29773 27-MAY 18:28 Patches RE: VI (Re: Msg 29771) From: RICKADAMS To: VE3DAC (NR) Ohhhh, I see your point about using modpatch to change the tabs and tabmode settings. Good idea. -*- 29774 27-MAY 18:51 Patches RE: VI (Re: Msg 29773) From: DAMIONGREY To: RICKADAMS Rick -:- Well, I reapplied the patches & they work great now! Dunno if it was a glitch in the first patched version, or the file I was editing at the time, as both have been deleted from my HD, but it works great now! -:- Greg -*- 29806 28-MAY 23:15 Patches RE: VI (Re: Msg 29774) From: RICKADAMS To: DAMIONGREY Great, Greg... glad to hear that "vi" is working for you now. Of course, I'm already getting suggestions for changes to it... <> It's not compatible with King's Quest, for one thing... <> Seems that the Kings Quest games have a module named "vi"... -*- 29811 29-MAY 01:06 Patches RE: VI (Re: Msg 29806) From: DAMIONGREY To: RICKADAMS Rick -:- Gawd....serves 'em right if it don't work, using 'vi' as a module name! It aughta be reserved on all OSs! (ok...maybe not) As for suggestions, I've only three. One (mandatory, or I'll just have to wright my own version) is that we need a "go to line #" command. Searches work in some cases, but for program dev this one's a real boon! Secondly, allowing vipars to be in /dd/sys would be a nice touch, as that way it would be accessable from anywhere. Of course, a vipars in the current dir would over ride the main one. Finally, auto-indent would be nice. Heh...you really got me started...sorry! Anyway, thanks for making my most used editor useable! -:- Greg -*- 29818 29-MAY 21:46 Patches RE: VI (Re: Msg 29811) From: RICKADAMS To: DAMIONGREY You aren't the first one to mention /dd/sys as a good location for "vipars". That's certainly a good idea... I'm sold on it! -*- 29824 30-MAY 01:10 Patches RE: VI (Re: Msg 29818) From: DAMIONGREY To: RICKADAMS Glad to hear it! I'm not sure why it is that who ever did the "other" patches to T/S Edit decided to put it in /dd/cmds. Definatly the wrong place for it! -*- End of Thread. -*- 29775 27-MAY 18:55 Programmers Den Debug? From: THEFERRET To: ALL In addition to my queries about how to make debugging easier: is there a free symbolic debugger anywhere? ITt'S SUCH a pain to always have to " xxxx-." to find out where I am. Has anyone considered converting ED/Tasm to OS9? -*- 29776 27-MAY 21:41 General Information RE: 6551 + 4in1 (Re: Msg 29753) From: DISTO To: BRIANWHITE (NR) You never know? Call CRC and find out. -Tony -*- 29777 27-MAY 22:04 General Information RE: mpi failure (Re: Msg 29766) From: TIMKOONCE To: TEDJAEGER I don't know if any of this will help, but I have a few comments: - I've seen the bit where the floppy disk light comes on until you turn on the computer. Didn't seem to cause any problems for me, so that's probably not the problem. - I had some bad BLOB-type problems when I repacked my system, and finally fixed the last ones by putting some big (4700 ufd) caps across the power supply lines to filter it down. Maybe a noisy AT power supply is brain-damaging your hard disk?? If you have a solid linear supply that'll power the hard disk, try hooking it to that. - One other thing to check is to make sure that your new MPI has a solid 12 volt supply. That's something that wouldn't affect a ROMpak, but would definitely screw up the HD interface. I'm pretty sure the newer MPI's still supply 12 volts, but yours might have a flaky supply. Good luck, Tim Koonce -*- 29799 28-MAY 19:02 General Information RE: mpi failure (Re: Msg 29777) From: TEDJAEGER To: TIMKOONCE Thanks for taking an interest, Tim. I'll check out your ideas. BEsts, TedJaeger -*- End of Thread. -*- 29778 27-MAY 22:06 General Information RE: Shell+ (Re: Msg 29758) From: TIMKOONCE To: ZACKSESSIONS Actually, Zack, the Unix CShell "alias" is pretty powerful. However, almost everything it does could be mimicked by having good shell scripting abilities.... we _need_ parameters to shell scripts! Thanks for the compliment, though! - Tim Koonce -*- 29779 27-MAY 22:15 Telcom Multi-port RS232 PAK From: FILIP To: ALL I am looking for a recommendation of a reliable 2- or more port RS232 PAK which will fit into a single slot of a MultiPAK. Am interested in reliability (gold plated connectors, low heat dissipation, etc.) and compatibility with the RS Delux RS232 pak, and will be using it with OS-9. I have heard that the Owlware offering has been discontinued and was wondering what a good replacement would be. Not interested necessarily in a 4-serial/floppy controller/parallel port /512K RAM/FAX board/modem/everything_else_you_ever_wanted combination, just need two REAL (non-bit-banger) RS232 ports under OS-9. Thanks, Dave Filip -*- 29845 31-MAY 06:04 Telcom RE: Multi-port RS232 PAK (Re: Msg 29779) From: JEVESTAL To: FILIP (NR) I would suggest buying Alpha's Comm-4 port. Four real RS-232 ports in one card (mpi slot)...two of the four slots are address the same as the Tandy's their ad/list See their ad on page 27 of Rainbow June issue. Jim -*- End of Thread. -*- 29780 27-MAY 22:29 General Information RE: ROBOT ODYESSY I (Re: Msg 29747) From: TJMARTIN To: OS9BERT (NR) Yes, I would like to get it going undr LII also. Haven't got it to go yet that way.. However ... I think it is a great game. My personal opinion is that it is the best mix of enetertainment and education I have seen for COCO programs. Simply wonderful. I have never understood why more hacker types or others interested in logic design or whatever haven't talked this one up. I have worked throug it to the last room of the game, and have been trying on and off for a long time to get out of the last room. Seems like the timing is real fussy ... getting each robot to do it's thing at just the right instant. Anyone who has finished that last room ... please say what you did ! Copies of it are going real cheap at Radio Shacks now daya. -*- 29781 27-MAY 22:37 Programmers Den RMA and Debug From: THEFERRET To: OS9UGPRES What is up with RMA a auto-increment? It absolutely refuses ,x- and ,x+ seems to increment it TWO bytes!! These results were observed using debug, if that makes any difference, Philip -*- 29782 27-MAY 23:28 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29781) From: DAMIONGREY To: THEFERRET If I may, I thought I'd jump in and try to answer these for you. First of all, the ,x- should be ,-x. The decriment is done prior to the memory access, so the mnemonic reflects this. For a decriment of two, use ,--x. As for the incriment problem, I'm not sure why it appears this way in this case. ,x+ should (and does, in my experience) give an incriment of one following the memory access, and ,x++ should give an incriment of two. Double check your results, as rma handles these correctly. Hope this helps, and feel free to ask if you've any other questions. -:- Greg -*- 29784 28-MAY 01:52 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29781) From: TIMKOONCE To: THEFERRET Philip, What instruction were you using this with? Remember that 16-bit operations (i.e. LDD, STD) don't allow single-increment. It is quite possible that RMA assembles the incorrect statement LDD ,-X as the correct LDD ,--X which would explain what you describe. - Tim Koonce -*- 29785 28-MAY 05:43 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29784) From: THEFERRET To: TIMKOONCE Are you SURE ldd ,x(x) increments word-wise? VAXen do that, but I don't think CoCo's do. I've never read that anywhere(and I have Asemm..... by W.Barden Jr. -*- 29786 28-MAY 05:49 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29782) From: