[Coco] SDC and DriveWire 4 help...

[Gene Heskett]

On Tuesday 27 November 2018 09:39:30 Joe Schutts via Coco wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
> I'm looking for some help with my CoCo 3 128k. I just started using my
> SDC I purchased some time ago (with SDC Explorer installed) and I have
> to say I love it (so far). I do have to admit though that there are
> some improvements that I would like to see. One thing I would like to
> see added, is either an ASCII TEXT VIEWER or (better yet) an ASCII
> TEXT EDITOR (it would also have to be a "DIZ" EDITOR as well). Another
> thing I would like to see is some way to make the CURSOR repeat
> whenever you press (AND hold) the UP/DOWN Arrow keys. It get tired
> pressing the ARROW KEY again and again... The other problem I am
> having is, that now DriveWire 4 no longer runs (it used to run fine).
> I think (repeat THINK) it has something to do with the Version of JAVA
> I have installed (and recently updated - not of my choosing). What I
> need to know is WHICH Version of JAVA do I need to run in order to get
> DriveWire 4 to run properly??? And WHERE do I go to get it??? Also is
> there ANY was to disable (or stop) JAVA from updating automatically???
> I think this is what happened to ruin it. Also is someone working on
> another version of DriveWire 4 (or later) that uses another programing
> language (like Pascal or "C" or something else)??? I'm not sure what
> would be appropriate (or needed) for it to work. One last thing I need
> to know, is HOW do I backdate the Version of JAVA I have installed on
> my system so that it runs??? I am running Windows 10 Pro right now and
> have no intentions or updating to another system (at least for now, I
> don't)...
>
> Thanks everyone (in advance) for your help in this matter...
> Take care...
> Joe...

I thought you were fooling, so I tried to run mine which did run 
flawlessly a couple years ago before  my basement got overhauled to stop 
the water ingress. That resulted in a coat of cement dust all over 
everything including my coco's with the main ones pair of seagate HD's, 
suffering from stiction, needing help to get started after a looooong 
park.

Now it runs, but it neither makes nor has a working connection to the 
coco3 I got started again a couple weeks ago.  And the gui is majorly 
different too. It's 4.3.4e now. It looks as if it can be made to work, 
but the total lack of help due to a libcurl security update is going to 
be a lot of hit and miss. I do know that 4.3.3 worked fine, so maybe a 
backup to that version might help? Of course you're running the latest 
windows 10, where as I have yet to update this debian wheezy (7.9) 
install, mainly because it Just Works(TM).

Anticipating something like this, I've always maintained the last working 
version, in this case 4.3.3o by adjusting the symlink, so I just put it 
back to 4.3.3o, and now it looks like my old friend again.  The coco 
isn't there, but that cable may have been disconnected or the hub the 
usb circuit goes thru at the coco end of the cable may not be powered.

More to come when I've had a chance to investigate, which may not be till 
this evening late. Time occasionally gets scarce when one is the 
caregiver, my bride of 29 years in another week is nearing the final 
stages of COPD so I'm doing it all, and neither of us are spring 
chickens unless you want to ignore the year of the spring. ;-)

Maybe someone else has already solved this on Win-10? As you probably 
know, I keep linux install dvd's handy in case I encounter a stray 
winderz box on my property. :)

-- 
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>