[Coco] CoCoNet status

[Roger Taylor]

As of 12/6/08, the CoCoNet project is moving forward quickly:

CoCoNet is a base system patched into Disk BASIC 1.1 that allows you 
to mount virtual disks from your PC or the web (through the PC's 
connection), and also copy files from the PC or the web and put them 
on currently-mounted virtual disks.  There's no need to move back and 
forth between the CoCo and PC.  The PC server software gives what the 
CoCo asks for.

some possible Disk BASIC 1.1 commands:

DRIVE 0,"c:\any.dsk"
DRIVE 0,"http://www.coco3.com/coconet/dsk/d01.dsk" (read-only)
DRIVE 0,"d02"  (automatically points to coco3.com coconet virtual 
disk folder) + ".dsk"
DRIVE 0,"os9"  (mounts os9.dsk stored on coco3.com/coconet server)
DRIVE 0,"http://www.yourserver.com/nitros9.os9"
--ability to turn virtual disks on/off

(quickly grab internet files or PC files and port them instantly onto 
your mounted virtual disks)
WLOAD "http://www.coco3.com/somegame.bin","game.bin"  (automatic LOADM format)
WLOAD "http://www.anyserver.com/calc.bas","calc.bas" (automatic ASCII 
or binary format detected)
WLOAD "http://www.stocks.com/latest.dat","stocks.dat"

Get the idea?  Is all of this fast??  YES.  57600 bps on a CoCo 1 or 
2, and 115200 bps on a CoCo 3 through the bitbanger port.  USB serial 
dongles work great, with any COM#, not just 1 through 4.  I use COM8 
in my tests.

an example of how you'd get an internet browser running:


DRIVE 0,"d:\coconet.dsk"  (yours or anybody elses HTML renderer 
program disk, stored on the PC)
RUN "WWW"

the WWW.BAS program would do something like:

DRIVE 1,"d:\workdisk",FORMAT  (or ,NEW)  (doubles as a RAM Disk simulator)
WLOAD 1,"http://www.coco3.com/index.php","index.htm"  (copy web page 
onto disk 1)
OPEN "I",1,"INDEX.HTM:1" and read the contents and process it.
CLOSE 1

What about the possibility of:
10 WLOAD 
1,"http://www.coco3.com/cgi-bin/cococafe.cgi","index.htm"  (store a 
web file onto the DRIVE 1 virtual disk)
20 OPEN "I",1,"INDEX.HTM:1" and read the contents and process it.
999 GOTO 10

Get the idea?  CoCoNet itself won't do any HTML rendering because 
it's not a web browser, but instead grab web files and PC files and 
store them on currently-mounted virtual disks.  This base system 
gives SUPER power to the CoCo, but any ROM version would obviously 
cancel out any hard drive capable DOS you rely on.  You'd have to use 
your MPI I suppose to switch between the various DOS'es you want to use.

I'm working to get this on an EPROM as Disk BASIC 1.1 (patched) so 
it's *completely* ready to go on power up.  No real floppy drives are required.
-- 
Roger Taylor

http://www.wordofthedayonline.com