chris@CosmicWolf.com (Chris Morse) wrote in message news:<3cacfc17.417335256@news-east.newscene.com>...
On 4 Apr 2002 16:43:02 -0800, julian814@hotmail.com (Ralph Glatt)
wrote:
chris@CosmicWolf.com (Chris Morse) wrote in message news:<3cac049b.353978874@news-east.newscene.com>...
<big snip>
Is anyone else working on this?
As far as I know, no one. I was afraid I'd have to do this myself, but
if someone with more experience in programming is willing to take on
the burden, I won't mind. ;-)
So you're willing?? =) I wouldn't mind working with a few other
people. I'll send off some e-mail after I post this.
Sure, I'll help as much as I can. I have a couple of books on
programming in machine language, though I really don't know all that
much yet. Today I got email from someone else willing to lend a hand.
I've wanted to do something like this for a while; ever since
I saw the web page for a *really* small TCP/IP implementation
done by someone at UMass.. Not sophisticated, but the entire
implementation was on the order of 256 or 512 bytes of code.
Unfortunately, the creator was not sharing those magic numbers.
Well, we'll have to work with what's available. I'll help out where I
can, but I'm afraid I'm new to working in assembler. My joke pretty
much outlines what I'd like to see, but I'm not sure we can fit all
that on a double sided 5.25" floppy. I know where there's some
software that can convert gifs into something viewable on a //e, I'll
see if we can get permission to use it. Might not help much, though,
since most websites use jpgs, jpeg, or better. Keep posting here on
your progress, please!! If you want to contact me, use the email
address rbg at penn dot com.
Ralph Glatt
As I said before, I read the documentation (not the source code yet)
for uIP; it looks quite promising. I just downloaded and installed
the cc65 compiler and I'm playing around with that.
Here's my thoughts on uIP & the Apple //e (or //c, //c+) right now:
(1) uIP supports SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol), but it does not
support PPP. PPP would be required for probably 99% of all of todays
standard dialup service providers; we would have to implement it
ourselves as a device driver beneath uIP.
Ew, I was afraid of that. :-(
(2) uIP requires only 4 functions to be implemented on the target
machine; these are relatively trivial routines for doing calculations
and need to be implemented for speed/performance reasons.
(3) uIP is ultimately "driven" through a periodic timer. This timer
would basically be an interrupt/IRQ that fires *at least* once a
second. (The docs weren't clear on that; the source code for
uip_periodic() might reveal more.) Anyhow, I assume that extra
hardware will be required in order to pull it off. When I owned my
Apple //e back in the 80's, I had purchased a card called the
"TimeMaster II/HO". It would generate, if I remember, 24 interrupts a
second. What else can generate timed interrupts? I'll have to
research this, but maybe a mouse card and maybe a super serial card (I
don't know how, but I seem to recall reading something to that effect
in the last week or so.)
How about a mouse card? I seem to recall owning some software that
allows multitasking on the 8 bits, using some sort of periodic check
to the mouse card as a way to allow the machine to run more than one
program simultaneously. If you want, I can dig it out and mail it to
you.
(4) The original //c had serial problems. I might have that kind of
//c sitting in my office at work. I found that out here:
http://www.intrec.com/proterm-a2/a2_tips_tricks/a2_iic_telecom.txt
If it is, I'll check my spares in the basement, see if we can work out
a trade if this is the case.
(5) I'll need some time to get back up to speed on all this! That,
plus I am still collecting all the resources I can find on programming
the Apple //. ROM routines, Peeks & Pokes.. Just last night I got my
joystick control functions working.
This is all new to me! I'm willing to dig in and help out, though.
Lastly, I started a web page for Apple // programming; not much there
right now, but as time goes on I will add to it. Tonight I will add a
link to a message forum that can be used for talking about
programming, uIP and the like.
Here's my URL: http://www.cosmicwolf.com/AppleII/AppleII.htm
Thanks, I'll check it out. Keep everyone updated on your progress; we
could use some good news!!
Ralph Glatt