test-drb December 2007

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

215 participants
420 discussions

by erik＠baigar.de

There is again one of the unique Consoles, alias Operator Panel for the 1602 vintage computer on govliquidation: http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?auctionId=1483422&convertTo=USD Maybe there is someone willing to save this from the scrapyard... Best regards and merry x-mas, Erik.

16 years, 7 months

Yet another VT-100 emulator

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Hi, >>> Not likely - as far as I know there are no standard PC text >>>video modes that give 132 columns. >> >> Long ago I had a 132char driver for the Hercules/TTL mono video >>card. I was based on the 720x348 mono graphics mode. > > As far as I know there are no **STANDARD** PC text video modes >that give 132 columns. Precisely, just what is so difficult about that statement for people on this list to understand!!?? The bottom line is that the **ONLY** ***STANDARD*** text modes supported by EGA and VGA adapters are 40 and 80 column. END OF ARGUMENT. PERIOD. Whilst it is perfectly true that most/all "SuperVGA" cards support one or more 132 column text modes, these modes - along with their mode numbers - are unique to each manufacturer and indeed often differ between chipsets >from the same manufacturer! Great if you want to tie your software to working with only a single brand of chipset/graphics card (which I doubt is what the OP wants), but otherwise utterly useless.... TTFN - Pete.

16 years, 7 months

Yet Another VT-100 Emulator

by dave06a＠dunfield.com

> Any possibility that your VT-100 emulator can be extended > to support 132 character text lines? Most of the programs > that I write are in MACRO-11 and they require 132 character > text lines for the list files which are generated. The > alternative is to use 80 character text lines with wrap > around and that is so messy that it becomes almost useless > by comparison. Not likely - as far as I know there are no standard PC text video modes that give 132 columns. Even in graphical mode, the highest standard resolution supported by VGA is 640x480, which isn't enough for 132 columns. I might be able to do SVGA 800x600 on *most* cards, which could work, but so far I've not done a bit-mapped version (that would be a lot of changes to my emulator). > The other reason is that I use the KEYPAD characters under > RT-11 for both KED and SL:(Single Line Editor). Are you > confident that the <NumLock> keypad key acts as the <GOLD> > key which translates to the 3 character sequence: "<ESC>[P"? > Also, the keypad comma, ".", key on the VT-100 is just above > the <ENTER> keypad key, but does not exist on the PC keypad. > I finally settled on the <Pause> key as a substitute since > there never seemed to be any use other for <Pause>. What > does your VT-100 emulator substitute for the keypad comma, > ",", key? The original terminal I announced was "close" on the keypad, but did not support use of the NumLock, '/' or ENTER keys. I've just posted an updated version which is "really close", and is limited only by the physical keypad difference. In this version I map (on the keypad in application mode): NumLock = PF1, '/' = PF2, '*'=PF3, '-' = PF4 0-9 = 0-9 '.' = '.' ENTER = ENTER '+' = ',' PgDn = '-' I chose this layout because '+' takes up both '-' and ',' slots, and PgDn is the closest additional key I could get to either one of those - It's at the same latitude as '-', but to the left of '7' instead of to the right of '9'. The good news is that I've added a "Keyboard mapping" configuration function which will allow you to assign the individual Normal, SHIFT and CTRL functions of *ANY* key on the keyboard, so you aren't stuck with my choices. You can also assign multiple PC keys to the same VT-100 function if you like. I've also got 30 programmable function keys using PC F1-10 ShiftF1-10 and CtrlF1-10 which you can define to any strings you like. These too can be remapped to appear on other keys. > And finally, On the VT-100 keyboard, the SCROLL/NOSCROLL key > is at the bottom left hand corner of the keyboard. While the > standard 105 keyboard from a PC can't exactly correspond to > the VT-100, the <Left Ctrl> key can act in that manner and the > <Caps Lock> key then becomes the <Ctrl> key on the VT-100. Is > your VT-100 emulator able to manage this aspect as well? I hadn't implemented NoScroll (never use it, I'm so used to entering CTRL-S and CTRL-Q directly on various systems)... I really didn't want to mess with the CTRL keys since I'm very used to where they are located on the PC, so I've added NoScroll to the PC "Scroll Lock" key. As noted above, you can now assign the behaviour of all keys, so you can easily create exactly the layout you requested. My keyboard handler differentiates between Left and Right Ctrl, Alt, Shift and "windows" keys, so you can map these individually any way you like. I default "Caps Lock" to "Caps Lock", but you can move that to another key and make it the CTRL key if you wish (my keyboard remapper supports assigning SHIFT and CTRL keys as well - just be sure to assign them in ALL modes - otherwise they move around as you move between Normal, SHIFT and CTRL modes, which can be a bit confusing... Another thing I've added in this most recent version is that I came up with technique when using a VGA card to not only load a custom font which gives you all the VT-100 graphic characters, but also to enable all of the VT-100 attributes (Bold, Underline, Blink and Reverse) in any and all combinations. I forgot to mention last time - I'm interested in improving the emulator, so I'm happy to make corrections and additions (within reason) - just let me know what you you would like to see. Dave NOTE: I am currently unscribed from the list - I've been trying for the past week to get resubscribed, however so far no joy ... The only way I have to read it is via the web site which is rather painfull, and somewhat delayed - so reponses will be slow in coming. I'm hoping this will go through since I've seen other messages which appear to be from non-subscribers. -- dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html

