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#: 19734 S13/GEOS Connection I
24-Jun-89 20:21:56
Sb: #Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: <]Dave[> 72030,661
To: *ALL
Am in DESPERATE need of aSERIAL printer driver, and/or someone that can help me
out a little on where the devil I patch in the codes to change my printer
initialisation, closeing, etc, for GEOS. I can get the ImageWriter and Scribe
drivers to send stuff to my printer (HP ThinkJet)
but am only getting crud for output, ie, letters & numbers that do NOT
correspond with what I'm trying to print. I've found the area on the driver
where a batch of ESCAPE codes are sent, but can't figure out which one(s) are
doing what. HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! I'm even willing to putz around with it,
if I could figure out what the devil those 'jump codes' mean at the start of my
driver. Have the "documentation" by Al Boyce from DL13, and the jump codes are:
7903:4C007C 7909:4C427C 790C:4C557C - now, if I knew what those jumps went TO,
I could probably figure it out, and eventually get it done.
HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! PUH-LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ?
E-Mail, or message here. THANKS!! <]Dave[> 72030,661 I'm willing to do the
'work', I just need a little guidance and being pointed in the right direction.
#: 19735 S13/GEOS Connection I
24-Jun-89 20:29:23
Sb: #19734-#Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032
To: <]Dave[> 72030,661 (X)
Dave,
I still can't be much help. The "jump codes" at the start of the driver is
just a table of addresses of routines in the driver itself. It's sort of a
mini-kernal. Since the routine to, for instance, print a line, will be at a
different addresses in every driver, the jump table serves to provide standard
addresses. Always JSR to the appropriate entry in the table, which will then
JMP to the correct address in that driver. The jump table isn't data that gets
sent to the printer.
I wish I could do more for you, but I don't have any experience with printer
drivers. I hope someone who can provide you with better information will join
in.
#: 19736 S13/GEOS Connection I
24-Jun-89 20:54:32
Sb: #19735-#Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: <]Dave[> 72030,661
To: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032 (X)
Ed, I knew that the jump table was only a set of pointers to the actual driver
itself; my question i: what the devil are the values supposed to represent?
Absolute jumps? Relative jumps? Addresses? ????? (sure wish I had that darn
GEOS book! Or, even better, that BSW included some of this info in the
manuals!!) Anyway, thanks. I just hope someone else in the forum will be able
to help; I've got nothing against doing it myself, but, as I said, I just need
to get pointed in the right direction! <]Dave[>
#: 19737 S13/GEOS Connection I
24-Jun-89 21:20:47
Sb: #19736-#Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032
To: <]Dave[> 72030,661 (X)
Dave,
If I remember correctly, they are JMP instructions to the absole addresses of
the appropriate routines. The application does a JSR to the jump table, where
a JMP points to a section of code, that ends in an RTS, so returning to the
JSR'ing application. The GEOS P.R.G. does have a section on printer drivers,
though I don't imagine there's much there on whatever would be specific to
serial printers.
#: 19738 S13/GEOS Connection I
24-Jun-89 21:39:53
Sb: #19737-#Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: <]Dave[> 72030,661
To: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032 (X)
Ed; THAT'S the kind of information I need- though the JUMPs I've seen at the
beginning of the drivers look more like RELATIVE jumps, instead of absolute-
but at least now, when I go in and look at the little buggers, I've got some
idea of what it is I'm looking at! Thanks for getting back to me AGAIN (I
really do appreciate it!)- though I trust you'll understand if I hope that
someone else jumps in, too! <]Dave[>
#: 19739 S13/GEOS Connection I
24-Jun-89 22:31:29
Sb: #19738-#Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032
To: <]Dave[> 72030,661 (X)
Dave,
Remember the addresses in those jumps are in INTEL format, where the
high-order byte of the address comes last. I'm *pretty* sure they are
absolute. Printer drivers are loaded at $7900, and may extend to $7F3F, it
says here.
#: 19740 S13/GEOS Connection I
24-Jun-89 22:37:13
Sb: #19739-Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032
To: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032 (X)
Dave,
OK, now that I found the right page, the first jump is to InitForPrint,
which intializes the printer, and is usually just an RTS. The second is to
StartPrint, which sort of opens a file to the printer, the third is to
PrintBuffer, which prints 640 bytes worth of graphic cards, fourth is to
StopPrint, which is the end-of-page routine, fifth is GetDimensions, which
returns the dimensions of a page, in graphic cards.
