMP-specs. I'll send them to you if you want. Converting to screen 5 is quite easy (provided it is a 4 bit per pixel image). Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: About Compressing tool and De-compressing tool.
Could someone make a nice ZIP (de)compressor for MSX? Maybe, if I can find the time. Please send me the compressing specs. If it isn't too hard, It'll be finished before Tilburg. Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Turbo-R ?
On Mon, 30 Nov 1998, Valery wrote: Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 10:17:07 +0600 From: Valery [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Turbo-R ? Hi Because R800 executing DJNZ JR instruction another way for calculating destination address I don't think so. R800 can execute all Z80 code in the same way as a real Z80 does. Then no sense to put 2 processors I take it from Z80 and R800 Assembly/Machine Language Op-code Tables The reason is that if it would not have a Z80A, it would not be able to work with correct timing, and therefor may not be called MSX. Since the R800 can execute all Z80 opcodes, MSX-software usually does work on R800 (if written correctly, of course) Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: About Compressing tool and De-compressing tool.
On Fri, 15 Jan 1999, Frengo wrote: On Thu, 14 Jan 1999 17:20:16 +0100, Manuel Bilderbeek wrote: Could someone make a nice ZIP (de)compressor for MSX? Maybe, if I can find the time. Please send me the compressing specs. If it isn't too hard, It'll be finished before Tilburg. Great! But I don't have the specs. Can't they be found on the web? Anyone else? Search on the net Zip Unzip, a Unix/OS2 clone of PkZip. They are free and the source code is available... You can try at Hobbes.nmsu.edu Hmm. Ok, but I would have to read the code. That takes some time, since I don't feel like it so much. Doesn't anybody have the method, so I can just write my own algoritm? Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: IDE driver documentation
Maurizio wrote: I'm not a good programmer, i'm doing something in basic and nothing more. But i have a question: Why is so difficult to disassemble the dos2 kernel? We can dump the bios to use it with an emulator but we can't look into it? why? It's easy to disassemble and read. Understanding is the hard part. In assembly, all the commands are so simple, that without the authors comment, it's very hard to understand. I myself have disassembled the BIOS and sometimes when I want to know how to access hardware, I read it. But that is hard. Once even I had my own program screwed up, so all the labels (names of line numbers and variables) had changed and made no sense anymore. It was my own program, but stil I hardly understood what it did. bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: Robotz 0.2
Syntax: ATCK The ATCK command makes the robot attack another robot at a neighbouring square. What if there is no robot in that square? Is the empty square attacked or is there no attack at all? Since attacking costs a turn, there is a difference. IMHO, the empty square should be attacked, regardless of whether the square is actually occupied or not and it takes a turn. Question is whether you will lose energy attacking an empty square... I'd say it would result in dropping the energy on the square, so you can pick it up afterward. This would imply the DROP command becomes obsolete. This is, IMHO, a good thing. (simlicity) I don't see any problem in using drop/atck 0 as skip. programs can be up to 32kB anyway (or 16kB), so that is large. You have room for a routine that checks it. Provided you have some private variables, that is. Awaiting v0.3... ;) Duh.. with your comments being right all the time, wouldn't it be easier if _you_ wrote the versions and _I_ be awaiting them? ;-D *** grin *** I don't have time for a real reply now, it'll come later... Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: About Compressing tool and De-compressing tool.
Hmm. I'm not going to join the fight about pc's or unix, although people who know me know my opinion about it (this mail is written in pine...). Anyway, I found a pc to extract the file, so I have one more question: The text-files explain very well how archives are made using zip (thank you, by the way), but one of the parameters is compression method (which is not very strange). But it doesn't explain what the numbers mean, it just gives them a name. I heard it is hard to find this information, but I need it to code a decruncher, since otherwise it can only decrunch unpacked archives. Does anybody know how many methods the newest zip-version has, and how they work? Some time ago, someone asked me about bitmaps (I dont remember who). I have the complete secifications on my page at the moment: http://fmf.fwn.rug.nl/~shevek Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: uploaded Split v1.1 (file spitter)
On Sat, 30 Jan 1999, Laurens Holst wrote: Quickly after my previous upload, I again uploaded a utilitly I wrote once. It's called "Split" (v1.1), which is a file splitter, that you can use for example to split MegaROM files into single blocks, or easily strip some kind of header of a file. How you determine what files to break into pieces and exactly where, is up to you, there's no file searching or -viewing options in it. But it has almost every thinkable option of how you want files to be divided in smaller pieces. Only 'shortcoming': it needs MSX-DOS 2. Dos2 RULEZ!!! I was wondering... is there still anybody who hasn't got Dos2??? If not, then I could just make utilities Dos2-only... Lot easier than inluding (terrible) Dos1-support... Oh, I was also wondering who hasn't got a harddisk? Ok, I know the MSX-ers on this list are only the real die-hards, so this will not be a relyable question for the general MSX-user, but still... I'd like to know. ~Grauw I think I will buy some things at Tilburg, but at the moment I don't have DOS2, nor do I own a harddisk. I do have a GFX9000, though :) bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: My MSX project + protect mode
