[Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

Thu May 15 01:36:11 EDT 2014

Kip Koon
computerdoc at sc.rr.com
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon
http://computerpcdoc.com/

Hi Bill and Coco Fans everywhere!
In my eagerness to start testing Mshell I accidentally used the 1.0.2E
version of Mshell which tests for all currently connected drives for a disk
instead of the 1.0.3E version which doesn't.  At first while testing MShell
it seemed to hang, then I tested it on my primary Coco 3 which never fails
me and I saw the /D0 drive light on, so I inserted an unformatted floppy
disk real quick.  Mshell detected that disk and lit up the /d1 drive light
so I inserted another unformatted floppy disk into that drive and it
detected that disk too.  Then the /D2 drive light came on and I inserted a
formatted NitrOS-9 disk and it detected that disk too.  
At this point Mshell displayed the press enter or click to continue message.
I pressed enter as I had no mouse plugged up and continued to use Mshell
from the keyboard only.  The first thing I did was to update Mshell itself
so I pressed 'u' to get the 'Util' drop down menu then I pressed 'u' to
Update Mshell.  I waited and read the messages as each file of Mshell
downloaded and the attributes were set for each file.  I shutdown Mshell as
instructed and restarted it once again.  
I now have Mshell 1.0.0F running on a real Coco 3 with the NitrOS-9 6809 L2
v3.3.0 DW Coco3.dsk Distribution disk file image quite successfully in DW4!
The next step is to copy this image to a real floppy disk and play with it.
I would love to be able to click on a file and see it open up automatically.
Would this be one of the functions coming sometime in the near future?  I
surely hope so, but in any event I'll be happy with whatever functions
Mshell does and will have.  
Now I can see more clearly  and much easier what all my floppies and hard
drives both real and virtual actually have on them!  This is a really cool
program.  Up to now I have not used my single button Color Mouse.  Now I
have a really great reason to pull it out of storage and start playing with
it.  :)  Clicking menus and searching directories on a Coco 3 running the
NitrOS-9 6809 L2 v3.3.0 DW Coco3.dsk image file running Mshell with a mouse
is fantastic!  
I heartily encourage anybody who wants to experience something new and
different for your Coco 3 to start testing Bill Pierce's new Mshell program.
Just remember this is a big testing period for the program which is far from
finished yet, however just to be able to move from one directory to another
with a few clicks is a fun way to see all those NitrOS-9/OS-9/RSDOS disks
both real and virtual you have been wondering about.  Up to now I have had
to enter chd commands out the ying yang over and over switching between
directories to see what they have on them.  Now I can click and go.  This is
my initial report on my very first test of Mshell and I approve this
message.  Take care my friends.  Starfleet out!  Qaplah!  End Transmission!

Kip

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 7:35 AM
To: coco at maltedmedia.com
Subject: Re: [Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

<Laughing>
Kip, I sent you 2 disk images. The first was before Robert Gault discovered
the disk problem, the second was made afterwards. You must have started out
with the wrong disk. But since you did the upgrade, that's the latest
incarnation so you're fine now.

That's 3 Coco3s the updater has worked on and one that it failed.
This tells me that the updater is working as expected and that the problem
Robert is having with his is either a system or computer problem. The
updater code goes back to DW4Man and has been optimized to death so it was
pretty rock solid to start with. I didn't think there was a problem with it.

Now to move on.... I need to move some routines from the main module to
fragged sub-modules, then I can start on the PC File Manager. That will
complete the file managers and handlers which is the heart of MShell. I
needed those fully functional before adding any more code.

As for the Coco 1 & 2 version... It may be possible, but on a much smaller
scale. The whole problem is memory. MShell uses about 300 to 400k on
average, but will utilize up to 2-meg if available. NOS9 L1 would have to
use temp files on the disk and be very disk intensive (as programs were on
L1).

I'll check onto the mouse thing. That would be another good feature... auto
mouse sensing. That way, if no mouse is found, turn the mouse cursor off and
drop the reads from the loop. If there's not a way to detect the mouse, then
I could just add an option to turn it off in the defaults along with the L/R
& HiRes interface selections. This is really the idae of these tests, to get
feedback and add all these "neat" little things in now while I have program
space. Get a good, "usable", rock solid GUI, then start coding all the
"koool" modules like the "OS9 Boot Creator", "FTP File Browser",
"Programming Environment", etc  A lot of which has already been started in
other projects.