THEFERRET To: DAMIONGREY I beg your pardon, but lda ,x- is just as valid as lda ,-x, as stated on page 125, TRS80 color cojomputer assembly language programming, William Barden, Jr. It operates as the "C" auto-dec would, i.e.: decrementing x BEFORE loading a (as I wanted it to do) . It works with Edtasm, but not, apparently , with rma (or at least, not the one I'VE got). Phil B-) -*- 29787 28-MAY 05:52 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29785) From: THEFERRET To: TIMKOONCE (cont) besides which, what'S WRONG with ldd ,x+ ? :-) With VAX, and stuff, the change in decrement size is built into hardware. However, It always seemed to me that in coco-ese, "+" is one byte, and "++" is two. -*- 29797 28-MAY 18:34 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29787) From: DODGECOLT To: TIMKOONCE One byte increment/decrement with 16 bit registers is perfectly acceptable. As for ,x- being legal, it is not. I think EDTASM changes it around for you, but doesn't tell you. Ditto for ,+x. -Mike -*- 29801 28-MAY 19:23 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29786) From: EDDIEKUNS To: THEFERRET Actually, the allowed modes are: lda ,-x lda ,--x lda ,x+ lda ,x++ lda [,--x] lda [,x++] and that's IT! Notice that the decrements always come BEFORE the register and the increments always come AFTER the register, and that in indirect references you can only increment or decrement by TWO. Eddie -*- 29802 28-MAY 20:07 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29797) From: THEFERRET To: DODGECOLT Dang. I just checked the M.L. codes for auto inc/dec. Sure enough, only ,x+, and ,-x (similarly, ++, eetc) are given. Wonder what exactly edtasm does? -*- 29810 29-MAY 01:00 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29802) From: DAMIONGREY To: THEFERRET What they said. I beleive that on the page you listed, Mr. Barden explains this whole thing. As far as what edtasm does, I'm sure that it simply assumes that you meant to write it correctly & does the conversion for you, as either Tim or Mike said. Dunno for sure, as I've not used it for _many_ moons!! -:- Greg -*- 29838 31-MAY 00:36 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29787) From: RAGTIMER To: THEFERRET (NR) Right, the 6809 doesn't check up on you if you LDD ,X+. However, it WILL NOT let you mess this up with Indirect addressing, so LDA [,X+] is invalid. RMA should flag it -- I said SHOULD. -*- 29847 31-MAY 08:07 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29801) From: OS9UGPRES To: EDDIEKUNS And to add to this: The reason CORRECT assemblers take only ,-x and ,x+ is because Motorola wanted to leave open the options of post-decrement (,x-) and preincrement (,+x). Kev -*- 29861 31-MAY 20:51 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29847) From: EDDIEKUNS To: OS9UGPRES Wow. I didn't know that! Which modes does the 68k allow? I expect that the 68k has all of the addressing modes of the 6809 + a few. Am I right? Looks like it's time to pick up a 68000 book. (The '070 has exactly the same instruction set as the '000, right?) Eddie -*- 29877 1-JUN 00:14 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29861) From: RAGTIMER To: EDDIEKUNS Actually the 680x0 left out the Indirect modes! Guess they figured nobody minded loading one of the many address registers. -*- 29881 1-JUN 06:05 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29861) From: OS9UGPRES To: EDDIEKUNS Eddie, As Mike said, they left out the indirect addressing modes on the 68K. Sometimes that can be very frustrating, especially trying to do PIC table lookups and jumps. The 6809 _still_ has one of the best sets of addressing modes around. On the 68K, you say "(a0)+" or "-(a0)", and it always adds/subs the amount of the data you're moving (1/2/4 bytes). The "()" doesn't mean indirect, which can be confusing at first. So our "lda b,x" might be translated as "move.b (a0,d1.w),d0". Which means "move a .byte from the location whose address = a0+d1, into d0". Source always on left, destination always on right. You get used to it pretty quickly. Any 6809 programmer will have no problem learning 68K, as you're already used to PIC code and neat addressing modes. The main extra address mode the base 68K gives us can be shown in this example: "move.b 5(a0,d1.w),d0". Which if we had it, would be "lda 5,b,x". -*- 29889 1-JUN 20:27 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29877) From: EDDIEKUNS To: RAGTIMER (NR) The 68k family have no [,x] addressing modes? That sucks! It's such a useful addressing mode. Eddie -*- 29890 1-JUN 20:36 Programmers Den RE: RMA and Debug (Re: Msg 29881) From: EDDIEKUNS To: OS9UGPRES (NR) Is d0 made up of a0 & b0? (d0 = 32 bits, a0,b0 = 16 bits?) How many copies of each register does the 68k have? Ahh, I should just go buy a book! Maybe tomorrow I'll feel rich! Eddie -*- End of Thread. -*- 29783 28-MAY 00:46 General Information RE: Pictures Needed (Re: Msg 29639) From: DALEP To: IVANSC Ivan, Thanks for the note. Two more are done ... and we're doing a third this week .. so I hope we are back on track ... If you have any pictures ... PLEASE ... send them. ditto to all. Thanks again, Dale -*- 29793 28-MAY 14:49 General Information RE: Pictures Needed (Re: Msg 29783) From: IVANSC To: DALEP Sure do miss KISSable OS-9 .... when are we likely to see it back? Sadly I am a relative newcomer to Coco-dom & have little or nothing of any real interest or historical significance to contribute! -*- 29878 1-JUN 00:45 General Information RE: Pictures Needed (Re: Msg 29793) From: DALEP To: IVANSC (NR) Ivan, Welcome to the CoCo fold. Glad to have you with us. Regarding KISSable OS-9 .. I have turned in July and August Columns adn aand am working on September as we speak. Hope we're back on track. The move to Kansas took a little longer to settle in that w e expected. Best Regards, Dale -*- End of Thread. -*- 29788 28-MAY 08:03 General Information RE: 35 to 40 track (Re: Msg 29694) From: OS9UGPRES To: DBEARISTO Darryn.. Hmm. Do the modules (build, format, etc) Ident out as okay? Do they run if just called by name? Or get error 205 only if "load" is used? Perhaps Load itself is bad? Kev -*- 29805 28-MAY 22:21 General Information RE: 35 to 40 track (Re: Msg 29788) From: DBEARISTO To: OS9UGPRES I have tried several freshly formatted disks and I get the same results each time. I have tried it with and without my Multipak and it makes no difference. I always get error #205, whether I try LOAD or just running the module off the disk. When I do IDENT, I get module header incorrect! However, OS9Boot idents ok. This is after a Cobbler to a 40 TRACK blank, formatted disk. Any ideas? Darryn. -*- End of Thread. -*- 29789 28-MAY 08:04 Programmers Den RE: Sector Allocation Table (Re: Msg 29700) From: OS9UGPRES To: GREGL Greg, You've probably already found out by now, but yes: bits are left->right on the bitmap, just as you thought. - kev -*- 29795 28-MAY 18:15 Programmers Den RE: Sector Allocation Table (Re: Msg 29789) From: GREGL To: OS9UGPRES Kevin, Thanks for the information. Looks like this project is well on the way to completion now. Well, at least for the moment it will grab the Root directory LSN from LSN 0, jump to the file descriptor, get it into a buffer, and read the root directory entries. Now to add subdirectories and an interface to it. Some of these calculation have been a real bear. Out of curiousity, do you have the forumlas for converting a logical sector number to a physical track, sector and head? The one I whipped up works fine with a modulo-2 number of heads (1, 2, 