Re: robowin

["Laine Houghton" <laine@intergate.com>]

"Ed Eastman" <noone@nowhere.net> wrote in message
news:d775mh$mra$1@unlnews.unl.edu...
> Robowin from the 2nd link in the first page of Google; it must be gettting
> more populat or something.

>
> Laine Houghton's modifications of :
>  AppleWin Emulator
>
> ********************************************
> *                                          *
> *   download:                              *
> *                                          *
> ********************************************
>
>  Click here to download the ZIP
>
> this link is broken.  Laine has not yet decided
> to release his modifications publicly

I came to know Applewin because Robert Doerr was looking for an emulator to
run his Apple II software which controls his Androbot robots.

Robert is happily taking his laptop and robots on the road for
demonstrations.

Along the way I came to really like Applewin and added many modifications I
wanted and some fine ideas Robert and Rich requested. Rich's  request for a
copy from clipboard was one I wish I had thought of. It has saved me untold
hours. Applesoft and assembly source found on the net can be copied to the
clipboard and with the press of a button it is typed into the apple to be
run or compiled. Not to mention today's word processors are more powerful
and easier to use.

The robot software is written and run in Forth. They way the modules are
swapped around and the fact it switches between direct polling the ACIA and
handing off the task to the SSC, coupled with a serial as well as an IR link
makes the whole thing timing sensitive.

The last release works well with the robots but a piece of code tested
earlier is not so good on version 2.0.3. A loop to directly poll the ACIA
has unacceptable performance.

I know how I want to tighten up the timing so it is faithful to Apple users
as well as the robot software. Actually the former guarantees the latter.

It does require a fair rewrite that will affect many areas and require major
retesting and bug squashing.

That for the last few weeks has killed motivation. I'm waiting for a spark
of enthusiasm :)

Also the last mod I made was limited support of .2mg files. I could or
prodos would read and write 800k images. I tried to unshrink an 800k SDK and
not surprisingly shrinkit informed me no device was available. I was trying
to decide if I wanted to fully implement 800k support.