7 Oct
2010
7 Oct
'10
9:45 a.m.
I (re-)discovered a remarkable tool last week, which absorbed a day
and a bit. Even if you're not interested in the ZX Spectrum, I think
it's worth a look.
It's called BASin. There's no good homepage for it, alas. The current
"official" one is here but it contains little content:
http://sites.google.com/site/pauldunn/
There's also a blog:
http://zxdunny.wordpress.com/
You can download it here (although v14c is not a very current version):
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/emulators.html
The latest stable version I've been able to find mention of is 14d -
you can see a record of its deletion in the site activity page of the
GooglePages site. I've not managed to find a download of it, though.
There was an experimental build, 15.6, which I found a download of
somewhere - just the binary, no installer or other resources. Past the
EXE on top of the EXE of an installed copy of 14c and it works,
though.
A little more (obsolete) info:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.sinclair/msg/4eeb4ffc8725beec?pli=1
Essentially, it's a Spectrum emulator for Windows, reworked so that
the display and the BASIC editor are 2 separate windows. One is a
proper native Sinclair display, with attribute clash and all the other
horrors that make Speccy fans nostalgic. The other is a Windows
window, in which you get a 128K Spectrum-style editor - typed keywords
rather than arcane keystrokes to enter keywords in a single keypress,
but with modern Windows niceties: cut & paste, a ruler, a syntax
helper, bracket matching, error messages as dialogue boxes with
verbose text, line-by-line execution tracing, variable checkpoints,
etc. etc. You can set the speed of the emulator, so you need not wait
hours to see what a real 3.5MHz Spectrum would do - you can run stuff
at an emulated 55MHz (on my PC) to see if it works, then slow it down
to real speed to see what genuine hardware would do. The Help file
contains the entire Sinclair manual turned into a modern hyperlinked
Help system, along with program help. You can zoom the display, change
the fonts used in the editor and so on. Files can be loaded and saved
into the native Windows filesystem using the menus, but the emulator
can still handle cassette-tape images and so on.
It is a really pleasant environment to work in: you get the pleasure
of working in the old environment, but also the facilities of Windows.
It may not encompass all the very best of both worlds, but it is the
closest I've ever seen. I really like the way it merges the fun of
playing around with an emulated 1980s 8-bit environment with the
luxuries of a modern GUI OS. Trying to write code with an emulated
Spectrum brings back many of the horrors of working on those machines
for real - lousy editors, tiny screens, poor file-storage,
instability, slowness, etc.
It strikes me that there's no need for this concept to be limited to
the Spectrum, although that happens to be my favourite 8-bit machine &
the one I'm far and away most familiar with. It would be an
interesting way for emulators of almost any vintage system to develop
- separating display and code editor, enhancing the editor with modern
native-OS facilities while keeping the classic execution and display
environment. It might be a little less applicable to text-only
terminal-based OSs, but not exclusively so, I think. I'd love to see
such an environment for a whole load of the old graphics-oriented
8-bit home computers of the 1980s, though.
I'm sure some people would consider it heresy to pollute a classic
platform with modernities, but it strikes me as a really productive
blending. I'm going to try to resurrect some of my unfinished Speccy
projects that were just too painful to try to finish on the original
machine.
By the way, although it's a Windows 32-bit binary, it runs fine on
Windows 7 64-bit, under XP in VirtualBox on Linux, and stably if a bit
slowly under WINE on 64-bit Ubuntu 10.04.
--
Liam Proven ? Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419
AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508
9 Oct
9 Oct
10:03 a.m.
On 10/07/2010 09:45 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
[[ snippity ]]
Essentially, it's a Spectrum emulator for
Windows...
[[ snippity ]]
It is a really pleasant environment to work in: you
get the pleasure
of working in the old environment, but also the facilities of Windows.
It may not encompass all the very best of both worlds, but it is the
closest I've ever seen. I really like the way it merges the fun of
playing around with an emulated 1980s 8-bit environment with the
luxuries of a modern GUI OS. Trying to write code with an emulated
Spectrum brings back many of the horrors of working on those machines
for real - lousy editors, tiny screens, poor file-storage,
instability, slowness, etc.
It strikes me that there's no need for this concept to be limited to
the Spectrum, although that happens to be my favourite 8-bit machine&
the one I'm far and away most familiar with. It would be an
interesting way for emulators of almost any vintage system to develop
- separating display and code editor, enhancing the editor with modern
native-OS facilities while keeping the classic execution and display
environment. It might be a little less applicable to text-only
terminal-based OSs, but not exclusively so, I think. I'd love to see
such an environment for a whole load of the old graphics-oriented
8-bit home computers of the 1980s, though.
Ask and you shall receive... ;-) There is a similar product out there
(but more advanced) and it's about to be released in it's 3rd iteration.
