[Coco] Bit-Banger Serial as external console?

[Stephen Pereira]

Hi Dave,

I took this off the CoCo list because it is definitely not associated with the original thread of using the Bit-Banger SIO port for a remote terminal…

You seem to still be ignoring the documentation that I provided with the modified Color Forth.  I provided a Memory Map for your reference.  In the Memory Map, you will see there is about 5K of dictionary space from $43A0 to $5800.  The 8 screen buffers (8K) sit between $2380 and $43A0, and the Return Stack and TIB are under that at $2280 to $2380 Finally, the Data Stack and the User Variables lie between $20AA and $2280.

It’s all a tight squeeze to get it all in the lower 32K along with the CoCo DECB system.

I fear that you are using up all of something there in memory when you do that giant ALLOT, but since I’m not a Forth architect, I cannot say what.  Hopefully, the Memory Map will help you to determine the limits of what you are trying to do.

If I could get a solid remote terminal facility working, I could free up the 8K currently used by the 8 screen buffers, and Forth source code could be loaded from the remote terminal.  That could make for a much more comfortable programming environment, for sure.

Good luck!

smp
- - -
Stephen Pereira
Bedford, NH  03110
KB1SXE


> On Mar 28, 2019, at 3:28 PM, M. David Johnson <mdj at bds-soft.com> wrote:
> 
> Stephen -
> 
> 
> 
> I did get successful runs of what I was attempting in ColorForth. (Please see question at the end of this email).
> 
> 
> 
> But, along the way, I apparently ran into a Dictionary limit somewhere above address 22052 ($5624) and probably before address 22775 ($58F7).
> 
> 
> 
> What I did (In Vcc):
> 
> 
> 
> LSCR CCF-MISC OK
> 
> 4 3 2 1 LOAD LOAD LOAD LOAD OK
> 
> HERE . 18399 OK
> 
> 0 VARIABLE AHERE 4364 ALLOT OK
> 
> 
> 
> Although OK was returned, the system was also frozen at this point. I retried it three times with the same results. 
> 
> 
> 
> So, I restarted Vcc, did NOT load CCF-MISC, and proceeded as follows:
> 
> 
> 
> HERE . 17312 OK
> 
> 0 VARIABLE AHERE 4364 ALLOT OK
> 
> HERE . 21688 OK
> 
> 
> 
> At that point, I manually entered 2DUP, WHILE, AGAIN, REPEAT, and +LOOP from CCF-MISC; followed by the rest of my program, at which point:
> 
> 
> 
> HERE . 22052 OK
> 
> 
> 
> and the program ran properly.
> 
> 
> 
> Note:    21688 – 17312 = 4376. 
> 
> 18399 + 4376 = 22775.
> 
> 
> 
> Are you aware of an upper address limit on the ColorForth Dictionary space and, if so, what is that limit?
> 
> 
> 
> --
> 
> M. David Johnson
> 
> <mailto:mdj at bds-soft.com> mdj at bds-soft.com
>