Re: ADTPro - feature complete beta released

[schmidtd <schmidtd@my-deja.com>]

On Jun 3, 2:28 pm, magnusfalkirk <dean.pha...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Just downloaded and ran 0.2.6. In fact, as a test, I ran it from bare-
> metal bootstrapping. The program works Great! The only complaint I
> have is with the information on your bootstrapping-serial page online.
> I'll copy what I'm talking about.
>
> "12. Now you have fully functional ProDOS running on your Apple. It's
> default slot/drive is currently set to 6, but you can change that with
> the PREFIX,S5 command (or CAT,S5 or whatever)."
>
> Number 12 is where the problem is. You can't change the slot number
> that Prodos expects the disk drive to be in until AFTER you've
> formatted a disk. I know this because I tried to do the PREFIX, S5
> after getting to the Basic System screen and got an I/O error.
Ah, good point - you can't set the default prefix to a volume that
doesn't exist.  I had to hardcode a default slot/drive number of 6/1
into the OS on bootstrapping because it comes up completely blank when
you don't boot from a disk device.  So, if you were to bootstrap, then
send the ADTPro client, it would BSAVE into oblivion.  (Or just fail
with an I/O error.)  Wherever you have formatted media, you can change
to it with the PREFIX command.  Maybe I'll just say that. :-)

> The other thing you've added, that I really like, is the option to
> format disks when you first start up the program. [...]
> Would there be
> anyway you could add that as an option to the program itself?

Let's see, $C5B bytes plus a few to glue it in.  I see the Ethernet
version only has $720 bytes to spare before it bumps into the send/
receive buffer; it wouldn't fit there.  The serial and audio clients
have plenty of space, though.  I suppose it's time to go looking for
the most egregious wastes of space... I'm not a particularly efficient
assembly programmer. :-/

> Once again Great job with the newest version of ADTPro! It's even
> easier now to go from bare-metal to fully Prodos functional Apple II.

Thanks - it's water under the bridge for you and me, but hopefully
it'll find utility with the generations who have yet to discover the
Apple II. ;-)