[Coco] [coco] OS9, terminals and memory

[Kip Koon]

Hi George!
That is so interesting.  I never did that.  How did you get  the idea to
experiment in that direction?  I imagine it was because you wanted an 80
column screen.  I decided to document my Coco experiences several years ago.
I'm also making printed circuit boards for various Coco projects as well as
a single board computer I'm designing.  When you have a chance, check it out
and let me know what you think of my little part of the Coco world.  :)  I
really love my Cocos!!!  The link below will take you to my wiki page on
cocopedia.com.  
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon
I hope  you find it as interesting and fun as I had doing it all and writing
the web page.  What else are you up to these days?
Thanks for sharing.  Take care my friend.
Kip


-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of George Ramsower
Sent: Saturday, January 18, 2014 12:34 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: [Coco] [coco] OS9, terminals and memory

  Years ago, I wanted a better display for my coco2. Since I used OS9, I
figured this shouldn't be too difficult to use the terminal instead. I had a
Kimtron KT-7. I think the model # is correct.
  So, after proving it would work as a /t2 terminal, I made a new boot disk
without gfx or /term drivers, maybe a couple other things used for the video
and/or keyboard. In the boot, /term was /t2 renamed /term. It too, worked.
  It was interesting to see the boot-up work. It started out looking normal
on the old TV but, once OS9 started, the display stopped getting updated and
everything began to show up on the Kimtron. The keyboard was disabled. The
driver for the keyboard was deleted in the new boot too. 
At the time, I didn't know enough to save some memory, if it could be done
without those drivers but, it worked!!
  As I experimented further, I saw that the old video memory for the built
in VDG got used for other processes. I would assume this also gave me a few
more bytes to use. It was fun to play with until I got a CC3 with 512k ram
and the experiment ended.
  Of course, it wouldn't support any video games or graphics at all but,
since I didn't use those anyway, it was good by me.


George

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