4, ...) but I don't think it would work with any other number of heads. -- Greg PS: In case you are curious, the formulas I am currently using to convert the logical sector number to a physical track, sector and head and the forumla to obtain the lsn, byte offset and bit within the byte are as follows: Track = (int) (lsn / (18 * NumberHeads)); Sector = (int) ((lsn % 18) + 1); Head = (int) ((lsn / 18) & (NumberHeads - 1)); bit_lsn = ((lsn / (8L * 256L)) + 1); /* LSN of the byte */ byte = (int) ((lsn / 8L) & 255); /* Byte offset in the sector */ bit = (int) (lsn % 8L); /* Bit position within byte */ Of course, I'm using a table to mask the actual bit in the allocation map. The value of 'bit' from the formula will be 0-7 so I just use a table that has the values 0x80, 0x40, 0x20, 0x10, etc. -*- 29798 28-MAY 18:37 Programmers Den RE: Sector Allocation Table (Re: Msg 29795) From: DODGECOLT To: GREGL First, please don't hardcode the # of sectors per track! Most hard disks don't use 18 sectors per track... For any # of heads, use the modulus operator (%) to do it for you (as you did with the other portions of your equations.) -Mike -*- 29813 29-MAY 06:41 Programmers Den RE: Sector Allocation Table (Re: Msg 29798) From: GREGL To: DODGECOLT Mike, At the moment this is strictly for floppy disks that are 35, 40, or 80 tracks and either single or double sided. Of course I want it to work with as much generic information as it possibly can. Right now I am simply creating and fine tuning the routines to translate a logical sector number into a physical track, sector and head as well as to map it to a specific bit in the allocation bit map. But I think it goes without saying that you don't need to translate logical sectors to physical parameters under OS-9 and I'll leave it at that. Well unless you're writing a device driver you don't. -- Greg -*- End of Thread. -*- 29790 28-MAY 08:04 Programmers Den RE: Multi-Vue programming (Re: Msg 29701) From: OS9UGPRES To: ALPHASOFT (NR) Ah, well you've found an easier and neater solution, then! Thanks for the feedback... might help someone else! - kev -*- 29791 28-MAY 08:04 General Information RE: The Incredible Growing Buffer!!! (Re: Msg 29724) From: OS9UGPRES To: OLDGROUCH Eric, Okay. By bombing out do you mean crashing? Mike Knudsen first noticed that programs which sit just below the top of the 64K map (one block down) can have a problem: the buffer gets mapped in at the highest free block and sometimes that's on top of the kernel page. Hmmm... but that only matters if you're writing to the buffer from your program. I assume you're just doing Gets and Peeking from the buffer, right? (or writing from the buffer to disk). What error do you get again? Wait... email me your section of code and I'll look at it (or post it here). Kev -*- 29828 30-MAY 19:52 General Information RE: The Incredible Growing Buffer!!! (Re: Msg 29791) From: OLDGROUCH To: OS9UGPRES Kevin, I'm really embarrassed to have found my error but at least I found it. The code I was using is like this... FOR g=0 to 191 step 16 run gfx2("get",90,g,570,g+15) ... map buffer, write it out, map out... next g Well, actually I stumbled upon the info in the Tech Reference section that the last two values in that get command are not the x2,y2 coordinates of RSDOS but the actual DIMENSIONS of the box. So, it was right all along. As the program went down the screen, the buffer was growing! So, I rewrote the code a little bit so that the buffer was mapped in once, the loop was done (consisting of a get command, then writing the bytes out to disk), and after the loop was done, then finally map the block back out. It saved a little time that way and had a major improvement over the last version in that it actually worked! Well, I would like to thank you for looking into the matter as much as you have. I'm sorry it was such a silly error. But I do have a question for you out of curiosity... When specifying joystick type (hires or not and what port it's in, why is it neccessary the you be looking at the window that the process which does that is operating in. I have changed the path for the call to both 0 and 1 but if I am not looking the program (the program must be "active" window) it bypasses the set stat call altogether.) It's not a bug or anything I guess (nothing major) but its just a little inconvient. Maybe a run gfx2("select") will help. I don't know. Don't rack your brain over it or anything. But thanks again for all your help with my "get" problem. I appreciate it. - Eric Wolf -*- 29830 30-MAY 21:53 General Information RE: The Incredible Growing Buffer!!! (Re: Msg 29828) From: DCJR To: OLDGROUCH Eric, The path numbers 0,1, and 2 are the standard output,input, and error paths for the currently selected window. If you want to use a path to another window, you need to set it up something like this: DIM wpath:BYTE DIM wname:STRING[4] \ (* this is just for clarity wname := "/w7" OPEN #wpath,wname:UPDATE This will give you a path for I/O to a window. You'll use "#wpath" any time you read or write to that window. i. e.: GET #wpath, c PRINT #wpath, "This is text" RUN gfx2(wpath,"clear") Hope this helps... DCJR aka Doug James -*- 29849 31-MAY 08:08 General Information RE: The Incredible Growing Buffer!!! (Re: Msg 29828) From: OS9UGPRES To: OLDGROUCH Eric, Thanks for finding your problem ! Actually, I run into a similar thing while writing/testing the OSK windows... sometimes I think size vs coords, too. I just noticed that SS.GIP is totally ignored if you're not the interactive window. Guess that makes some kind of sense, otherwise a program in the background could screw you up. Interesting. Only one that does this kind of complete ignore. Those people who mentioned colors or autofollow not "taking", etc.... the way coco windows work when you make a change is this: Is the window this program is doing output to interactive? Yes: make change. No : set a flag in device memory. On next vertical interrupt do the change if this device interactive. OR on CLEAR to this device, do the change. -*- 29863 31-MAY 20:57 General Information RE: The Incredible Growing Buffer!!! (Re: Msg 29849) From: EDDIEKUNS To: OS9UGPRES Kev, Does this mean that the autofollow mouse eats no CPU time when it's not in the active window? Neat! Well designed! Eddie -*- 29868 31-MAY 22:04 General Information RE: The Incredible Growing Buffer!!! (Re: Msg 29830) From: OLDGROUCH To: DCJR For my window, I'm just using the currently selected path. So, I would just say RUN GFX2("clear") instead of specifiying a path plus the command call. It all seems just as easy to me. - Eric -*- 29870 31-MAY 22:09 General Information RE: The Incredible Growing Buffer!!! (Re: Msg 29849) From: OLDGROUCH To: OS9UGPRES Ok, I understand what your saying but shouldn't that change take effect once you go back to that window? It doesn't seem to be on mine. Oh, hey, I just looked back up at your message and noticed you said it does totally ignore the call. Ok... At least it's not my programming (this time!) Well, thanks for clearing that up. Good luck with your OSK window program. Hopefully, I will be writing software for Paul Ward's machine before summer is out. - Eric Wolf -*- 29882 1-JUN 06:05 General Information RE: The Incredible Growing Buffer!!! (Re: Msg 29863) From: OS9UGPRES To: EDDIEKUNS Yep, they did a nice job on our windows. In fact, as I get deeper into writing the 68K stuff from scratch, the more I admire some of the cleverness and hard work that went into the CoCo software. Creating backward compatability is a tough job because of it. A lot of features which most (or all) other windowing systems don't have, must now go in. The Coco device windows alone are quite unique. A program doesn't even have to know how to "window", in order to run with a wildcard window. Great stuff. Hard act to follow! -*- End of Thread. -*- 29792 28-MAY 13:08 Programmers Den AT CoCo From: NES To: ALL Here is a queston, I have been think of makeing a board to fit my coco on so I can place it in a AT case. 1) do you realy need all the feature's of the Multi-pak or could you get by with a simple 1 or 4 decoder to tell which pak was acktive, since the Multi-pak fix ties all the interrupt's together. 