16 years, 7 months

Yet another VT-100 emulator

by cclist＠sydex.com

From: "Ensor" <classiccmp at memory-alpha.org.uk> > The OP needs modes which work on ALL adapters, not non-standard modes > which work on a small number of Mickey Mouse cards which noone uses.... With all due respect, I think the observations on the part of the other posters including myself were valid. What the OP probably meant to say was: "Does anyone know of a video text mode supported by a standard IBM VGA/PGC/XGA/EGA card real-mode 16-bit BIOS that supports 132 colums?" That "BIOS" keyword is very important, given that few operating systems actually use it to do anything useful nowadays. In point of fact, there has been little "standard" since third-party vendors began sourcing their versions of the VGA card. And IBM by that time was far from the majority presence in the marketplace. Cheers, Chuck

16 years, 7 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 52, Issue 38

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 18 Dec 2007 at 20:29, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Seocndly, if you fiddle with the video heads themselves, be warned they > are delicate. They are brittle ferrite cors, the windings are thin and > brought out to little BCPs stuck in postiion. If you break the wires > you'll not be able to fix them.If the PCB comes uncluged, it'll break the > wires. And if the head tip bangs into anything it will shatter. That is > the bitter voice of experience from the time I rebuilt the head assembly > in a portable rell-to-reel VTR (sorry it's off-topic, so I'll stop there). I was going to suggest a head from a Telcan video recorder as being more suitable, but I doubt that there are many of those around. Maybe a head from one of the cheap floppytape QIC drives might also do the trick. Cheers, Chuck

16 years, 7 months

Shift Registers as Delay Lines (was Delay lines in TV sets)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Shift Registers as Delay Lines (was Delay lines in TV sets) > From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> > Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:18:57 -0500 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > >On Dec 18, 2007, at 5:03 AM, Ethan Dicks wrote: >>> MOS shift registers of lengths greater than a few bits are very late >>> 60s (after 67 or so). By early 70s parts 1024 long ere not uncommon. >> >> I think I have a couple of old SAD1024 MOS shift registers from when I >> was collecting deeply discounted items from the local Radio Shack >> "Manager's Table" as a kid. >> >> I had thought one day to make the audio echo/delay circuit I think I >> saw in an old Forrest Mims circuit book, but a solid-state acoustic >> delay line emulator sounds like a much cooler place to put them. Consider that there are only 1024 buket in that brigade and if your storing bits thats about it or less. Maybe even Nyquist less. Allison > > I remember that project, in the "Engineer's Notebook" book. I >wanted to build it too, but I never quite managed to amass all the >parts. (back then, of course) > > -Dave > >-- >Dave McGuire >Port Charlotte, FL >Farewell Ophelia, 9/22/1991 - 7/25/2007 > >

16 years, 7 months

Docs/Software/Info for Virtual Microsystems 8086 Dec Pro board?

by derschjo＠msu.edu

Inherited a Dec Professional 350 with a card labeled as a "Virtual Microsystems Inc. Pro Bd." installed in it. It has an 8086 chip on it, and from the (very) limited information I've found on it I'm guessing it's a card that affords the Dec Pro some amount of IBM PC compatibility. Anyone know anything about this thing? Anyone have any software for it? :) Thanks, Josh

16 years, 7 months

have you seen www.fortran.com?

by cclist＠sydex.com

> From: Chris M <chrism3667 at yahoo.com> > I realize that old doggies die hard, but who except > for the scientific/engineering crowd would want to > create new apps, and for what reason? I imagine there > could be some good reasons to port old (iron?) code to > peecees, but gcc can compile FORTRAN already (albeit > only F77). Dear me, where do I start? For me, FORTRAN is hugely efficient. It's one of the few languages where folks on the ANSI working group actually spend their careers writing automatic optimizers for the language and will raise a stink where a particular construct does not lend itself to efficient or safe optimization. Some of the optimizations performed by the top- end compilers are amazing to the point of one smacking one's forehead and saying, "Damn, that's clever!" At least at one time, it was true that FORTRAN was one of the most portable language, executing on the widest range of systems. I think one of the advertised attractions of the PDP 8/L that contributed to its success was that it could speak FORTRAN. Some of the earliest cross-assemblers that I ever saw were written in FORTRAN, that would pretty much run on any system that supported the language. This was back in the days when USASCII was a character set used on the minority of computer systems; not all were 2's complement (or even binary). Yet you could write a cross assembler (and probably a compiler) that would run on anything. I know of operating systems written in FORTRAN, as well as great hunks of several compilers. I even wrote my early data conversion routines on CP/M using FORTRAN for most of the code. FORTRAN used to have the only really reliable math routines. It's not a bad language to have under your belt. Does ACM CALGO still accept FORTRAN as a permissible source language? Cheers, Chuck

16 years, 7 months

Corvus drivers for Xerox 820/Bigboard

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

I'm looking for the drivers that will let my Bigboard speak to a Corvus flat-cable drive. I have a couple of the interface boxes that go between the parallel port and the drive unit, but have never been able to locate the required software nor any installation docs. If anyone in Classic Computer-land can help, I'd really appreciate it. Steve --

16 years, 7 months

Read and write film - was digital camera capabilities

by lee＠geekdot.com

> That was using a 3" scope tube to "write" to film, and then after > developing, to read it back again. I vaguely recall "flying spot > scanner" being somewhat related to this, I think there was some > equipment out there that'd actually take a 35mm slide. Though I'd > envisioned a roll of film, driven by a stepper motor. It sounds like you were trying to reinvent the telecine machine. Monochrome versions can indeed both read and write film using the same mechanism and it tends to be claw drive rather than a stepper motor. Lee.

16 years, 7 months

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test-drb December 2007