[Coco] mess questions

[tim lindner]

> > > b) How do I fix the ridiculous keyboard mapping to PC style (I know *why
> > > * it is the way it is, I just want to know how to fix it...)
> > 
> > I am not sure what you mean here. Are you talking about how you have to
> > press Shift-2 for a Quote on the CoCo? Or something else?
> > 
> 
> Yes, that's all I meant. Although the coco layout comes back to me
> when I'm typing on a coco keyboard, my self-taught typing style has me
> looking at the keyboard once in a while, and I need to see the same
> keys that I want to type. So basically I can deal with any alternative
> layout, as long as it is actually printed on the keys that way.
> 
> Also, on a PC keyboard I expect a PC layout. I suppose this may be an
> issue with some games and such, but I never really played coco games
> for more than a few minutes before getting bored (maybe just wasn't
> playing the right games, but I feel the same about every game I've
> tried except for PC Age Of Kings/Age Of Empires)

Nathan has added "Natural Keyboard Support" to the core of MESS, but I
don't know if xmess supports it yet. In this mode the MESS core will
translate the key you type on your keyboard to the proper CoCo sequence.
I think it is exactly what you are asking for.

> > > c) Quick easy way to load cross compiled machine language programs into
> > > mess? I'm trying to create a ROM-based Forth interpreter which takes
> > > full advantage of the Coco 3... starting with a port of CamelForth 6809
> > > (that part should be easy, I've already done it for the Tandy WP-2 Z80
> > > CamelForth).
> 
> > 2. Assemble to a ROM and replace the coco3.bin ROM in your coco3.zip
> 
> OK, I think the coco3.bin ROM is what I want to go for. Completely
> kick that BASIC ROM out of the picture :-)

Make sure to pad you ROM to be the same length as the built-in ROM.
Otherwise MESS won't run with it.

And since you are compiling your own xmess, you can also comment out the
warning about the CRC mismatch. :)

-- 
tim lindner
tlindner at ix.netcom.com                                        Bright