2> What line dose the Burk & burk interface need? 3> When you replace the 6551 with an 6551A is there some hardware patch needed? ---< NES >--- -*- 29846 31-MAY 08:07 Programmers Den RE: AT CoCo (Re: Msg 29792) From: OS9UGPRES To: NES Best thing to do is to study an MPI tech manual. You basically need an address decoder for CTS ($FF40-5F), and a latch to determine which slot has CTS (which is what the disto, b&b, rs disk controller, etc use). For most OS9 drivers, the latch must also be readable. No, no patch needed for 6551A. -*- End of Thread. -*- 29794 28-MAY 15:48 Telcom telecom problem From: FROGLEGS To: ALL I have a DC-2212 Tandy modem and I am running it on 1200 baud under OS9 Level 2 using Supercomm. The problem is that I can't get the auto dialer to function. I was curious if anyone else using this modem is having suscess using anyother program with an autodialer. any help would be appriciated Sincerely Kenneth Leap -*- 29796 28-MAY 18:28 Telcom RE: telecom problem (Re: Msg 29794) From: LINLEE To: FROGLEGS I'm not real familiar with Tandy modems, and not at all familiar with Supercomm. However, I would first check to make sure the modem is set for the Hayes command set. (That modem is Hayes/Tandy switchable isn't it?) /\/\arlin -*- 29803 28-MAY 20:25 Telcom RE: telecom problem (Re: Msg 29794) From: DCJR To: FROGLEGS 1) be SURE that you have the modem set for Hayes compatibility 2) Supercomm looks for the Autodialer files in the DIRECTORY "/dd/sys/dial" you must create this directory to store the autodialer files. 3) Supercomm expects all auto dialer files to be text files created by the user. These files must be in the format shown in the docs, and have the extension ".adf" "adf" MUST be in small letters... Supercomm is case sensitive. Doug James -*- 29854 31-MAY 19:23 Telcom RE: telecom problem (Re: Msg 29796) From: FROGLEGS To: LINLEE (NR) I am not sure but I do not think so. -*- 29855 31-MAY 19:26 Telcom RE: telecom problem (Re: Msg 29803) From: FROGLEGS To: DCJR I reference to the files the adf files have to be in, I have them but the system still won't dial by itself. and as I stated in another reply, I don't believe that this modem is Hayes Compatable -*- 29867 31-MAY 22:01 Telcom RE: telecom problem (Re: Msg 29855) From: DCJR To: FROGLEGS (NR) No problem... Just use whatever the modem requires for the dial command on the "ADS" line, and follow it with the phone number. Here's a template that I use. ADS=(put the dial command here, followed by the Phone Number) BPS=04 ECH=00 HEK=00 TRM=02 LNF=00 XON=11 XOF=13 RTR=10 RPS=14 PAR=00 CLK=01 WRD=00 STP=00 KM1=DOUG KM2=JAMES KM3= KM4= SuperComm with send any text string on the ADS line to the modem. Doug -*- End of Thread. -*- 29800 28-MAY 19:16 General Information CoCo club in Eastern PA From: EDDIEKUNS To: ALL Someone on the bitnet CoCo list was looking for a CoCo club in eastern PA, around Pittsburgh, I believe. I remember that there is a fairly large club there, but don't know how to get this person in touch with it. Can anyone here help me? Eddie -*- 29804 28-MAY 21:52 General Information RE: CoCo club in Eastern PA (Re: Msg 29800) From: DRSPOON To: EDDIEKUNS Might take a look in Wayne Laird's list of COCO BBS's for a BBS in the area. This could then be the route to finding the nearest "club" via a msg to that board. Cheers, -Don Spoon- -*- End of Thread. -*- 29807 28-MAY 23:22 Applications RE: Sculptor (Re: Msg 29751) From: GENEDEAL To: CIZZIJR (NR) Carmen, Thanks for the reply. I have set up a master dbm menu w/sculptor and have most of the ground work for about 5 dbms. All I need to do is conn one of my kids into doing some input for me. I'll double-check the vdu file, but I didn' notice a problem before . I'll keep you posted. What kind of system are you running? I've been away from the os9 community for a year or so, but only because I got tired of seeing listings of the software library. I'm still an avid os9'er and will probably remain as such. I'm running a cc3 w/20 meg & 2 80trk ds/dd floppies,X-pak,rs232,etc. Finally after many years I feel like I'm not "toying" around any more. The system is a real workhorse. Anyway, get back to me when you can. I look forward to talking with you. Gene -*- 29808 28-MAY 23:29 Telcom RE: (Re: Msg 29718) From: GENEDEAL To: KNOT1 (NR) Jamie, Thanks for your help. I'll download the AR PAK DEARC files tonight and experiment. I'll let you know how it goes. I've spent over four years with os9, but I've neglected the TELECOM end of it all. I look forward to learning as much as I can. Thanks again, Gene -*- 29809 28-MAY 23:34 Applications Multi-vue From: SCG To: ALL Maybe someone out there can help me out. I have a strange problem that pops up once in awhile with Control and Multi-vue. Here it is: Sometimes when I run control -e it doesn't pick up my colors right and it never get gets my mouse settings. But when I run control from inside gshell it picks them right up! Strange uh!? Heres the procedure I use to start Multi-vue: type 6 control -e ; gshell& Well I don't get why it does it but another thing I just tried is: type 6 clear to screen control -e gshell that seems to be ok!? Well if anyone has any suggestions I'd appriciate it greatly. Thanks, Steve Gilbert SCG -*- 29814 29-MAY 19:16 Applications RE: Multi-vue (Re: Msg 29809) From: DODGECOLT To: SCG Sometimes when you switch to a window while a program is setting palette registers, GRFInt messes up and forgets to set the palettes. Don't know if this is a variation of that problem, but it is possible... -Mike -*- 29859 31-MAY 20:38 Applications RE: Multi-vue (Re: Msg 29814) From: SCG To: DODGECOLT (NR) Hmmm.. Could be.. well I got some suggestions from Greg Law, and I see if they work out. Steve -*- End of Thread. -*- 29812 29-MAY 03:38 General Information Bugs in Windint involving overlays From: EDDIEKUNS To: ALL I'm wondering if I've hit some bugs somewhere! :) Occasionally, I'll show off some of the graphics pictures I have. This involves repeatedly running 'view' and 'viewgif' and 'imgshow'. The problem is that after a while, the programs stop working. Any program in any window which tries to open an overlay will fail to open an overlay. I have plenty of memory free. I even got error 184 (window already defined) last night while doing this! Also, although mmap shows that I have plenty of contiguous high RAM free, viewgif will fail to procure two pages for flickering. I've noticed this on other occasions, and the only link I can think of on the several occasions is the repeated viewing of .640's, .vef's, .gif's, and .img's. In fact, I believe every time I've shown off the pictures to friends this has happened, resulting in an eventual reboot as I get unable to do anything! (Since nothing can open an overlay) Anyone have any ideas? Eddie -*- 29815 29-MAY 19:19 General Information RE: Bugs in Windint involving overlays (Re: Msg 29812) From: DODGECOLT To: