[Coco] Have no idea what to call it, but, it WAS New tool: WIRED

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 5:37 PM, Brian Blake <random.rodder at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/4/2012 5:01 PM, Luis Antoniosi wrote:
>>
>> Also I don't have a drivepak to test, but the WIRED could be easily
>> modified to support it. Just do the same way I did with sidekick.
>>
>> Hey Robert, you if you have time and interest to add driveapak support
>> to wired i can give you all the assistance you need.
>>
>>
>
> Luis,
>
> The DrivePak really doesn't need WIRED support - here's why:
>
> At boot, the DrivePak with CoCoNet detects what devices you currently have
> on your system. Example:
>
> My CoCo3 and MPI have the following:
>
> Slot 1 - HDB-DOS for DriveWire cart (yeah, I could store in the SuperIDE and
> I'll probably get around to that...)
> Slot 2 - DrivePak with CoCoNet ROM
> Slot 3 - SuperIDE
> Slot 4 - FD-501
>
> Let's say I've got a serial cable running from the CoCo3 to the PC, and I'm
> also running the CoCoNet server. At boot, CoCoNet will detect the floppy
> controller, the DrivePack and the CoCoNet server connected to the serial
> cable.
>
> I can turn on the floppy by entering the command 'DRIVE 0, OFF' I gain
> access to real floppy hardware.
> If I enter 'DRIVE 1,#25 ' I mount the virtual floppy in the DrivePak to
> drive 1.
> If I enter 'DRIVE 2,!"C:\COCO GAMES\DONKEY.DSK"' I mount Sock Master's
> Donkey Kong stored on my PC to drive 2.
> If I enter 'DRIVE 3,@"WHATEVER WEB ADDRESS AN IMAGE IS STORED"  I can mount
> an image from the internet.
>
> I can back up from drive 0 to 1; drive 1 to 0; drive 2 to 0; whatever - all
> without having to worry about restarting the CoCo with a different version
> of the OS. Yes, it's a MAJOR pain since the virtual disk mounting is done
> from the CoCo. And unlike DriveWire, which allows you to switch disks via
> the server GUI, there's no such luck with the CoCoNet based products.
>
> Yes, you can accomplish the same tasks with DriveWire/HDB-DOS, but, there
> are more steps involved. However, with DriveWire, HDB-DOS there's far less
> typing, especially if you make a typo and don't realize it...
>

The way I do a similar thing w/ SuperIDE + DW is to put the
HDBDOS/SIDE rom in one flash bank, the HDBDOS/DW rom in another,
Beretta's CoCoBoot in a third, and of course Downland in the fourth.

I then set the SuperIDE to boot HDBDOS/SIDE by default and have 3 tiny
programs on disk 0, one each for switching to DW, CoCoBoot, or
Downland.  So I turn on the coco or press reset and have access to the
HDBDOS DECB drives.  I type: run"dw" and I have access to all the DW
content, etc.  It works well and its super simple.  The one place
where this scheme does stink is in copying content from SIDE to DW in
BASIC.  (I actually never do this anyway, but if I wanted to it would
be a bit of a chore).  Wired is nice for that task.

CoCoBoot also has the ability to boot from or copy disks between any
of: DW, SuperIDE, real floppy, ram, more?  That, and many more cool
abilities.
Perhaps this is the "super HDBDOS" or part of the puzzle, although of
course its not BASIC.  OTOH, who wants to manage disk images using
BASIC?  Bleh :)  Tools like wired or cocoboot can do this fine I
think.