If present, the sixth is to PrintASCII, which prints a null-terminated ASCII
string, seventh is to StartASCII, which initializes the printer for ASCII
printing, and last is to SetNLQ, which doesn't seem to be explained in the
book, but I bet it sets the printer for NLQ mode <grin>.
#: 19748 S13/GEOS Connection I
25-Jun-89 12:44:52
Sb: #19739-#Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: <]Dave[> 72030,661
To: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032 (X)
Ed; sat down last night (after my last message) and started going through the
jumps, etcuntil 2:00! Have gotten all the JMP routines; planning to 'de-code'
the JSRs that are called today. GAD! I'm learning more about assembly and
printer drivers than I really thought that I wanted to! Still, I suppose it's
"good" for me- you know, one of those "learning experiences".... I gotta tell
you- this is NO WAY to be learning assembly, trying to de-cipher someone else's
code! <]Dave[>
#: 19750 S13/GEOS Connection I
25-Jun-89 13:16:50
Sb: #19748-#Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032
To: <]Dave[> 72030,661 (X)
Dave,
Nope, trying to learn from disassembly is no fun at all. There are, I
suppose, some people that like that sort of thing. I'd watch out for them
<grin>
#: 19760 S13/GEOS Connection I
26-Jun-89 20:52:32
Sb: #19750-Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: <]Dave[> 72030,661
To: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032 (X)
"we have met the enemy, and he is us"!
#: 19810 S13/GEOS Connection I
29-Jun-89 21:08:41
Sb: #19748-Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: Anthony Marsh 72127,2301
To: <]Dave[> 72030,661
I don't know which system you have and which printer driver you're trying to
work with, but here are a few tips. You can easily examine printer drivers by
CONVERTing one, then doing an absolute LOAD so that the beginning of the JMP
table will end up at $7900. Then I would suggest doing a hard copy of the
disassembly. Also, a few issues back, GEOWORLD had a very good article about
printer drivers. I don't remember which issue off-hand, but ask around and see
if any store has some old issues. BTW, what I needed to do was pretty easy, but
really helped. I changed the line feed from 7/72" to 21/216" and it is much
nicer now. Also changed the device number from 4 to 5 and can use either my
dot-matrix or letter quality printer at the same time with a Y-NOT cable. Very
handy gadget. Tony
#: 19827 S13/GEOS Connection I
30-Jun-89 20:23:23
Sb: #19810-#Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: <]Dave[> 72030,661
To: Anthony Marsh 72127,2301
Tony; have already gotten the disassembly done- not much fun, doing it by
de-coding the "A9 79 C2"-s!! Haven't been receiving GeoWorld, etc
yet; haven't gotten any word on subscription price, etc from them yet.
My dot-matrix (Epson Fx-85+) is fine, particularly when I use the LaserMatrix
driver (!!!!); I'd just like to be able to use the ThinkJet
, too- it's a little quieter, etc. All I REALLY need is a SERIAL FX-80 or
FX-100 driver; the ThinkJet has those emulation modes. SIGH.
#: 19829 S13/GEOS Connection I
30-Jun-89 21:39:15
Sb: #19827-Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032
To: <]Dave[> 72030,661
Dave,
FYI, geoWorld costs $20 for 12 issues. It's published irregularly, though
they're getting closer to monthly than they were in the past.
#: 19866 S13/GEOS Connection I
02-Jul-89 10:17:32
Sb: #19829-#Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: <]Dave[> 72030,661
To: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032 (X)
Ed; thanks, that's the kind of info I needed- now I can just compose a
subscription letter, send the money, and do the whole thing at once.
BTW, would you know if GeoProgrammer >REALLY< works on the 128 in >128< mode
(Geos 128)? I've had other people tell me that it does, yet all the ads I've
seen imply that it's for 64 mode ONLY. ???? Thanks. <]Dave[>
#: 19870 S13/GEOS Connection I
02-Jul-89 11:44:42
Sb: #19866-#Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032
To: <]Dave[> 72030,661 (X)
Dave,
Out of the box, geoProgrammer won't run under GEOS 128 at all. There's a
byte in the file header that tells GEOS what modes the program is eligible for,
and for all three programmer applications, it's set to "64 only". You can
change that byte on your workdisk copy, of course.
geoProgrammer and geoLinker will run just fine in 40 columns, once you've
enabled that mode. They'll also run at 80 columns, if you enable it, but the
screen is going to be very strange looking, since the program is coded for 40.