On Sat, 28 Nov 1998, Jun-Sung Kim wrote: Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 10:33:42 +0900 (KST) From: Jun-Sung Kim [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: My MSX project + protect mode Hi, Lately about the protected mode... If you want to implement it, minimize it. The reason that I like MSX, is the full controllability. MSX is a PERSONAL Computer, so all results are responsible to the user. Well, it may be also good to prevent the important system area being crushed in another point of view. Then I suggest that just some memory space can be protected optionally. In AHDL style :), mem_protect = ( A[31] == b"1" ) and not(super); The simplest way! ( I like always "simple" :) By the way, did you fix the memory usage(physical/logical memory configurations) and the slot pin assignment? - Jun. If you want to make a new memory-configuration, and it should be multitasking (please, make it linux-like and not windows-like), I have a tip for you that most pc-programmers will not agree with: Make it possible to use segments. What I mean is you can set some register outside the cpu on a value rg and if an address ad is asked by the cpu, the address that is actually read out is ad+mf*rg, where mf is a multiplying factor, prefferibly smaller than 64 (use a power of 2 of course, so you don't actually have to multiply). This makes it possible to load a program into just about any address, and start it from wherever you want the origin to be. If you would use standard msx-memory configuration for multitasking, you would have to use at least 16kB for every task, no matter how small. It's not too hard to implement, but it makes life much easier for programmers. (I don't know why pc-programmers always say segments are the worst thing ever invented...) Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: MSX game: an idea
On Wed, 9 Dec 1998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Sending the complete map? Not necessary! No, just the data of the robots. Which raises the question which data a robot should have and which are sent to the other robots: Public: - Position(of course) - alive sign (so other robots will know whether a robot is still in play) What also should be sent is the action performed on sqares (attack and drop), since the other robots have to react to it. If communication is possible, I would think it better to give it a maximum length, so the network doesn't get too slow. Private: - Energy Or would it be more fun if all robots would know about each others energy level (I see complete hordes of robots turning against the weakest :-)) What I would like is having separate energie for: - shield - attack - move And one main energie type, which can be transferred to (not from) those types. To make this work, it will be useful that transferred energie cannot be used in the same turn as it was transferred. Otherwise, everybody would just have all his/her energie as shield at the end of every turn, which would make the separation useless. Do you want the program to be the only parameter for the robot, or are there other settings as well? For example, it could be an option to make a robot that receives more damage from attacks, but in return it would move faster. That hasn't been discussed, yet. But we assumed each robot could only move one square (4-neighbourhood) per turn, so an agility/dexterity trade-off is not possible. It could however be possible to divide the available power between defence (shield, whatever) and attack power. With energie separation as stated above, this would make it part of the program. I think it would make the programming too complex if you have to choose the hardware as well. I think we all agree on it that the language should be as simple as possible. About the map: is every square (I assume it uses squares, not hexes or something else) accessible? Or are some squares blocked (obstacles)? Squares are fine :-) I'd say that all squares are accessible. What do we do, however with dead robots? Are they removed from the field or will they stay as obstacles? I'd like them to stay, but if anybody has good arguments for removing them, it's fine with me. I think it would be nice if in a scan, you can't see if a robot is alive or not. When a robot scans the environment, does it get info like "enemy at (-2,-3), friend at (1,-1)" or does it know which enemies and friends are nearby: "enemy type 1 at (-2,-3), friend type 3 at (1,-1)"? Not discussed, yet :-) I proposed an inaccurate long range scanner, giving information about a certain part of the playing field, which only delivers the number of robots, energy packets etc. Shevek and I worked up a short range scanner, which gives detailed information about a small environment surrounding the robot. I'd say that with short range scanning (looking) you can see also the ID-number of the robot and its communication at channel "local". Team play has not been discussed at all (apart from mentioning it w.r.t. the energy packets), so all other robots are of type enemy :-) I agree. Maybe a robot can even identify individual enemies and friends, to remember "I damaged that one pretty seriously last time I saw it, so now I'll finish him off". IMHO that should be left to the robot programmer - the programming language for the robots should have the means to do things like that, of course... This would be possible with the scan mentioned above. When using multiple robots in a team, can they communicate? Cooperation would be much more diverse if communication is allowed. And if they can communicate, are they allowed to send as much info as they want per turn, or only a limited amount? I think that team play would be very hard if no communication can take place between the robots of the same party. But, as already stated, team play has not been discussed yet. IMHO team playing makes the whole thing very complex, and simplicity should be the thing to strive for. The more complex we define the possible behaviour, the complexer our programming language will become. That will definitely have an impact on the code size of the robot programs _and_ on the code size of the compiler/parser. There should be a maximum size, if only for the coder of the robot-language, so he knows the size he must reserve for this purpose. But how much? For communication, I suggest the following method: Every robot can send signals at certain channels: -local:only readible for robots that can see the robot. Costs no energie -group:readible for every robot of a certain group (It does not have to be it's own group) Should cost energie (How much?) -all:readible for everyone. should cost energie (how much?) I think it would be good if the robots cannot see who sent the sign
Re: NMS8280 HELP !!!