The 1st generation was called "Portal-09" and it was designed solely
around the Tandy CoCo1/2/3. It gives you a Windows editor where you can
code in Basic or 6809 assembly language, it had multiple tab files,
syntax highlighting, etc. You could save your source code files on the
Windows system for easy backups, but when you clicked 1 button, it would
assemble your program, save it as either a .ROM or .DSK, boot MESS with
the correct parameters to load those .ROM/.DSK files and put you in the
full virtual machine for testing, either at "full speed" or at emulated
CPU speed.
The 2nd generation was called "Rainbow IDE" and the author realized what
you did above - why keep it just for the CoCo? He modified his system to
easily add other platforms, and with the help of others, he expanded the
system to encompass many other systems, even some scientific
calculators. Here's the webpage for it:
http://www.coco3.com/community/products/rainbow-ide
It's a windows application, but he tries to keep it as "compatible" as
possible so it can be run in things like WINE & whatnot -- here's the
list of Windows OSs it runs on:
""" Rainbow IDE is a Multi-Target Integrated Development Environment for
Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000, ME, 98, 95, and LINUX via the Wine system. """
(Of course, for those of us who are primarily Linux based, there's also
the option of VirtualBox -- so instead of WINE which is a "fake windows"
-- you can run a "real windows" in a fake computer... ;-)
The 3rd generation is called "Phoenix IDE" and is very near release (and
with this individual's track record of not creating vapor-ware, I would
say it probably will be very soon) and is running a preorder price
special to help bring it to market. I don't know a ton about it (I've
not had time for the hobbies again until recently, so I've been out of
the "scene") but it looks interesting:
http://www.coco3.com/community/upcoming-phoenix-ide
The author's name is Roger Taylor and as he works for UPS and is quite
busy himself, so the fact that the applications he writes are amazingly
good is a testament to his abilities. I'd used Portal-09 quite a bit &
loved it; I purchased and tinkered with Rainbow IDE, but that was very
near the time of 1) eliminating all my Windows boxes at home, and 2) the
stark reduction of spare time that I'm just now recovering from.
Check it out... and tell him "Merch" sent ya! ;-)
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
10:16 a.m.
On 10/07/2010 09:45 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
[[ snippity ]]
Essentially, it's a Spectrum emulator for
Windows...
[[ snippity ]]
It is a really pleasant environment to work in: you
get the pleasure
of working in the old environment, but also the facilities of Windows.
It may not encompass all the very best of both worlds, but it is the
closest I've ever seen. I really like the way it merges the fun of
playing around with an emulated 1980s 8-bit environment with the
luxuries of a modern GUI OS. Trying to write code with an emulated
Spectrum brings back many of the horrors of working on those machines
for real - lousy editors, tiny screens, poor file-storage,
instability, slowness, etc.
It strikes me that there's no need for this concept to be limited to
the Spectrum, although that happens to be my favourite 8-bit machine&
the one I'm far and away most familiar with. It would be an
interesting way for emulators of almost any vintage system to develop
- separating display and code editor, enhancing the editor with modern
native-OS facilities while keeping the classic execution and display
environment. It might be a little less applicable to text-only
terminal-based OSs, but not exclusively so, I think. I'd love to see
such an environment for a whole load of the old graphics-oriented
8-bit home computers of the 1980s, though.
Ask and you shall receive... ;-) There is a similar product out there
(but more advanced) and it's about to be released in it's 3rd iteration.
The 1st generation was called "Portal-09" and it was designed solely
around the Tandy CoCo1/2/3. It gives you a Windows editor where you can
code in Basic or 6809 assembly language, it had multiple tab files,
syntax highlighting, etc. You could save your source code files on the
Windows system for easy backups, but when you clicked 1 button, it would
assemble your program, save it as either a .ROM or .DSK, boot MESS with
the correct parameters to load those .ROM/.DSK files and put you in the
full virtual machine for testing, either at "full speed" or at emulated
CPU speed.
The 2nd generation was called "Rainbow IDE" and the author realized what
you did above - why keep it just for the CoCo? He modified his system to
easily add other platforms, and with the help of others, he expanded the
system to encompass many other systems, even some scientific
calculators. Here's the webpage for it:
http://www.coco3.com/community/products/rainbow-ide
It's a windows application, but he tries to keep it as "compatible" as
possible so it can be run in things like WINE & whatnot -- here's the
list of Windows OSs it runs on:
""" Rainbow IDE is a Multi-Target Integrated Development Environment for
Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000, ME, 98, 95, and LINUX via the Wine system. """
(Of course, for those of us who are primarily Linux based, there's also
the option of VirtualBox -- so instead of WINE which is a "fake windows"
-- you can run a "real windows" in a fake computer... ;-)
The 3rd generation is called "Phoenix IDE" and is very near release (and
with this individual's track record of not creating vapor-ware, I would
say it probably will be very soon) and is running a preorder price
special to help bring it to market. I don't know a ton about it (I've
not had time for the hobbies again until recently, so I've been out of
the "scene") but it looks interesting:
http://www.coco3.com/community/upcoming-phoenix-ide
The author's name is Roger Taylor and as he works for UPS and is quite
busy himself, so the fact that the applications he writes are amazingly
good is a testament to his abilities. I'd used Portal-09 quite a bit &
loved it; I purchased and tinkered with Rainbow IDE, but that was very
near the time of 1) eliminating all my Windows boxes at home, and 2) the
stark reduction of spare time that I'm just now recovering from.
