Re: Disk ][ Launcher (was: Late night musings...)

[GUDATH@EZINFO.VMSMAIL.ETHZ.CH (Henrik 'Ratte' Gudat)]

In <50b1ll$bh6@news.bconnex.net> jefbla@bconnex.net writes:

> I have been trying to come up with ways to allow execution of the 8
> bit programs to be performed by the 65816 at full speed.  By caching
> small sections of code and checking them for anything special and then
> executing any code I'm not concerned about at full speed or by putting
> COP instructions in those special locations but I can't really think
> of a way to find the places to put the COPs easily.

Have you been spending some thoughts on self-modifying code? :-)

This is pretty popular on the Apple II (contrary to PowerPC code, for example).
I think the only possibility would be to implement a complete 8-bit emu that
allows 8-bit code to run in fast memory and shadow softswitches as required.
(Remember the softswitch that allows you to access softswitches from all
banks?) It'll likely be an interpreter that intercepts accesses to
softswitches, maintains a off-screen super-hires screen, and imitates all this
language card switching stuff.

Then again, it might be simpler to write a IIgs emulator for Macs or PCs and
open multiple instances so you can horse around in ProDOS 8, 16, GS/OS and XMas
Demo :-)

- b0z0