And Kip, when you get a chance, check it on all your drive configurations
and let me know how it goes.

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

My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com

-----Original Message-----
From: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts' <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Wed, May 14, 2014 4:05 am
Subject: Re: [Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

Kip Koon
computerdoc at sc.rr.com
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon
http://computerpcdoc.com/

Hi Bill!
I moved over to my primary Coco 3 for testing using the same dsk and vhd
files I had set up and with no changes Mshell booted fine once I realized it
was waiting for floppy drives.  I put a diskette into each of my 3.5" floppy
drives and Mshell came up beautifully.  I pressed 'u', got the drop down
menu, pressed 'u' again and received the entire 1.0.0F update for Mshell!
Now my installation does not check drives when I start Mshell!  It all looks
Great!!!  I can hardly wait to find my joysticks and mouse that I had to
pack away last year when all my family visited last Thanksgiving!  
Now that MShell is working, I'm going to make a copy of the dsk and vhd
files on the PC and run it on my other Coco 3 at the same time!  Once that
works, I'll get VCC running and test it on that, etc. ad infinitum until
every system I have is running real and virtual.  Too bad we can't run this
on a Coco 1 or Coco 2!  It would be great!  Anyway, the initial update test
you asked me to do using a real Coco 3, real floppy drives and DW4 is a
resounding success!  I imagine it will work fine on my other Coco 3 now that
I have updated it to version 1.0.0F.  I can hardly wait to see what else you
do with this program!  The screen is very readable on my CM-8 monitor using
the RGB port!  
One very minor issue.  I noticed that without a mouse nor joystick plugged
in, the pointer just kind over moves slightly horizontally over 'VIEW" on
the menu a little bit.  I don't know if there is a way to check for the
presence of an actual joystick or mouse plugged up to the Coco 3 or not.
I'll leave that up to the experts to figure out.  I'm just the tester on
this program.  I do like testing hardware and software though.  
Other than that, no bugs to report, yet!  :)  This much of Mshell works fine
folks!  Now for the rest of the modules to appear in the online updates!
You'll have those ready in short order, right!  I'm just teasing.  I know
you have a momumental amount of coding ahead, so I will let you go.  I'm
very happy this is working out.  This has been a long time coming.  Take
care my friend.  
Kip

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 2:52 AM
To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts'
Subject: Re: [Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

Kip Koon
computerdoc at sc.rr.com
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon
http://computerpcdoc.com/

Hi Bill!
Yes I do.  I just sent you a private email detailing my initial trouble
getting Mshell working.  All I see at this point on my 512KB Coco 3 with a
Hard Drive Specialist Color Computer Controller with three floppy drives
running HDB-DOS 1.4 DW Coco3 is just the initial Welcome screen.  It never
gets to the main screen.
Kip

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 12:23 AM
To: coco at maltedmedia.com
Subject: Re: [Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

Kip,
Do you have internet access to your DW4 server?
The Updater is what really needs to be tested though I know you'll run
through everything. But I need the updater tested to verify it's working
correctly on another Coco 3.
It works on mine, it works on my Vcc as well, It works on Robert Gault Vcc,
but it doesn't work on his Coco 3. The program runs, does all it should
until he tries to use the updater.

When you get the main program going, just hit  u  then  u  again. Then
follow the prompts.

Thanks

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

My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com

-----Original Message-----
From: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts' <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Wed, May 14, 2014 12:12 am
Subject: Re: [Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

Kip Koon
computerdoc at sc.rr.com
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon
http://computerpcdoc.com/

Hi Bill!
-> Now, for someone with a SuperIDE, a CocoSDC, B&B HD, Disto HD, and 
-> any
others....
I have a SuperIDE on line, a Glenside IDE Controller online, a Burke & Burke
HD in a box with a bunch of other stuff which the last time I looked for I
could not find, and my DEC Dual Floppy drive cabinet with four 5.25" height
floppy drives which is also still in a box somewhere.  As soon as I find
those last two, then I'll have a more expended system.  I sure could use a 8
or even 12 slot expansion interface of some type for the Coco!  I have way
more than 4 cartridge paks in my collection.  I'm reading all the emails
now.  I'll be testing MShell in a few.
Kip

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 2:59 PM
To: coco at maltedmedia.com
Subject: Re: [Coco] The Beta Test release of MShell

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. Bu  t 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
https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com

-----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.zi
> p
>
>
> 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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