[Coco] File size from Disk Basic

Fri Jun 29 18:39:25 EDT 2007

Bob,
Regarding the Joystick routines, Steve Bjork did a couple of articles in The 
Rainbow which had routines for all the various joysticks available at the 
time; normal, hi-res, x-pad, Cocomax1. The article was called "Coco Mouse". 
The routines were written in assembler, and quite well commented. The 
articles appeared in Australian Rainbow in August through October, 1986.

Might be worth having a look at.

Also, I remember there was a RamDisk for the coco3. Not sure where I read 
about that, and if it was a PD programme or not. Could that be useful?

--
Regards, Bob Devries, Dalby, Queensland, Australia

Isaiah 50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me
the capacity to be his spokesman,
so that I know how to help the weary.

website: http://www.home.gil.com.au/~bdevasl
my blog: http://bdevries.invigorated.org/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "theother_bob" <theother_bob at yahoo.com>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2007 12:26 AM
Subject: Re: [Coco] File size from Disk Basic

> That's one idea I have... mainly I want to make interchangeable joystick 
> ML subroutines that would automatically crop and scale joystick values, 
> and give me numbers for graphic and text positions at the same time. This 
> would take a little overhead out of the program ond probably speed up the 
> interface a little... although it's surprisingly smooth working as-is. 
> There would be a routine for stock joysticks, one for Tandy Hi-Res, and 
> maybe the other hi-res adapter. The loader detects which stick you're 
> using and selects the appropriate "driver" at load time, then saves the 
> selection in a "global variable" so various modules know what to do.
>
> Also I plan to separate more of the functions out into smaller 
> sub-modules, such as the file Copy-Move routine. This basically means that 
> I need to make it a script-based module that will load different basic 
> modules, perform that module's function on the files listed in the script 
> and then restore the main module... all while maintaning a consistent 
> graphic display. The Copy-Move routine is probably most important to 
> squeeze into a small module to free up memory for the actual copying 
> process. Move is just a flag that tells it to erase the original after 
> copying. I also want to work on a more compatible way to launch software 
> from the gui, again starting with a smaller sub-module, and possibly 
> allowing some sort of scripting, say to do a few POKEs before loading, or 
> even after a LOADM but before EXEC... so you could maybe automate the 255 
> life cheat on Ghost Gobbler for example.
>
> Other plans for a future release include using the HD as virtual memory, 
> switching to 640x200, 4-color mode, and I may require 512K. Not sure on 
> that yet, but it would definitely allow me to speed some things up by 
> having them in memory.
>
> I feel capable of writing small joystick routines for example, but to 
> convert most of this program to ML is beyond my abilities at this point. 
> Besides, I'm kind of proud of the smoothness that this Basic gui 
> demonstrates... no flickering cursor, no sluggish movement. It's quite 
> responsive and is a giant "in your face" to people who claim Basic can 
> only work in a linear fashion, can't be modular, blah blah blah. Please 
> nobody start a flame-war with me over this, I love programming the CoCo 
> and will probably keep coding in Basic as long as my fingers will let me.
>
> These are a few of my ideas... and to Fred P, I haven't forgotten your 
> request and that will definitely be a feature in any new release.
>
> Cheers,
> Bob
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Bob Devries <devries.bob at gmail.com>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 10:15:07 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] File size from Disk Basic
>
>
> Thanks for the URL, Bob.
>
> I notice that most of your FOG programme is written in BASIC. Have you
> considered rewriting it in assembler? Do you think that this will cut down
> the size?
>
> --
> Regards, Bob Devries, Dalby, Queensland, Australia
>
> Isaiah 50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me
> the capacity to be his spokesman,
> so that I know how to help the weary.
>
> website: http://www.home.gil.com.au/~bdevasl
> my blog: http://bdevries.invigorated.org/
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "theother_bob" <theother_bob at yahoo.com>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 11:48 AM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] File size from Disk Basic
>
>
>>
>> --- Bob Devries <devries.bob at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Wow, Bob, my name up in lights!! Just what I always dreamed of! hehehe.
>>>
>>> Seriously though, I have never seen your Color FOG programme. Is it
>>> available somewhere?
>>>
>>
>>
>> Of course... on my webpage... http://www.geocities.com/theother_bob
>> You will see an animated gif made from screen caps of the actual program.
>> Click
>> that gif image to get to the program download and info page. There's an
>> instruction document and a "Color FOG Unravelled" doc that I maintain in
>> place
>> of comments... I couldn't afford to waste ANY program space.
>> There are versions for stock RSDOS (floppies only) and for RGB/HDB-DOS
>> (floppies and/or HDD). Perhaps you overlooked it because it's for Basic
>> only? I
>> just always wanted an easier way to view my directories than typing DIR
>> and
>> hitting Shift+@ fast enough but not too fast. That and making a simple
>> typo
>> during a copy command used to really drive me NUTS !
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Bob
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
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