[Coco] DriveWire survey

[CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts]

On May 10, 2014 11:51 PM, "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <
coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
>
> On 5/10/2014 6:37 PM, CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts wrote:
>>
>> Unfortunately we do not have an ethernet interface for the CoCo. If we
did, much of what DriveWire does would be unnecessary and what remained
would be implemented differently.
>
> I don't mean to get things off topic, but if Ethernet support is of
interest, please let me know.  I'm happy to help with the HW for such an
item, (probably Wifi at this point, since hardline is not as useful
anymore), but SW is not my strong suit.
>
> Jim Brain
>

I think we would all rather be using a network interface than the serial
port we use now.

There are two main parts needed.  One is the Ethernet (or WiFi, doesn't
matter to me) hardware, the other is software that can do something with
that hardware.

We sort of have the software part depending on what the interface is.  The
networking api in DriveWire is designed with the idea that someday the DW
server/serial connection could be replaced by something like the Wiznet
5xxx series tcpip controllers (which would then connect to Ethernet or
WiFi, etc).  So, if somebody can connect a wiznet or similar controller to
the coco, making the existing dw software such as the nitros9 drivers, web
server and telnet client should be fairly easy.

On the other hand, if its just a raw Ethernet interface then we also need
to create a tcpip stack and client software that uses it for the coco.
That's a considerable amount of work, though certainly possible.  It might
be possible to use the DW network clients with a software IP stack too, so
that could potentially save some work.

I guess a third option would be to use Ethernet as a direct replacement for
the serial connection we use now.  That would mean a server running on a
modern PC is still required.  Not ideal, but probably easier than anything
else.  Potentially we could use such an arrangement as a crutch until a
native network stack was created for the coco.

I am up for doing whatever I can to help, but I'm useless with hardware and
only marginally capable on the coco software side.

-Aaron