EDDIEKUNS Maybe those programs are not closing their overlays before exiting? Remember you are limited to 32 windows/overlays at once, if I remember correctly. Otherwise, I don;t know. -Mike -*- 29816 29-MAY 21:05 General Information RE: Bugs in Windint involving overlays (Re: Msg 29815) From: MINIFREAK To: EDDIEKUNS Yeah, Eddie. I've seen it too. In my case, I have one app that uses _lots_ of overlays, and it will eventually bomb the windowing. I know that the overlays are being closed; I wrote the program. One of these days (so he says...), I'm gonna dig into it, but for right now, a reboot is easier. Randy -*- 29820 29-MAY 23:33 General Information RE: Bugs in Windint involving overlays (Re: Msg 29815) From: EDDIEKUNS To: DODGECOLT The overlays are definately being closed. When a program exits, any paths it owns are closed, right? (Is this true for any OS-9 program?) Well, I don't think the programs open any overlays at all. I think they open device windows (?) to flicker between. Is it possible to leave those as phantom windows (unclosed & unclosable)? Eddie -*- 29821 29-MAY 23:36 General Information RE: Bugs in Windint involving overlays (Re: Msg 29816) From: EDDIEKUNS To: MINIFREAK I'm glad that I'm not the only person who'se seen it! Makes me feel better. I just added a feature to KBCom to help me recover from those times when I can't open an overlay. Before, you couldn't quit the program because it couldn't open up the overlay to ask you "Are you Sure?"! Now, if you press -Q twice in a row (presumably failing the first time due to being unable to open an overlay), then it will quit without prompting. Tho I think this bug is bigger than overlays. I just notice it when I can't open up any more overlays. But I believe that view, imgshow, etc... all open up device windows. It has the feel of system tables getting corrupted, somehow. Eddie -*- 29822 29-MAY 23:47 General Information RE: Bugs in Windint involving overlays (Re: Msg 29821) From: MINIFREAK To: EDDIEKUNS Correct, it's more than just overlays. The most frequent thing that happens to me is with Supercomm. It opens two device windows on the same screen, one of which is a one-liner at the top of the screen. The window appears, but the wrong color, and... the text that is supposed to be there shows up at the top of /term!! When I shut down Supercomm, term goes away too. This didn't use to happen. Probably one of the later patches is the culprit, maybe. At least, the will be the first place I look. Randy -*- 29827 30-MAY 18:19 General Information RE: Bugs in Windint involving overlays (Re: Msg 29820) From: DODGECOLT To: EDDIEKUNS Hmmmm... I remember a time when I could exit GShell and then try to exit another prgram that used overlays- the result would usually be a complete system crash. Then all of the sudden the problems disappeared.. I just hope that they get the upgrade out pretty soon :) -Mike -*- 29848 31-MAY 08:08 General Information RE: Bugs in Windint involving overlays (Re: Msg 29812) From: OS9UGPRES To: EDDIEKUNS Hmm. Are you using gshell in amongst all this, or another program which sets up menu'd or framed windows? - kev -*- 29862 31-MAY 20:55 General Information RE: Bugs in Windint involving overlays (Re: Msg 29848) From: EDDIEKUNS To: OS9UGPRES No. I'm not using framed or menu'd windows at all. The only programs I run that do any graphics are view (Tim Koonce's), IMGShow, and ViewGIF. And KBCom which opens overlays but does nothing more complicated than that except load, switch, and kill fonts if you select them (and then the kill when you quit KBCom or deselect fonts). Oh -- and I haven't been using fonts when this happened. I just tend to notice the problem right away with KBCom because I was very careful about looking at the return code from OWSet() and KBCom *beep*'s at you if it can't open an overlay. (Rather than thinking it has and screwing up the display) Eddie -*- End of Thread. -*- 29817 29-MAY 21:07 Programmers Den RE: Plug 'n Power (Re: Msg 29669) From: BTACK To: ZACKSESSIONS I do know how to code assemble. If you can get me copy I'd like to see what I can do with it. Thanks. -*- 29819 29-MAY 23:26 Programmers Den RE: Plug 'n Power (Re: Msg 29817) From: ZACKSESSIONS To: BTACK Send me a SASE (8x11) and I'll be happy to send you a copy. Zack Sessions P.O. Box 540 Castle Hayne, NC 28429 -*- End of Thread. -*- 29823 30-MAY 00:45 Graphics & Music MIDI From: BAMBOO To: RAGTIMER Hi Ragtimer: Glad that you like the music. I have not yet received the new version yet I have few questions wants to ask you Are you currently trying to port Umuse III to OS9 68K system What is your reaction on TANDY's disconitnuing new CoCo production From what I have learned and felt, UMUSE III should be standard MIDI format compatable in the future. Whic mean that UMUSE III can save its scores in standard MIDI format for other software MIDI sequencers to play. Also, UMUSE III (or UMBOX 3) can play and load any standard MIDI formated scores. Just like GIF files. We, as CoCo users can enjoy thousands of GIF files because people support GIF. We are lucky if we, UMUSE user, can play thousand more scores done on IBM, MAC or AMIGA. I know that I asked a lot, but I hope that you or some other able persons will fulfill my dreams For those programmers, is there someone who is thinking of writing a program that will display beautiful graphic according to the music played by the UMUSE (or UMBOX 3)? I have tried to run BALL or MANYBALLS demos on one screen and Ubox3 on another. And it worked beautifully. If you can make ball bouncing according to the music, that will be even better. Have someone thought of writina drum machine pattern software? It wil play a drum machine patten according to the UMUSE III. If possible, we can control the patterns within the UMUSE III. All we could do is to put a control code in the scores that tricker the drum machine patten software to play a pattern through a drum machineSince that OS9 is mutitasking machine, we can write many add on programs and just pip the scores to each add on. For example, we could load UMUSE III, MIDI graphic generater, MIDI software drum machine and mixer into memory and play our music that use all of them. I can't wait to see UMUSE runs on a faster CPUThat way I can done twice the amount of scores than no(screen update is a little too slow for a big scor Thank you again for the great software John Kou .z -*- 29834 31-MAY 00:16 Graphics & Music RE: MIDI (Re: Msg 29823) From: RAGTIMER To: BAMBOO (NR) John, lots of users are pushing for Standard MIDI FILE format ("MFF") and I hope to get to it. I have the format specs here. It's really oriented more towards raw performance than score editing, but it should be fairly easy to get Umuse3 to "play" out to a MFF file instead of the synths. I've found a way to record hand playing under OS9 without doing anything too nasty. Yes, I'm in line to port Umuse to the MM/1 machine. Drum machines can be driven from version 4.6.0 and up, using MIDI clock. On the Yamaha PSS-480, instrument changes cause rhythm style changes, and you can even play chords. 