[Coco] CoCoNet status and ideas

[Roger Taylor]

I'm not sure what other brands of software-free RS-232 to Bluetooth 
adaptors are out there, but just as an example here is the IOGear brand:

http://www.iogear.com/product/GBS301/

A dongle like this just connects to two serial devices just like a 
long cable would connect.  It's supposed to be that simple.

I doubt $99.95 x 2 is ideal for making a wireless CoCo, but that 
depends on how bad you want to give your CoCo wireless floppies and 
internet access.

My new serial cables (CoCo to DB-9 female) should be ready in a few 
weeks.  You could get one of mine or supply/make your own to save 
money but my new versions will be 5 feet long and only soldered on 
the CoCo end.  I suppose a 6 inch version could be made for those who 
want to connect an adaptor or their own longer DB-9 cable.  Null 
modem cross-overs are not required.  My cable does the cross-overs 
for you.   If you really want to save money you could even open your 
CoCo and solder 3 wires from a stripped telephone cord or other cable 
to the bottom of the CoCo motherboard to the bitbanger connectors.  I 
did this with one of my CoCo's and ran the cable out of a small hole 
I made in the back of the case.  Ok, enough of the cable talk.

CoCoNet is currently a PC server program + a LOADM'able Disk BASIC 
1.1 patch or a ROM.

The second you turn on the CoCo you can type something like DIR and 
see a default-mounted virtual disk on the PC.  A few coconet.dsk 
disks will be mounted for DRIVE 0 and 1.  The DRIVE command can also 
be used to turn any drive 0-3 into a virtual or physical 
drive.  Backups and copying from virtual disks to physical disks and 
vice-versa is just as you'd expect.  You mount virtual disks from the 
CoCo like so:

DRIVE 0, "c:\finance.dsk"
DRIVE 1, "d:\mydata.dsk"

Disks you mount stay mounted on the PC.  You can turn the CoCo off, 
turn it back on, type DIR and there are the same disks you last mounted.

DRIVE 0,"" turns drive 0 back into a physical CoCo drive until you 
mount a virtual disk again.  The default is VIRTUAL drives when you power up.

How about something like this:

DRIVE 0,"http://www.coco3.com/coconet/dsk/jeweled.dsk"
DRIVE 0,"www.someserver.com/lateststuff.dsk"

Virtual disks on your PC can be simultaneously accessed by PC 
programs, even written to, WHILE they are mounted on the CoCo so long 
as the accessing program doesn't abort the nanosecond it sees the 
file open.  Most programs would try again a few times or wait for a 
file to become unlocked.  As long as you aren't typing DIR or running 
some heavy disk access program on the CoCo, you could do stuff like 
building Rainbow IDE virtual disks then typing DIR on the CoCo to see 
the contents right then.  You would just type DRIVE #,"c:\program 
files\rainbow ide\projects\myproject\disks\disk1.dsk" or something 
similar and your ready.

Imagine turning your CoCo on every day and typing DIR to see a new 
floppy disk offered by CoCo3.com or somebody else.  Ofcourse, that's possible.

and something like this:

10 DRIVE 0,"c:\coconet\coconet.dsk"
20 DRIVE 1,"d:\workdisk.dsk":DSKINI 1
30 DLOAD 1,"http:\\www.coco3.com","index.htm"
50 OPEN "I",1,"INDEX.HTM"
60 ...... do something with the web page .....
70 CLOSE #1

Anybody have a CoCo HTML viewer in BASIC yet?  Now's the time.

I'm working now to put in an automatic DOS command on power-up, or 
RUN "*.BAS:0" which only gets executed if the option is selected 
either from the PC server app or the CoCo.

DRIVE 0,DOS or some other keyword will be used to do this.  Every 
time you turn the CoCo on, the DOS command would get called.  The PC 
server app can turn it off.
-- 
Roger Taylor

http://www.wordofthedayonline.com