[Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

Tue May 13 14:58:56 EDT 2014

Robert,
Nothing needs to be done for the update beforehand. It should "just work" as long as DW4 has a connection.
After hitting "u", "u", you see a "Yes/No" box with "Update MShell via DW4 Internet", clicking "Yes" brings up the big update dialog and checks for updates, hitting "No" returns you to the main screen.

As a note, I just booted up my Coco3, run MShell which was the 'bad" version, hit update, and updated to the new version. When you say all you see is "ss" & yes/no, this makes me wonder as that box is generated before the updater is even loaded into memory. It is a fragged sub and is only called while in use. The yes/no box is a product of "Ms1Grf" which is the graphics/text parser running in a 2nd 64k. The actual text message is generated in the main then sent to the parser via pipes. So if the text message is being garbled, then it's a problem in the main or in the piped parser.... I would think the main if the display resumes to normal after clicking "no". If the parser was crashing... all display from that point on would be lost and MShell would crash. If the text buffer in the main is getting over written, then either there's a memory leak (rogue pointer), or maybe too many processes running in the 512k causing the vmem to somehow get moved and overwrite string space. But it's recovering is it not? This prabably means a bad pointer somewhere.
The thing that gets me, is that it runs fine in VCC and my Coco 3 ??? I can not duplicate what you're seeing.
As a check... when you see the "ss" "yes/no" click "yes" and see if it updates. If so, something's off in the dialog routine for the yes/no box. If it crashes, then data is being overwritten. I'll then know what to look for.
I'm also wondering if it might be a 512k vs 1-meg memory problem. If you have a lot of processes running, it may cause problems on 512k, but I wouldn't really think so. All "memory" errors are reported whe assigning the vmem buffers and anytime they are accessed, but the fragged update sub could be overwwriting the mapped in 8k buffer when it loads.. I don't know how secure OS9 is with these operations.

On another note, is the status bar reporting the proper info for your drives and is the dirbar (top) showing the proper dirs? Just curious. I know you have several storage options so you can check more formats than I can. It's one of the reasons I like you checking it... I want you for your drives... hahaha...

I just sent you a new copy, try it and see what happens in the updater

Thanks for all the help.

Now, for someone with a SuperIDE, a CocoSDC, B&B HD, Disto HD, and any others....

Bill Pierce
"Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens

My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
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-----Original Message-----
From: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Tue, May 13, 2014 1:42 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts wrote:
>
> Ok.
> I think I got the drive check bug...
> I now have a new version up with the fix. I need someone with real floppies 
and possibly DW4 to give it a check. I also need the "Updater" function checked 
as Robert was having problems with it but it may have been related to the drive 
check problem.
> And PLEASE read the included text file. Also, the website has more info and 
requirements
>
> The MShell download
> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23059963/MShell/MShell%201.0.3e.zip
>
>
> The MShell website
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/mshell---the-ultimate-os-9-gui
>
>
> Thanks to all who are participating... this is going to grow into something 
much bigger :-)
>
>
> Bill Pierce
> "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
>

Much better! No problems starting MShell whether booting NitrOS-9 from a hard 
drive or a DrivePak. All disks can be accessed, OS-9 or Disk Basic, on 
Drivewire, SCSI hard drives, DrivePak drives, and floppies.

No luck with Update. All I see is  "ss  hit Enter or click to continue". I have 
an Internet connection active and DW4 is happy when asked to update. I am 
assuming that I don't need to do anything with DW4 but just tell MShell (U U) to 

update.
Does MShell automatically tell DW4 where to go on the Internet? Did I miss a 
prerequisite that needs to be done before telling MShell to Update?

Robert

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