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Re: USCD Pascal on a CFFA drive



In article 
<8c4cbeae-40f6-43db-9c6b-b6c713f71d99@y14g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>,
 DaveSchmenk <dschmenk@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Apr 2, 5:07 am, Wulf <app...@die-kempers.de> wrote:
> > > Apple System Utilities can format a Pascal disk and transfer files, but
> > > the boot block it writes produces the message you observe. You can
> > > eXecute APPLE3:FORMATTER to write a real boot block to the CF card, then
> > > copy your files over using the Pascal Filer.
> ... 
> Indeed, that was the missing neural connection!

That overrun always rattles my dustier pyramidal cells:

000: 01 A6 2B BD 88 C0 2C 82 C0 20 89 FE 20 93 FE 20 .&+=.@,.@ .~ .~
010: 58 FC A2 19 BD 22 08 9D 30 05 CA 10 F7 A9 15 4C X|".="..0.J.w).L
020: 00 E0 D4 C8 C9 D3 A0 C4 C9 D3 CB A0 C9 D3 A0 CE .`THIS DISK IS N
030: CF D4 A0 C2 CF CF D4 C1 C2 CC C5 DA C9 D3 CB AE OT BOOTABLEZISK.
040: A0 A0 A0 A0 8D 22 5F AD 22 5F C9 03 B0 03 20 86     ."_-"_I.0. .


> > by formatting it with Apple Pascal and transferring the Files with 
> > Prodos I gained a Bootable CF partition.
> >
> > Unfortunately there is still a problem remaining.
> >
> > I get a compiler error which is: Error in write to code file,maybe 
> > not enough room on disk.
> 
> I had the same problem on my Apple III using a partition greater than 
> 16 MB on a CF card.  Somebody left signed 16 bit arithmetic in their 
> code.

Yep, Apple Pascal's Integer is 16-bit, signed, two's complement. And the 
maximum number of entries in the directory is hardcoded: 0 .. 77.

<http://invent.ucsd.edu/technology/cases/1995-prior/SD1991-807.shtml>
 
> > I tried also to generate a new file and got a similar error "No 
> > room on disk"
> >
> > And still the CF Volume comes up with a negative block number.

A disk formatted for Pascal with Apple System Utilities 3.1 also appears 
to have a negative block count. AppleCommander formats the disk 
correctly, but writes no boot block at all. Versions 1.2 and 1.3 support 
800K drives, so 1600 is a valid block count to give the formatter when 
prompted using the Filer's Zero command.

> > I guess there is a problem with the size of my partition. What I 
> > have found during a google search is some mentioning of a 8MB 
> > limit. Prodos can handle 32MB fine but maybe not Apple Pascal.
> >
> > Any thoughts? It sounds to me to be a nice project to enable the 
> > use of Apple Pascal on a CF card and I am willing to take on the 
> > task but have never done any work with the system.attach. I have 
> > also no documentation about how to write attach drivers.
> >
> > Anybody who can send me links or copies on how to do it?
> 
> You can always ask friends for their old, small CF cards ;-)  I'd 
> love to hear results from the Profile Partition Manager,

-- 
John B. Matthews
trashgod at gmail dot com
<http://sites.google.com/site/drjohnbmatthews>