4.6.0 also has the new "Part Copy" that lets you copy a few bars of drum pattern over and over. Uses lots of notes, but at least you needn't write them all in. Oh yes, 4.6 has the new Universal Percussion Clef, so you can write drum parts independently of synth make and model. Sorry you don't have the upgrade yet -- I asked Ed to send it to you weeks ago since you are a major user and uploader. I'll beat on him again. Hope to hear some more CHinese music -- mike k -*- End of Thread. -*- 29825 30-MAY 02:29 Graphics & Music Who did "VEFIO" ? From: THEFERRET To: ALL I need to find out who wrote vefio, so I can use it properly, and also gripe about it :-) -*- 29826 30-MAY 18:04 Graphics & Music RE: Who did "VEFIO" ? (Re: Msg 29825) From: ZACKSESSIONS To: THEFERRET (NR) VEFIO was written by Ron Lammardo. He is not a Delphier, but is online on CompuServe. I think his name and address are in the doc file. He also did Shell+. Zack -*- 29872 31-MAY 22:45 Graphics & Music RE: Who did "VEFIO" ? (Re: Msg 29825) From: TIMKOONCE To: THEFERRET (NR) Lots of people around here have used VEFIO extensively. Perhaps you could tell us what you're trying to do with it? VEFIO is very nice for capturing graphics screens out from under other programs. If you're just trying to use it to display pictures, there are many other programs which I find easier to use. - Tim Koonce -*- End of Thread. -*- 29829 30-MAY 21:28 General Information Frank Hogg From: MRGOOD To: OS9UGPRES Kevin, From an "ent FHOGG" I find that Frank Hogg hasn't been on Delphi since January. Maybe you could let him know that there are people here who may have some questions regarding his TC/KBUS systems. Hugo -*- 29850 31-MAY 08:08 General Information RE: Frank Hogg (Re: Msg 29829) From: OS9UGPRES To: MRGOOD Hugo - I'll tell him. He's uploaded some new stuff over there and is about to post a large Q&A file, too. -*- End of Thread. -*- 29831 30-MAY 23:34 Utilities RE: 3 1/2" drive (Re: Msg 29668) From: BANCROFT To: ZACKSESSIONS On the Y cable, I am putting my coco in a PC case, I do have a multipak now, but it wont go in the case. -*- 29832 30-MAY 23:36 Utilities RE: 3 1/2" drive (Re: Msg 29680) From: BANCROFT To: OS9UGPRES Maybe pulling the teeth is pretty clever, but what common user is going to think they can swap drives as easily as that, the only people I know that work with drives, are ones that know about jumpers for drive selection. But like you said, anybody should be able to swap drives, and I still dont like the way they did the cable. -*- 29851 31-MAY 08:09 Utilities RE: 3 1/2" drive (Re: Msg 29832) From: OS9UGPRES To: BANCROFT (NR) Again, remember when all this came about: back when the CoCo and other color computers were first appearing. So the idea was to make things as easy as possible, without opening drive cases at all. And it worked pretty well, too. Someone could buy another drive for his coco and swap them back and forth without worrying about learning about jumpers. So it was perfect for the common owner at the time. Probably good for a lot of common users these days, too! (which is why other computer brands still have something similar in their cabling). -*- End of Thread. -*- 29833 31-MAY 00:04 General Information RE: Help! My computer hates me! (Re: Msg 29713) From: RAGTIMER To: EDDIEKUNS AR may have given a short burst of sparkle pattersns on startup. But I recall DynaForm giving a really spectacular blast of stuff on startup. Blasted new GIME has taken a lot of the beauty out of computing :-). -*- 29840 31-MAY 01:50 General Information RE: Help! My computer hates me! (Re: Msg 29833) From: EDDIEKUNS To: RAGTIMER I may never find out the differences of the new GIME! Today I found out that there's a SECOND delay of about one week in my order. What's going to happen next week, I wonder? Eddie -*- End of Thread. -*- 29835 31-MAY 00:20 Graphics & Music RE: MVCanvas 2.0 (Re: Msg 29687) From: RAGTIMER To: MIKEHAALAND Hi Mike, glad to hear you have the upgrade out. Do you support the Tandy CGP-220 inkjet color printer? They haven't been sold in a while, but there are lots of them out there, mostly in the hands of potential customers for MVC (meaning folks who got CocoMax, ColorMax, etc.). --mike k -*- 29843 31-MAY 03:38 Graphics & Music RE: MVCanvas 2.0 (Re: Msg 29835) From: MIKEHAALAND To: RAGTIMER I've had lot's of request for the CGP-220 and am working on a driver for it. My main problem is I don't have one to test the driver out on. Do you? BTW I do have a driver for the NX-1000 Rainbow (and compatible Epson printers) that is included on the MVC 2.0 disk. Mike H -*- 29874 1-JUN 00:00 Graphics & Music RE: MVCanvas 2.0 (Re: Msg 29843) From: RAGTIMER To: MIKEHAALAND (NR) Yes I have a CGP-220, that doesn't get used much, but works fine. You can probably find one to borrow closer to home, tho. I have same problem with UMuse3 screen dumps -- I'm trying to get it working with a Gemini 10X, but have to rely on a customer to test it for me. Anyway, the secret to best CGP-220 utilization is to dump the picture sideways, so you get two (no, three!) printer pixels per screen pixel. Using the Black as well as the three colors gives amazing results, tho you need a pretty big translation table to do it right (that's what Subr and Data modules are for, right?). Does your dealer advertize anywhere, like Rainbow or Clipboard? Also does 2.0 have rotate, etc.? I'll send for the upgrade if the Las Vegas (Lost Wages) address is correct in my manual. --mike k -*- End of Thread. -*- 29836 31-MAY 00:25 General Information RE: New C compiler bug! (newly found) (Re: Msg 29720) From: RAGTIMER To: GREGL I'd never accuse the Microware 6809 C compiler of over-optimizing. It's very slick at the expression level, but across statements or even different expressions it's got worse brains and eyesight than a Tandy executive. Eddie and I have discussed this bug and without trying it myself, I suspect it's for real. -*- 29841 31-MAY 01:58 General Information RE: New C compiler bug! (newly found) (Re: Msg 29720) From: EDDIEKUNS To: GREGL You're correct. I missed that! For my test to be proper, you should change the test in the loop to: if (i > 4) { i++; continue; } (Originally, I think the loop was while i < 5 and not while i <= 5. ANd that's why it worked when I ran it. These last minute changes that trip you up. :) Eddie -*- 29856 31-MAY 20:07 General Information RE: New C compiler bug! (newly found) (Re: Msg 29836) From: GREGL To: RAGTIMER Mike, You're right about that and it is definitely a bug. No doubt about that. But at least the Microware C compiler does generate proper post-increment code. I ran into a problem with an ANSI C compiler with some source that had worked for years on the Microware C compiler. long_var = (((*ptr++ << 24) + (*ptr++ << 16)) + (*ptr++ << 8)) + *ptr++) Of course, it generates the proper code under the Microware C compiler but the ANSI-standard compiler generates the following code: long_var = *ptr << 24 + *ptr << 16 + *ptr << 8 + *ptr; ptr++, ptr++, ptr++, ptr++; According to reasons given to be my the technical support representatives, the "ANSI standard" states that post-increment will increment the pointer after accessing the variable - but it does not specify how much later. If you want my opinion, somebody really screwed up on this one! Of course you'd expect "(*ptr++) + (*ptr++)" to generate the following code: lda ,x+ adda ,x+ Not according to them. Arrrgh! -- Greg -*- 29864 31-MAY 21:00 General Information RE: New C compiler bug! (newly found) (Re: Msg 29856) From: EDDIEKUNS To: GREGL (NR) I mentioned your post-increment problem on the bitnet list. Lots of people agreed that there was that ambiguity in the definition of the language. But still ... the only REASONABLE way to implement it is the way Microware did -- increment right after the variable access. Eddie -*- 29873 31-MAY 22:53 General Information RE: New C compiler bug! (newly found) (Re: Msg 29856) From: TIMKOONCE To: GREGL (NR) Actually, Greg, there's another problem lurking in there. K&R