Check it out... and tell him "Merch" sent ya! ;-)
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
11:06 a.m.
On 9 October 2010 15:16, Roger Merchberger <zmerch-cctalk at 30below.com> wrote:
On 10/07/2010 09:45 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
[[ snippity ]]
Hey, cool, thanks for the link - I shall take a look.
I never had much experience with the American 8-bit models - most of
them were seriously expensive over here in the UK, at least until
relatively late in the '80s when they were being replaced by the
16-bitters. (So instead we got relatively expensive American
16-bitters. :?/ ) Myself, I held fire and waited a bit then bought a
much-much-more-bang-for-the-buck British 32-bitter, which for the
price of an Amiga 1200 with a 2nd floppy drive gave me a 32-bit
machine with a 20MB hard disk and a monitor.
I guess the other 8-bit machines I'd like to play with this way would
be a SAM Coup?, Timex-Sinclair 2068 and BBC Micro...
--
Liam Proven ? Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419
AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508
Essentially, it's a Spectrum emulator for
Windows...
[[ snippity ]]
It is a really pleasant environment to work in:
you get the pleasure
of working in the old environment, but also the facilities of Windows.
It may not encompass all the very best of both worlds, but it is the
closest I've ever seen. I really like the way it merges the fun of
playing around with an emulated 1980s 8-bit environment with the
luxuries of a modern GUI OS. Trying to write code with an emulated
Spectrum brings back many of the horrors of working on those machines
for real - lousy editors, tiny screens, poor file-storage,
instability, slowness, etc.
It strikes me that there's no need for this concept to be limited to
the Spectrum, although that happens to be my favourite 8-bit machine&
the one I'm far and away most familiar with. It would be an
interesting way for emulators of almost any vintage system to develop
- separating display and code editor, enhancing the editor with modern
native-OS facilities while keeping the classic execution and display
environment. It might be a little less applicable to text-only
terminal-based OSs, but not exclusively so, I think. I'd love to see
such an environment for a whole load of the old graphics-oriented
8-bit home computers of the 1980s, though.
Ask and you shall receive... ;-) There is a similar product out there (but
more advanced) and it's about to be released in it's 3rd iteration.
The 1st generation was called "Portal-09" and it was designed solely around
the Tandy CoCo1/2/3. It gives you a Windows editor where you can code in
Basic or 6809 assembly language, it had multiple tab files, syntax
highlighting, etc. You could save your source code files on the Windows
system for easy backups, but when you clicked 1 button, it would assemble
your program, save it as either a .ROM or .DSK, boot MESS with the correct
parameters to load those .ROM/.DSK files and put you in the full virtual
machine for testing, either at "full speed" or at emulated CPU speed.
The 2nd generation was called "Rainbow IDE" and the author realized what you
did above - why keep it just for the CoCo? He modified his system to easily
add other platforms, and with the help of others, he expanded the system to
encompass many other systems, even some scientific calculators. Here's the
webpage for it:
http://www.coco3.com/community/products/rainbow-ide
It's a windows application, but he tries to keep it as "compatible" as
possible so it can be run in things like WINE & whatnot -- here's the list
of Windows OSs it runs on:
""" Rainbow IDE is a Multi-Target Integrated Development Environment for
Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000, ME, 98, 95, and LINUX via the Wine system.
"""
(Of course, for those of us who are primarily Linux based, there's also the
option of VirtualBox -- so instead of WINE which is a "fake windows" -- you
can run a "real windows" in a fake computer... ;-)
The 3rd generation is called "Phoenix IDE" and is very near release (and
with this individual's track record of not creating vapor-ware, I would say
it probably will be very soon) and is running a preorder price special to
help bring it to market. I don't know a ton about it (I've not had time for
the hobbies again until recently, so I've been out of the "scene") but it
looks interesting:
http://www.coco3.com/community/upcoming-phoenix-ide
The author's name is Roger Taylor and as he works for UPS and is quite busy
himself, so the fact that the applications he writes are amazingly good is a
testament to his abilities. I'd used Portal-09 quite a bit & loved it; I
purchased and tinkered with Rainbow IDE, but that was very near the time of
1) eliminating all my Windows boxes at home, and 2) the stark reduction of
spare time that I'm just now recovering from.
Check it out... and tell him "Merch" sent ya! ;-)
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
5001
days inactive
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days old
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