[Coco] cocotape.exe available by request

Sat Jan 10 10:04:47 EST 2009

bummer - this was supposed to go to Roger and not the list as I didn't want to mention yet what I was designing, in case it didn't work. I guess you aren't the only one who makes mistakes when he is tired... JERIC

________________________________
From: John Eric <jet.pack at ymail.com>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 9:01:35 AM
Subject: Re: [Coco] cocotape.exe available by request

WOW! My Dad never told me it could do all of that! I am going to look into your Rainbow IDE. In fact I am going to sign up for an account on your site. I am going to look for your software there and purchase what I can, to show my support. Also, Allen Huffman is providing me with server space for my projects - if you want, you can republish anything I write. As soon as Allen gets me set up I'll send you the info if you wanna keep up with what I'm doing. I am certainly interested in your CoCoNET, even more so now that I see it's potential. I may try to design a decent disk controller that can be manufactured as cheap as possible, as you mentioned finding those to be a problem. I have finished (on paper only) a design for an 8 pack multi-pak, which is based extensively on the schematic of the 26-3124 - hopefully I can get a prototype up and running by mid-march (I am going to fund it with my tax return, as it seems to be a sought after item - not looking
to make any money - it's just a hobby). Anyway, if I can ever be of assistance, just let me know - J. Eric

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From: Roger Taylor <operator at coco3.com>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 1:15:47 AM
Subject: Re: [Coco] cocotape.exe available by request

At 11:06 PM 1/9/2009, you wrote:
> i received both mailings - i guess the other guys email bounced his back. man you are a genius. My dad talks about your projector being the best coco program he ever saw :)

Tell him Thanks.  :)

When I fire up my Projector-3 program, I actually see 3 or 4 years of pain that has come and gone.  Let me explain.
There's actually a soul in P-3 made up of everything I'm about to mention, probably for the first time ever.

It took me a Long time to write Projector-3.  I slept very little during this time.  Some of my allnighters resulted in passing out at 5am and having nightmares being caught in a code loop not being able to escape. You might not believe it, but I'd run or write routines in my head during my sleep.  I'd go through the code in my head trying to debug it, and wake up with the solution.

Most of P-3 was written during my wild days when I was around 25.  I had moved to Magnolia AR to take up a Coca-Cola route.  The city was kinda small and I experienced the New Guy in Town life that went on for years.  Many whores and even hard-to-get ladies found me out and I went through my you-know-what peak, becoming the alpha-male in the circle of friends that hung around me.  I went from a computer "nerd" (as they used to call anybody with a computer) with lots of good lifetime buddies to a low-profile computer programmer with the ability to get you-know-what'd as often as I liked, so I had this pulling effect between fun and my other fun which was programming.  So, P-3 was mostly written during my years of so-called town fame and I attribute the quality of the program to every woman that broke my heart.  To get my mind off of "her" I'd block it all out and fire up EDTASM and spend the next weeks coding heavily on a determined program that would be
completed no matter what.  And so it was.

As for the program itself, P-3 actually started as "The Projector", not having dither capabilities and having less formats.  P-3 went on to decode and encode more formats making it a graphics interchange system + viewer.  P-3 is very close to an operating system with all of it's core routines and common hooks to call them from external programs that the shell can load.  The system recognizes programs you place on the disk ending with .EC* for the filename, with * being the letter you hit while holding down the ALT key.  This is how Mirror, Negative, and other functions work.

Robert Gault has written at least two codecs for P-3.  Using the global.asm include file, your codec or subprogram knows about the system calls to use if you want to.

As I explained back in the 90's, P-3 would live on because you can expand it with drop-in codecs.  These are *.fmt files containing decode, encode, and view routines, all able to call P-3 system routines to take the pain out of the work.  That's why these drivers are so small.  You basically decode the picture on your own and send the color stream to P-3's shell.  P-3 renderings the image automatically and displays it.  P-3 can encode a picture file by sending the screen's colors to the right codec, chosen by the extension you type for the Save Filename.

P-3 can also display text files and play music but due to the lack of assembly programmers, the system might not ever see it's full potential.
The CCASM source code is available as a Rainbow IDE project!  You can click GO and build the massive P-3 floppy disk in about 15 seconds.

-- Roger Taylor

http://www.wordofthedayonline.com

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