[Coco] Your stock CoCo is DriveWire-ready out-of-the-box (was: DriveWire for dummies?)

[Jeremy Michea]

Could the cassette cable be used for this or must it be the actual drivewire 
cable?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christian Lesage" <hyperfrog at gmail.com>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 8:42 AM
Subject: [Coco] Your stock CoCo is DriveWire-ready out-of-the-box (was: 
DriveWire for dummies?)


> If your CoCo is a 64k CoCo 1 o 2 (not a CoCo 3) with ECB 1.1, DriveWire 
> could (theoretically) be DLOADed from the host PC or Mac to the CoCo.
>
> The only hardware you would need is a serial cable, which DriveWire 
> requires anyway.
>
> I do have a DLOAD server, and it works for games, so I don't see why it 
> couldn't be used to load HDB-DOS. Such a DLOAD server could be integrated 
> into the DriveWire server.
>
> The reason why it wouldn't work with the CoCo 3 is because the DLOAD 
> command was shortsightedly disabled by the programmers who hacked Super 
> Extended Color Basic. (This is the only BASIC command that would be really 
> useful... *sigh*) However, I'm thinking about a workaround, since part of 
> the DLOAD code is still there. For instance, the code that receives a 
> 128-byte block from the bit banger port is still in ROM. Now, 128 bytes 
> would be enough for a loader. A few POKEs would be required to patch 
> things up, then an EXEC would be issued to load the loader, and then 
> another EXEC to run the loader. Not as elegant as a simple DLOAD command, 
> but still... No ROM Pak or disk controller needed.
>
> I also know of a method that lets the CoCo 3 read characters from the 
> serial port instead of the keyboard. A short BASIC program (or a handful 
> of POKEs) is entered, that puts the CoCo 3 into that state. Once it is 
> accepting input from the serial port, you can control it from the host PC 
> or Mac. For instance, you could send a loader as if you were typing it in 
> on the CoCo, like a BASIC program that would restore the DLOAD command.
>
> If anybody is interested, I could share the code I came up with so far.
>
> Christian
>
>
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