[Coco] I dunno what happened

[Wayne Campbell]

Hi Bill,

I'm sorry for the lapse. I wasn't thinking. The RiBBS zip archives are
available, I believe, on rtsi, and maybe even on maltedmedia. I have to
consult my notes to remember where I found all the related archives, and
there were a few. If you already have them, cool. :)

OK. Here are the steps:

1. copy all of the files in the CMDS, DATA and DEFS directories on the
decode.os9 disk image to their corresponding directories on /DD.

2. copy elapsed to the directory you want to use for output, as decode will
create 3 files:

     elapsedVDT.B09 - VDT Validation output I was using this as a way to
verify the output of the module
     elapsedDSAT.B09 - DSAT Validation output I am using this as a way to
verify the output of the module
     elapsed.B09 - output source file for elapsed

3. make sure to CHD to the directory you copied elapsed to
4. from the command line, type:

     OS9: decode elapsed

5. If the error I get occurs, you will be in the overlay window where the
source is being built. The program will end with no cursor, 2 overlay
windows open, and tmode pau=1. Type:

     OS9: display 1b23 - closes inner overlay
     OS9: display 1b23 - closes outer overlay
     OS9: display 0521 - turns cursor back on
     OS9: tmode pau=0 - turn page pause off

Otherwise, the program should show you the output as it is created, and
when it's done, you will be prompted to press [ENTER], and the program will
end elegantly. That is the way it worked when I last ran decode on my
laptop before putting that disk image on the cococoding site.

Since then my work version has turned into 4 work versions, extricating the
display code seems to want to create more problems than it solves. I want
to update to a newer version of MESS, but I don't think any of the changes
since 1.36b applied specifically to the coco or dragon computers. I have
never had success with VCC, but I may give it a try again since it now has
the Becker port, and I can use DriveWire through it. I wish MESS would get
the Becker port, as I am already familiar and comfortable with it.

Please tell me what happens.

Wayne