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2006-10-19
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Many of you Kracker Hackers may still be working with a TI DIsk
Controller, but have a MYARC or (soon) New Horizons RAMDISK. Up until now
you have had to put the EDIT1, EDITA1, EDITA2, ASSM1, ASSM2, FORMA1, FORMA2
in Drive 1 because the E/A and TI-WRITER modules insisted on it. Therefore,
if you wanted fast loading from the RAMDISK, it had to be Drive 1, thus dis-
abling your true floppy drive 1. The following sections will show you how to
change these modules to make the defaults for drives 2-5, and allow you to
keep using all your disk drives as usual. There are also sections on chang-
ing the TI Disk Manager to allow 4 or 5 or even 9 (!) drives, changing the
Disk Manager 1000 V. II, and finally the shape of the cursor in CHARA1.
To keep repetitions to a minimum, I will review the process of using the
GK Editor here. First save your module to disk (if you haven't already)
using option 2 on the GK main screen. Then remove the module and reload the
file off the disk using option 1. Now choose 5, the Editor. The cursor will
be in the upper left hand corner, over a small c (indicating CPU memory).
FCTN 1 will switch you to a small g (for GRAM). Press enter and you can now
type the appropriate addresses that will be described. FCTN 9 will put the
cursor on the memory window, and you can now make changes (be sure that the
W/P switch is up, to Bank 1, or changes will not be accepted). After the
change is made, exit the Editor with CTRL =, exit the GK with FCTN = or FCTN
9 and test your changes. If they are OK, go back to the GK and re-save the
module.
I am not sure if there are different versions of these modules out
there, which might make the addresses slightly different. If so you can use
the Search feature of the GK. After getting the GRAM window with FCTN 1,
press enter twice to get to Start address, enter 6000, then A000 for the
Finish address, press FCTN 5 to activate the Search, press FCTN = if you need
to change from ASCII to hex or vice versa, press FCTN 9 to get the cursor
into the search entry field, then type the string you want, MOVE THE CURSOR
BACK TO THE LAST TYPED ENTRY, and press enter. The GK will find the first
occurence for you and put the address in the upper left corner. To edit what
you have found press FTCN 5 again, then FCTN 9 and you will have the cursor
in the memory field.
EDITOR/ASSEMBLER
================
The default disk drive for loading the Editor, Assembler, and UTIL1
files is at g6621. [search for EDIT1 if this isn't exactly right and you
don't see it on the screen] The default name UTIL1 is at g662D. The name
length of these files (all the same) is at g661D (in hex of course), and
equals 0A (i.e. DSK1.EDIT1 etc.) If you wish to have a different program
name as your default for the Utility option it must still have 5 characters.
If you have installed the EDIT1 and ASSM1-2 programs in high GRAM using
the E/AGRMDISK utility which came with the GK, then these names are not
needed and you can change even the length of the Utility program, provided
you change the length byte at g661D (be sure to add the 5 for DSK1.) Alter-
natively you can change the NAMES of the EDIT1 and ASSM1-2 files with a Disk
Manager to make them correspond in length to the name of the UTIL1 type pro-
gram. Then just type in the new names in GRAM, as well as the new length
byte. There is no room for names longer than 5, but they can be shorter.
They must BEGIN at the same location - the unused characters will be ignored.
If you have chained a UTIL1 type program together with the module for automa-
tic loading on powerup (uses FCTN X when saving the module, see your GK
manual for instructions) then use a 4 character name for the module - this
makes the additional files 5 characters. E.g. if the module name is UTIL
then the utility programs can remain UTIL1 (and 2 if used). If you installed
the Edi- tor and Assembler programs in high GRAM then the numbers would have
to be higher than 1-2. I named the module F, and used the high GRAM option,
so my utility program had to be named F4 and F5, and I therefore used F4 for
the default at g661D as above.
As you can see there are myriad possibilities - do it the way YOU like.
By the way, thanks to Rory Binkerd we now know the locations for the de-
fault colors as well (g6537 for the Editor, g652C for the main screen, both
contain F5 which isn't as easy to read as F4 on a color monitor or TV; F0 is
most appropriate for a monochrome monitor). Change these too! I had pre-
viously published a way of changing this in the EDIT1 program (Micropendium
and the LA 99'er Newsletter) but this is no longer necessary.
