[Coco] CoCo programming

[Phill Harvey-Smith]

Aaron Banerjee wrote:
>    As for joysticks, I had really good luck getting them from people on
> this list -- much more reliable than e-bay.  I got a pair of Coco3
> joysticks a few years ago from someone on this list but I can't remember
> who at the moment.

Another thing that may be doable is to convert an old PC joystick, the 
kind that used the D-15 connector, as they are also analog, thought it 
would require some re-wiring, as on the PC the wipers are only connected 
as a risistance, whereas on the CoCo/Dragon it's a proper potential 
divider. Still easily doable if you have modest soldering skills.

>    My first assembly was 6809.  Although 8088/286/386/486/etc assembly is
> a little different, I've found it sort of like trying to use Microsoft
> Word when you learned on WordPerfect -- not that big of a deal.

Yeah, that's what I found too, though I dabbled a little in Z80, on a 
Zx81, before I had the Dragon, I found 6809 much more logical, and once 
I had 6809 cracked, learning other assembly (80x86, 680x0 etc) was not 
too hard, after all they all use the same concepts even if the 
implementation/mnemonics are different :)

>								  You'll
> want EDTASM, although you can survive without it (I started by using a

Yeah hand assembly is a pain, and probe to errors :)

>    As for developing on an emulator, I've had good luck with them,
> including doing some weird stuff, like writing a BASIC program to solve
> the "8 Queens" program (using quirks in the way BASIC handles FOR/NEXT) --
> works identically. I've never tried writing a program that "used a lot of
> peeks and pokes".  Someone else may have more insight on this.
>    Hope this helps. 

I have personally used MESS as it has a pretty powerfull built in 
debugger, that can suspend the emulated machine, set breakpoints, 
examine memory etc, which has the advantage that if the emulated machine 
crashes totally, you can still pull up the debugger and try and figure 
out where things went wrong.

I also tend to use tools running on my PC to edit & assemble the source 
code, as it's much easier to work with that way. Personally I use the 
toolshed suite of programs from the Nitros project but there also others 
which can be used.

Phill.

-- 
Phill Harvey-Smith, Programmer, Hardware hacker, and general eccentric !

"You can twist perceptions, but reality won't budge" -- Rush.