specifically states that associative operations (like addition) may be re-arranged by the compiler. Try looking at your statement if the terms are evaluated right-to-left!! Ugh. The ANSI solution is non-intuitive, but really the only "correct" one, short of dictating the order of evaluations. Same reason why you shouldn't have function calls like: function(ptr++,ptr) Because it works differently depending on which order the arguments are evaluated. I wonder when ANSI says that the post-increment occurs here? Is it after evaluating the parameters but before the actual function call, or is it done after the function returns? Anybody know? - Tim -*- 29875 1-JUN 00:06 General Information RE: New C compiler bug! (newly found) (Re: Msg 29864) From: RAGTIMER To: EDDIEKUNS You guys are all wet. THe K&R Bible states that you can't trust ANYTHING about the order of ptr++ expressions within the same expression, or even same statement. Any lucky results you get that you like are just that, and will break the moment you try porting your code to another machine or compiler. Granted, in PDP-11, 6809, and 68000 with auto-increment addressing modes, you'd expect instant results. But how do you know what order the sub-expresisions are evaluated? Only the Boolean and Comma operators in C guarantee any order of evaluation. I've heard nobody learns or teaches C out of K&R anymore. It shows ^-). ( Although I've learned most other C features the, uh, hard way). -*- 29876 1-JUN 00:10 General Information RE: New C compiler bug! (newly found) (Re: Msg 29873) From: RAGTIMER To: TIMKOONCE (NR) Besides, I forgot to say, that original example of building a LONG out of 4 CHARs is hideously inefficient code -- you should load the 1st (hi-order) byute, shift it 8, OR in the next one, and so forth. Better yet, just (cast) the original pointer to a LONMG, as in longvar = *((long *) ptr)++); (yes I need another left paren there). I pull this stuff in Umuse3 all the time. It will work on any Motorola CPU chip, but don't try it on Intel. -*- 29888 1-JUN 20:25 General Information RE: New C compiler bug! (newly found) (Re: Msg 29875) From: EDDIEKUNS To: RAGTIMER (NR) You're right. The problem is that so many compilers follow K&R to a point and then extend it that you forget the little quirks which are really in K&R! Believe it or not, I was taught C out of K&R. Eddie -*- End of Thread. -*- 29837 31-MAY 00:30 Programmers Den RE: digitising sound (Re: Msg 29734) From: RAGTIMER To: THEFERRET (NR) Years ago I typed in and modified a routine from BYTE magazine that digitized sound from the cassette port. (You can guess how long ago BYTE was running Coco articles. They did a lot! Long before OS9). Also the original CocoMax Hi-Res box has a built-in A/D that will go even faster. But to use either, your program must block interrupts while running under OS9. Not a problem for a few seconds. Aren't there freebie programs to download here that record, as well as Play? -*- 29839 31-MAY 00:47 Graphics & Music Thanks for Umuse upload From: RAGTIMER To: CTL56 Thanks for the "Bells of St. Mary's" upload. Nice job for a first upload. Sounds like a two-person 4-hand piano arrangement -- sorta reminds me of a player piano (I have one -- early sort of MIDI, grin). I like the Irish jig between the verses. Fr. Bing Crosby would have been delighted, I'm sure. --mike k -*- 29842 31-MAY 03:08 General Information RE: Basic09 Help!!!! (Re: Msg 29328) From: JEVESTAL To: OLDGROUCH I haven't followed all of this thread very closely, but maybe this may help: I merge inkey, gfx, gfx2 and all the other basic09 subroutines in a module called basic.support which I preload (usually in my startup file), make sure it is less than 8k in length. I have no other modules merged with runb or basic09. When I write a program I can have up to 32k in the basic09 workspace, (basic09#32k). I set up my programs in such as way that the indivual packed files are under 8k or under 16k for large procedures. I pack all my tiny procedures together up to 8k in legth. I preload the menu program and the small procedures. The I then use the kill proc procedure outlined above. Everything usually works fine. Hope this helps. Jim -*- 29869 31-MAY 22:06 General Information RE: Basic09 Help!!!! (Re: Msg 29842) From: OLDGROUCH To: JEVESTAL (NR) After several days of trial and error I did end up doing it the way you outlined only with RunB. And, finally!, everything is starting to work on a reliable basis... Thanks for the info, though. - Eric W. -*- End of Thread. -*- 29844 31-MAY 04:44 Grits & Gravy Hardware Problem (you might say) From: JIMREED To: ALL Well, I took my car to a "quick lube" place today . . . . . . to have the oil changed and fluids topped off and all that. A pretty routine thing, right? Ever since, when I hit a bump in the road,I get a beep from that little chime that sounds when you leave your keys in the ignition or forget to turn off your lights. I decided I should not even bother to go back and try to tell them that something they did must have caused this. Besides, it would probably have quit doing it while they were in the car. The question is, was this just a coincidence? At the end of the day, when I came home, it got worse, sometimes chiming a few times for seemingly no reason at all. I just know that if I take it to the dealer, they'll have to remove the dashboard and the transmission to fix it. Does anyone know if those chime gizmos wear out or something? Sure would be nice to buy a two dollar something from an auto parts place and fix the problem! -- Jim P.S. I can just see the auto parts guys nudging each other in the ribs and pointing at me and guffawing about my "wimp problem." I mean, real men need to replace thrown rods and stuff like that, don't they? -*- 29852 31-MAY 08:09 Grits & Gravy RE: Hardware Problem (you might say) (Re: Msg 29844) From: OS9UGPRES To: JIMREED Jim, This isn't any help, but... I refuse to go to a quickie lube place any more. A coupla years ago I took my Buick wagon to one... in and out. Fine. A few days later going to the beach the car started running terrible. A little eyeballing showed that when they replaced the air filter, they must have rerouted the filter's Mass Airflow Sensor's cable the wrong way. So the cable lay against the exhaust manifold and shorted out. Cost: $450 for new sensor and tuneup! Of course, no way could I prove that those twits caused it . Marsha took her car for an oil change last year, and it came back with NO oil in it! Just yesterday Marsha took my car up to a garage and they replaced the transmission pan gasket (their suggestion). Marsha came back after a 150 mile trip (!) and said "The trans is slipping". Sure enough I just checked and they DIDN'T refill the fluid! (gnashing teeth) I tell ya, I'm ready to go back to doing my own repairs. There doesn't seem to be a decent mechanic under the age of 35 in the whole world anymore. When I worked as one years back, I was good *and* careful; and so were all my friends. These days I'm lucky to get a runnable car back, and/or to not have grease all over my velour seats. Good luck, whatever! Kev -*- 29853 31-MAY 18:23 Grits & Gravy RE: Hardware Problem (you might say) (Re: Msg 29852) From: DODGECOLT To: JIMREED Probably it is just a coincidence. Most likely there is a loose wire- check the electrical diagram in your owner's manual for the 'chime' circuit. Yea, I stopped taking my car in to shops long ago- probably because of the brake job that was done, or maybe the shocks they almost put in... The parking brake was never