[Coco] NitrOS-9 and VDGINT

Sat Jan 24 18:49:34 EST 2015

Allen, since you're getting the info in bits and pieces, here is a rundown of setting up a VDG screen in L2

VTIO is required for all window types and must be in the boot. (same as old CC3IO)

Required for VDG:
CoVDG or CoVDG_small (no pmode graphics support)
Term_vdg or v1 (v2 etc)

Now, CoVDG or CoVDG_Small can be included in the boot with CoWin. Your "term" determins which one uses the initial terminal screen.

If you have term_win set, then to call a VDG window and have CoVDG and at least one "/Vx" descriptor you enter:
shell i=/v1&
Which starts a shell in a vdg window. Just use <clear> to get to the window. This cmd can also be installed into the startup file to make a vdg screen on startup.

If you use term_vdg, then you should start up in a vdg screen.
You can mix-n-match CoWin, CoGrf, CoVDG & CoVDG_Small to have different window types. Here's a rundown of each and it's capabilities:
CoWin - Full windowing environment (same as old WindInt)
CoGrf - Same as above but no support for MultiVue style menuing (less memory used) (same as old GrfInt)
CoVDG - Full VDG support for PMODE4 style graphics (same as old VDGInt)
CoVDG_small - same as above but no PMODE4 graphics support (less memory used)

Used with CoWin/CoGrf:
Term_win
/W - Wildcard CoWin/CoGrf descriptor, opens next available window below
/W1-/W15 - Cowin/CoGrf descriptors

Used with CoVDG/CoVDG_small:
Term_vdg
/V1-/V7 - CoVDG/CoVDG_small descriptors

To open a new standard window, use the same syntax as opening a new VDG window:
shell i=/W& - opens the next available window
shell i=/Wx& - x=1-15 - opens a specific window

I know you probably know most of this, but I included everything as to jog your memory on any confusing points or changes :-)

To explain a lot of the renaming conventions, if you remember, the old drivers/system modules had names like "CC3xxx" and CCxxx"...
You must consider that the NitrOS9 repo compiles disks for all Cocos (1-3) as well as all Dragons, the Coco Arduino, and Boisy's "Liber809" Atari 6809 card. So the naming didn't quite fit the other machines and names were changed to reflect more the hardware/software implementation instead of the machine it is run on. Example.... "CC3Disk" is now "RB1773" which better describes it as a driver for the"RBF WD1773 controller" no matter what machine it's used in. Another would be the "VTIO" mentioned above which was renamed from "CC3IO", which I assume is short for "Video Terminal IO".
It took me a little while to get used to the naming, but in the end, I think it was maybe a good decision since we build for different machines.

If you really want to check out (almost) all the modules available, get a distribution disk and look under:

NITROS9/6x09Lx/MODULES/RBF

NITROS9/6x09Lx/MODULES/SCF

NITROS9/6x09Lx/MODULES/KERNEL

NITROS9/6x09Lx/MODULES/SYSMODS

NITROS9/6x09Lx/MODULES/CLOCKS

NITROS9/6x09Lx/MODULES/RBF/PIPE

NITROS9/6x09Lx/MODULES/RBF/BOOTTRACK

There you will find all the modules needed to build new boot disks with the exceptions of a few "special" cases such as the B&B HD drivers, EmuDsk drivers (for the emulators), and a couple of others. These are actually being built when you build the repo, but are not installed on any dsk image. So you can browse the "nitros9/3rdparty" folder in your repo and find a few gems. (particulary in "drivers")

I hope this clears up a few things for ya :-)

Bill Pierce
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-----Original Message-----
From: Allen Huffman <alsplace at pobox.com>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Sat, Jan 24, 2015 5:49 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] NitrOS-9 and VDGINT

> On Jan 24, 2015, at 6:52 AM, Robert Gault <robert.gault at att.net> wrote:
> 
> >If you see v1, v2, etc. in your boot file, those are vdg screens. If you only 
see w#s in the bootfile, you should be able to change them to vdg screens with 
xmode.
> xmode /w# par=1 pag=10      where # is some number
> 
> The above will change a window to a vdg type with 16 rows.

/V? Good to know. I had found term_vdg and used ezgen to rename it to termvdg 
but that did not fully work. I could iniz and echo to it, but it would hang 
until I hit BREAK in that window. Trying to fork a shell also would hang until I 
pressed BREAK and then I'd see the #002 back on the main window. Very different 
behavior from what I was used to, so clearly things have changed.

I also found an issue where I'd hit CLEAR to switch screens and as soon as it go 
to the 32 VDG screen, it would hang and I was done -- as if that screen was not 
monitoring for the CLEAR key. I saw some system calls about KeySense and such 
and wondered if this was another new feature added to NitrOS-9.

I will try the /V descriptors and, I assume, CoVDG for the driver.

Thanks
.--
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