[Coco] Supercomm fails to load on NitrOS9 lvl 2 on my CoCo 3 with 128K, and a couple of other questions?

Dave Philipsen dave at davebiz.com
Wed Nov 4 01:29:44 EST 2015


Well, it's not really whether Supercomm supports the extended characters or not.  The problem is that Supercomm is limited to using the character set supplied by the GIME which does not have the extended characters. At the time I wrote Supercomm I figured that the best character to use in place of the extended characters would be the asterisk, "*".  As I recall, Supercomm will just use that when it comes across a character code that has the high bit set.  But with CoCo3FPGA we could modify the system or even go into graphics mode and create the font there (which has actually already been done under DECB).

It's been so long ago but one thing I remember about Supercomm on the CoCo3 was that a stock system only allowed 80x24 text I think and sometimes a BBS would try to position the cursor to line 25 which would cause a glitch.  I had actually found the code and created a patch in whichever OS9 module it was to display 25 rows of text with 225 video scan lines and that cured that problem.

Dave Philipsen

> On Nov 3, 2015, at 10:56 PM, Bill Pierce via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
> 
> Dave, yes, mostly z-modem, but I think most protocols are available. I imaging it's up to the sysop and the system.
> 
> I was just on CyberChat with Supercomm and noticed some of the ANSI was a little off... it may be my settings (supercomm & BBS), I may play around with it soon and see what I can come up with.
> 
> Does Supercomm support the "extended ibm character set"?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Bill Pierce
> "Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull
> 
> 
> 
> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
> Global Moderator for TRS-80/Tandy Color Computer Forums
> http://www.tandycoco.com/forum/
> 
> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Philipsen <dave at davebiz.com>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Tue, Nov 3, 2015 11:49 pm
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Supercomm fails to load on NitrOS9 lvl 2 on my CoCo 3 with 128K, and a couple of other questions?
> 
> 
> Wow, that's cool!   I'm going to have to try this stuff out on my CoCo3FPGA. 
> I'd really like to load in an IBM-style font and see what the BBSs look like
> with all of the proper line drawing characters and other stuff.  My even give me
> some impetus to dust off Supercomm and make some revisions....
> 
> Thanks for the
> leads on the BBSs.  Would I be correct in assuming that they still use
> x/y/zmodem for transferring files?
> 
> Dave Philipsen
> 
>>> On Nov 3, 2015, at 10:24
>> PM, Bill Pierce via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Dave, there's pretty
> much anything you want in an online/telnet BBS if you look for it :-)
>> 
>> Just
> a small guide to some telnet BBSs:
>> 
>> http://www.telnetbbsguide.com/
>> 
>> It's
> frequently updated.
>> And there are 2 "specifically Coco" BBSs by Coco Users..
> 
>> Bill Gordon's "SquareOne BBS" (some Coco stuff)
> http://sq1bbs.com/index.php
>> 98.175.102.203:2300
>> 
>> Phillip Taylor's
> "CyberChatNet BBS" (tons of Coco stuff)
>> http://cyberchatnet.dynu.com/
> 71.68.29.241:23
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Bill Pierce
>> "Charlie stole the handle, and the
> train it won't stop going, no way to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull
> 
>> 
>> 
>> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for
> CocoPedia
>> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>> Global Moderator
> for TRS-80/Tandy Color Computer Forums
>> http://www.tandycoco.com/forum/
> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Philipsen <dave at davebiz.com>
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer
> Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Sent: Tue, Nov 3, 2015 10:52 pm
>> Subject:
> Re: [Coco] Supercomm fails to load on NitrOS9 lvl 2 on my CoCo 3 with 128K, and
> a couple of other questions?
>> 
>> 
>> Yes, Supercomm has always defaulted to /t2
> but allows you to connect to any
>> other port with the command line option. The
> 2k buffer with a program size of
>> less than 16k makes it very memory efficient.
> The program was written entirely
>> in assembler. At the time I wrote it I tested
> it against other terminal programs
>> and it d/l'd faster than most.  As I
> recall, the xmodem and ymodem CRCs and
>> checksums are computed "on the fly"
> instead of at the end each block which saves
>> a little bit of time between
> blocks and allows it to send an ACK more quickly
>> for the next block. I wrote
> it because I had pretty much abandoned DECB for OS9
>> and, at the time, there
> were no decent terminal programs that worked with ANSI
>> codes.  I was always
> using Procomm Plus on my PC to connect to BBSs and wanted
>> similar
> functionality under OS9.
>> 
>> So, a few questions, approximately how many
> 'telnet BBSs' are there running now? Are they simply versions of the old BBS
> systems that are converted to work over the internet?  Do these BBSs mostly
> use
>> the ANSI control codes that were common back in the 80s & 90s?  
> Dave
>> Philipsen
>> 
>>>> On Nov 3, 2015, at 7:55 PM, Bill Pierce via Coco
> <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Robert, Yes, Supercomm apparently
> overrides
>> the hard coded descriptor used internally when there is a descriptor
> on the cmd
>> line.
>>> Also, I am using the version of Supercomm from the NitrOS9
> repo, not the
>> original from the archives. I'm not sure if there's a difference
> or if the Nitro
>> version has been modified for this.
>>> I have been logging
> onto online BBSs from
>> my Coco for almost 2 years now, so yes, I know this
> works. I am not the only
>> one. Several others use Supercomm for dw4/telnet
> communications.
>>> In fact, I
>> just checked the Supercomm 2.2a documentation
> and this is the cmd line usage:
>> 
>>> SuperComm [port] [f=pathlist]
> [buffersize]
>>> 
>>> port            Optional
>> port specification. SuperComm
> defaults to /t2
>>> f=pathlist      Opens a capture
>> buffer on startup. 
> -f=pathlist      Set up (but don't open) a capture buffer.
>> (See Buffer
> Capture, in the File Transfer Menu)
>>> buffersize      Expands the
>> buffer
> beyond the default size of 2K. This applies to all downloads, not just
>> the
> capture buffer.
>>> 
>>> It defaults to "/t2" but cmd line will override the
> default. So apparently, it's always been that way.
> Bill
>> Pierce
>>> "Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going,
> no way to
>> slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> My Music
> from the
>> Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>>> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for
> CocoPedia
>>> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>>> Global
> Moderator
>> for TRS-80/Tandy Color Computer Forums
> http://www.tandycoco.com/forum/
>> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Robert Gault
> <robert.gault at att.net>
>>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer
>> Enthusiasts
> <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>> Sent: Tue, Nov 3, 2015 8:36 pm
>>> Subject:
>> Re:
> [Coco] Supercomm fails to load on NitrOS9 lvl 2 on my CoCo 3 with 128K, and
>> a
> couple of other questions?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Bill Pierce via Coco wrote:
>>>> Robert
> (and
>> others), first of all, no modification
>>> is needed at all to run
> SuperComm under
>> NitrOS9 becker OR NitrOS9 DW.
>>> DriveWire4 has a "builtin"
> modem emulation and
>> will connect to online "telnet"
>>> BBSs and other telnet
> services. Under NitrOS9
>> dw or becker (with internet
>>> connection on the dw4
> server) just type:
>> supercomm /n
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> <snip>
>>> 
>>> Bill,
>>> 
>>> Have
> you tried this with supercomm?
>> That program has /t2 hard
>>> coded  so there is
> 
>>> a chance you can't use /n.
>> 
>>> Robert
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Coco
> mailing
>>> list
>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Coco
> mailing
>> list
>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>> 
>> -- 
>> Coco mailing
> list
>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Coco mailing list
>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
> -- 
> Coco mailing
> list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco


More information about the Coco mailing list