adjusted, so the back brakes wouldn't adjust, so I had hardly any brakes.. AND they didn't quite tighten down the bolts holding my new shocks, so I almost lost my car. Oh, well... -Mike -*- 29860 31-MAY 20:48 Grits & Gravy RE: Hardware Problem (you might say) (Re: Msg 29844) From: EDDIEKUNS To: JIMREED Well, these little "wimp problems" tend to run into "real men, UH! problems" if you ignore them too long! A friend of mine ignored this slight weird sound his car made, and one day he threw his drive shaft. *BANG* And that car never worked again. Eddie -*- 29871 31-MAY 22:15 Grits & Gravy RE: Hardware Problem (you might say) (Re: Msg 29844) From: MINIFREAK To: JIMREED It's not likely to be something they caused directly. Give me a few of the basics (namely make, model, year), and maybe I can think of a possible cause and cure. BTW, I've read this thread already, and see some of the attitudes that caused me to quit working on cars. It takes a fool to work with such dangerous conditions, for realitively low pay. Add to that the clowns screaming that it costs too much and your ripping me off and etc. etc, it takes an UTTER fool to stay in the business. The moral of that rambling is that you treat the person working on your car like an idiot, and soon you will only be able to find idiots to do the work. Randy -*- 29883 1-JUN 06:06 Grits & Gravy RE: Hardware Problem (you might say) (Re: Msg 29871) From: OS9UGPRES To: MINIFREAK (NR) Randy, Having been a paid mechanic myself, I appreciate good ones. I'll pay extra to get one, in fact. Some of my friends are still mechanics (two each own Mercedes and Volvo shops... now there we're talking $$$$ - grin). But I despise ones that don't give a durn... you know, the ones who don't treat your car like their own. Or who act like they're doing you a favor to even return the car in running condition. And then there are the guys who replace everything in sight, trying to find a problem. And while I can understand the necessity of this at times, some other times it's simply lack of experience on their part. Sometimes it may even be greed. Trouble is, service industry people are hard to find these days. And the best ones are overworked and stay in demand. In any case, if someone replaces my gasket, and then doesn't refill my transmission, then yup he's an idiot or worse! ;-) best, Kevin PS: Try selling software, where everyone screams that it costs too much. I guess all businesses have the same customers . -*- 29884 1-JUN 06:51 Grits & Gravy RE: Hardware Problem (you might say) (Re: Msg 29852) From: JIMREED To: OS9UGPRES (NR) Actually, Kev, The guys at the quick lube place I visited . . . . . . were so gung ho and NASA-like in their checklists and yelling to each other stuff like "Power Steering fluid topped off, Cap replaced and secured," and "Now adding five quarts of 10W-40, cap replaced and secured," that I found it amusing -- though reassuring nonetheless. The manager was a regular drill sergeant who chastised the men if they did not rattle off things like "right front tire pressure checked, sir." As corny as his by-the-numbers drill was, I did have to conclude they were thorough. Even so, the engine did seem to run rough when I left. I decided the PCV valve must need to be broken in or something; anyway, runs fine now. I was glad to escape without his dressing me down for poor posture. -- Jim -*- 29885 1-JUN 06:56 Grits & Gravy RE: Hardware Problem (you might say) (Re: Msg 29853) From: JIMREED To: DODGECOLT (NR) Mike, As I was just telling Kev . . . . . . I found the quick lube's check-list drill reassuring and the computer printout of all services performed was similarly reassuring. All in all, I prefer that sort of thing over the old veteran's "everything is fine, Mr. Reed." Yes, I also believe the chime problem is just coincidental. At this point, it seems to have gone into remission and I am hoping the problem will just go away as easily as it came. -- Jim -*- 29886 1-JUN 07:07 Grits & Gravy RE: Hardware Problem (you might say) (Re: Msg 29871) From: JIMREED To: MINIFREAK (NR) Randy, It's a 1983 Lincoln Town Car . . . . . . but don't worry about trying to delve into the problem further; I can always "bite the bullet" and have someone at an auto electric place look at it. My experience, though, is that these "little" annoyances sometimes take major troubleshooting to repair -- like replacing the wiring harness to quiet my chime. Yes, I suppose we do not give mechanics their due, but, then, I'd say we are equally hard on dentists and doctors and plumbers, too. It's not that we doubt their expertise, but that we see $$$$ going out of the back pocket when we encounter them. My big gripe with auto maintenance is that everything is so packed in that you cannot fix anything yourself without some special tool or busting your knuckles or wrenching your back. -- Jim -*- End of Thread. -*- 29857 31-MAY 20:13 Graphics & Music Quaddump help From: RADARBUZZ To: ALL I just ran across quaddump in the database. I think it's used somehow in connection with printing a graphics file on a CGP-220 ink jet printer (that I have, hence my interest). I also think I've figured out the syntax. I'm stumpped on what type of file it expects for input ( outfile ). I can't find any docs. Can anybody fill me in?? -Jeff -*- 29865 31-MAY 21:49 Programmers Den Planet Engine From: NES To: PAULIGHT (NR) Thanx for the phone call, I loaded the stdpats_4 and it work fine. You Realy did a good job on the Manual and the MV menu's and graphics. -NES- -*- 29866 31-MAY 21:55 Applications Planet Engine From: NES To: ALL Hey if your a star gazzer, you'll love Planet Engine by Gravity Studio, It give's you the moon's phase's and position from any place on earth or at any time or day. also display the planet's and star's positon in the sky. Heres' a hent when running it make shure you merge in stdpats_4 or you'll get an error 194. -NES- -*- 29879 1-JUN 02:14 General Information Bernoulli Box From: ENDOTSON To: ALL Has anyone ever succesfully used a Bernoulli Box (any size) on a CoCo system? I have read that it is scsi, but don't know if it would use the same type of drivers that we are using for hard drives or if it would require its own custom driver. I would presume its descriptor would be set for two heads and however many cylinders the particular size had. Hmmmmm, or are they one head devices? Don't know. ttfn -*- 29880 1-JUN 05:38 Users Group RE: MOTD (Re: Msg 29489) From: PAGAN To: OS9BERT (NR) Thanks for the source info. Stephen(PAGAN) -*- 29887 1-JUN 20:23 General Information A new kitten in the house! From: EDDIEKUNS To: OS9UGPRES (NR) A different question from the kind you normally get here: I just brought a new kitten home (smokey white, I think he has Siamese in his ancestry because his ear tips, lower legs, and tail are darker, but he has white "boots" on his feet!). My other cat isn't quite sure what to make of it! At first, he was just looking, and there's the occasional hiss, and he doesn't seem too happy. But then again, he's not furious. Anything I can do to ease the transition? (My other cat is about 1-1/2 years old, and the kitten is about 2 months.) I'm thinking of Apollo or Merlin for a name for the kitten. Leaning toward Apollo. Eddie P.S. The kitten is one of a litter of 5 which we (several folks at Fermi) found abandoned near where we work and hand-raised on homemade formula! They were about five days old when we found them, and screaming furiously for food! Kittens have the most amazingly powerful lungs. -*- FORUM>Reply, Add, Read, "?" or Exit>