On Sun, 8 Feb 1998, Frengo wrote: The are more original MSX floppies working today ? :-) I opened my 8245 some time ago. It has a weird connector (1 line of 15 pins, or something). It uses normal 3.5" floppies, though. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: IDE driver documentation
Mauricio Braga wrote: Alex Mitsio Sato escreveu: Ooo! You have the DISKROM source code! Could you please send a copy to me through e-mail? With this source code, can I build a faster (ou more optimized) version of the DISKROM? Hi! Could you send me a copy of this source code? I want it too. I want the source code of all about MSX ROMs like BIOS, BASIC, DISKROM, etc. If anybody have it, please, send to my email. Send it to my e-mail too, i would like to study it. thanks. []s Mauricio Braga. Don't you guys have a disassembler? bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: MSX game: an idea
On Sun, 29 Nov 1998, Stefano Fronteddu wrote: Hi MSX people ! I'm writing to all of You to explain an idea I had a lot of time ago. I was thinking to develop a battle game: blah, what the news !!! No this was my idea: I intended to develop a program that was able to read 2 files. These files were the source code to control the action of a simulated 'robot'. Great idea! I could make it, I guess, but I can't say when it will be finished, since I don't have so much spare time. But please, send me exact specifications on what the condition of an if-statement can be, and how the radar can be used (or am I now asking just one question). Anyway, I think it would be easy to make it hecto-multi-player (257 players at most, simultaneously), by making use of joynet. I'm coding something at the moment so that implementing that will be easy. Anyway, were you planning to make the enemy-robots computercontrolled or humancontrolled? Human would be more fun, of course, but you can't always find a second player... Are there many other people that would want to be a beta-tester anyway? (this question is to the others, of course) Bye, shevek MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: compression methods
On Thu, 4 Feb 1999, Alwin Henseler wrote: And ZIP is *really* a free format. There have been many companies and interested parties who investigated ZIP's copyrights, and common view is that it's FREE (and should be). In that case, I would expect also the packing method to be described in english (that is, not in C, pascal, etc) on the web. I didn't find it so far. Does anyone know about it? Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Re: tape storage details
On Thu, 4 Feb 1999, Zoran Majcenic wrote: Hi, Can anyone point me to or give me details of tape storage ? I'm interested in file headers, bit representation and possible use of parity or CRC. The easiest way to use the tape is via the bios. You have routines for write header (long/short), read header, read character and write character. It should be possible to do it direct as well, but there's not very much use for it, except if you want to be sure others can't read your files... You have to make your own code for storage anyway if you use tape directly, so it's up to you if you add a CRC... I don't know if the bios routines use parity bits, but I don't think you can change it. Bye, shevek --- Visit the internet summercamp via http://polypc47.chem.rug.nl:5002 MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
Articles for MCCW
Hello,
I would like to write something for anything, actually (Mari, if you tell
me what the article should be about, I'd be pleased to write something
provided I know enough of the subject).
I was thinking about writing something about assembly, C, Pascal, V9938,
V9990, other hardware (PSG, keyboard, tape), electronics (how to connect
your home-built projects to your MSX), printer ports, or programming
techniques. I prefer the last one, but I don't know if anyone
is interested. Everyone who would read MCCW, please let me know what you
want to know.
Thanks,
shevek
/***Use gcc to compile***Don't mind the warning/
int*a,k ,v[9];int*main (){int i,j,s=1, x,z ,c[
]={1,4,7,4,3,4,5,4 ,1,1,1 ,2,
3,3,3,4};for(i=0;( i++9) !k
;s=-s){k=0;scanf("%d",z);v [--z ]=s;for(j=0;j
8; j++){z=v[ c[j ]];k|=z==v [c[
j]- c[j+8]]( z(v[ c[j]+c [j+
8]]==z));;;}}printf(" %d won\n",- s*k );}
/***Tic-tac-toe.use 1-9 to play/
MSX Mailinglist. To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
in the body (not subject) "unsubscribe msx [EMAIL PROTECTED]" (without the
quotes :-) Problems? contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] (www.stack.nl/~wiebe/mailinglist/)