Still, some people do use it that way.
Unfortunately, the deBugger can't be made to run under GEOS 128 at all.
Enabling it will do you no good at all, since it relies on some things in the
systems ROMs, and they aren't there in 128 mode. I've heard rumors that people
have successfully patched the deBugger for 128/80, but I haven't seen the thing
work, myself.
#: 19872 S13/GEOS Connection I
02-Jul-89 12:31:55
Sb: #19870-#Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: <]Dave[> 72030,661
To: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032 (X)
crud- I think that I went and requested GeoProgrammer under that nifty free
program promotion that BSW is running. Well, maybe I can still use at least
PART of it; tho' I DO wish more of this stuff was written for us 128 users in
mind, as well as all the 64 users out there. I thought that getting a 128
would be a step UP, what with the extra memory, 80 columns, etc; but I'm
rapidly coming to the conclusion that the 128 is going to wind up going the way
of the SX-64, kind of a Commodore version of the PCjr! <]Dave[>
#: 19874 S13/GEOS Connection I
02-Jul-89 14:41:05
Sb: #19872-#Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032
To: <]Dave[> 72030,661 (X)
Dave,
All along we were told that there'd by a 'Programmer for the 128, and,
apparently, it's all written and ready, but BSW isn't going to market it in the
foreseeable future. It's the only GEOS package I can think of where there's
neither a 128 version, nor the ability to run the 64 version under 128.
Do you not have GEOS 64 at all, then?
#: 19875 S13/GEOS Connection I
02-Jul-89 18:12:35
Sb: #19874-Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: <]Dave[> 72030,661
To: Ed Flinn/Sysop 76703,4032 (X)
Ed; that's right, I've only got Geos 128, under the theory that I've got a 128,
and should therefor be able to run it as such, NOT a glorified 64. This, too,
is one of the ways that C= (and the C= 'community') is cheating itselfin that
with a 64 "built in", along with the 'normal' 128, C= is, essentially,
encouraging people not to program for the 128 (not many people have them, even
now!). Instead, people are buying the 128 so they can use a few of the
programs that it will handle in 80 columns (word processors, etc); not many are
buying it for the large amounts of software available for it in the 128 mode.
If they want ready access to a large software library, they switch it over to
the 64 mode, and accept the lower-quality graphics, miserable (compared to 80
column color!) text, half the memory, etc. About the only time I switch the
thing over to 64 mode is when I HAVE to; unlike most folks (or so it seems), I
try to use it in 128 mode as much as possible, and switch over only when
necessary, such as running a de-arc program (haven't found one for 128 mode,
yet!), and so on. Even within the sparse 128 community, most folks are using
it with a 40-column monitor, so it's hard to find things that run in 80-column
mode! I've got an 'official' IBM color monitor, and the thing is a blessing
for word-processing- yet if I want color graphics, I have to switch over to my
old 1702 color monitor, with it's miserable resolution. I've wound up getting
into more than a few programs, and modifying them to support EITHER monitor
(easy enough to do...); apparently, the author only had a 40-col monitor, and
didn't want to bother with allowing 80-col (that, and C= made programming for
color graphics no small chore!). Those of us that want decent displays,
whether graphics or text, video or hardcopy, are left wanting where the
Commodore is concerned. The pity is that the machine is capable of so much
more, but the support is what's keeping it back:
#: 19911 S13/GEOS Connection I
06-Jul-89 21:39:40
Sb: #19827-#Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: Anthony Marsh 72127,2301
To: <]Dave[> 72030,661 (X)
I'll ask around my user group and see if anyone is using the Thinkjet. One is
using one of those types, but not sure which model. BTW, that GEOWORLD issue
was Vol. I, issue #5 about designing Quad printer drivers. Tony
#: 19922 S13/GEOS Connection I
07-Jul-89 20:39:18
Sb: #19911-Serial GEOS Driver
Fm: <]Dave[> 72030,661
To: Anthony Marsh 72127,2301
Tony; thanks, would GREATLY appreciate it! I'm into modifying this ImageWriter
driver far enough that I'm starting to dream (have nightmares?) about JSRs, and
LDAs, and INXs, and..... Anyway, if you can't upload the driver, then don't
worry about it too much- I've gotten enough info that I could probably get the
sucker going, if I fool with it long enough. <]Dave[>