When you have done all this you are ready to go. First save the new
module of course!! Now set up your RAMDISK to whatever drive you have chosen
as your default. Use some copy program to copy the module files plus the
utility programs (and the EDIT1 etc if they are not in high GRAM) to the RAM-
DISK. See the section below if your disk manager can't use more than 3
drives and you are set up for drive 4. Now when you enter the Editor or
Assembler, you'll get them in a flash!
TI-WRITER
=========
This one is a bit easier, because the default utility program name is
not picked out of GRAM as such, but is put up on the screen. Hence there is
no need to worry about the length byte, as the program measures it once you
press enter.
First, the default drive number is at g6763 (actually DSK1. is at
g6760). If this address is not correct you can search for DSK1. but there
seems to be one at 65A7 as well. I am not sure of what the function of this
one is, but not changing it seemed to make no difference.
The name of the Utility program is at g6B27 in English. Change it to
whatever you wish (probably the same as the one in the Editor/Assembler, if
you have them on the same disk). The other 7 languages (!) are located at
6CD0, 6EBA, 70A1, 725E, 7469, 763B, and 6EBA. You can change them if you
wish - I didn't bother since I don't use them. As a matter of fact, Howie
Rosenberg has already uploaded instructions to get rid of these altogether,
which will be useful in the future, because I've heard a rumor that eventual-
ly we will be able to get TI-WRITER and E/A in one GRAM!
The default colors for the main screen are at g6284, and for the Editor
at g68C1, per Rory again. While you're changing these, you might go into the
EDITA1 file with a sector editor and look at the end of the first sector.
There is a series of five 87xx words, where the xx represents different color
combinations. You should change one of these to whatever you chose for your
defaults; otherwise if you ever hit CTRL 3 to change the colors, you won't be
able to get your original colors back.
TI DISK MANAGER 2
=================
There is no problem with defaults here, the trouble is that the module
won't accept a number higher than 3 for the disk drive! One would think that
there is a single routine that checks for this. I worked through this one
with Explorer and found a routine and changed it. But when I went back to
the module, the higher numbers were only accepted in some places. I wound up
doing a little bit of educated guessing. I am pretty sure that what is
listed below will make it all work without messing up any routines.
First the changes to the routines. A hex 33 is picked out of GRAM each
time; you can see this as an ASCII 3 as well. I found the following
locations necessary to change (all in GRAM): 724D, 72C0, 63F4, 6426, 650C,
675D, 685D. All but the 2nd and 4th also have a small r before the 3, so you
can use r3 for the search, if the addresses aren't right. Change all of
these to 4, 5 or whatever number you wish.
Next use the search feature to look for (1-3). There are 2 locations
for each language. Change these to the number you chose above. This doesn't
affect the running of the module but looks neater.
There is one more change I made. I have a parallel interface for my
printer and have gotten tired of using option 4 and typing in PIO as device
name when I want to print the catalog of a disk. As option 3 for RS232 was
unused for me I modified it. This required two changes. First search for
RS232 between g6000 and gA000. You should get 61B2. FCTN 5, FCTN 9 to get
the memory screen. Now use left arrow to back up one byte and FCTN = to
change to hex. You should see 05 the length of the device name RS232.
Change this to 03 and FCTN = again to get back to ASCII. Now type PIO. Now
FCTN 9, FCTN 5, FCTN 9 to get the search entry again, position the cursor
over the second 2 and press enter. This time you should get 86F2. This is
the text screen. Get to the memory editor and type PARALLEL INTERFACE. Now
when you press 3 you will get an automatic printout to your parallel printer.
That completes the changes. I am sorry I did not have a Disk Manager 1
to work with to compare the changes. Hopefully the routines are the same,
although the addresses will almost certainly be different.
DISK MANAGER 1000 (DM1000)
==========================
I have V. II of this program. Hopefully the techniques will be applicable
to other versions as well, but with different locations. These changes require
a sector editor, not the GRAM KRACKER. The routine that checks for the high
drive number is actually looking at a table that contains (hex) 31 32 33 34, so
the information is there. First search for this sequence in MGR1 and check the
exact byte where >33 is. On my disk it is at byte >57 of the second sector of
the file. The file loads at >A000, but the first 6 bytes of the first sector
are not loaded. Thus the memory location you have found can be computed by
adding >100 to >A000 for each sector BEYOND the first, plus the byte number on
the sector and subtracting 6. In this case that is >A000 + >100 + >57 - >6, or
>A151. [MGR2 loads at >BFFA, otherwise use the same technique].
Now search for this computed address in MGR2. On my disk this was at
byte >DC of the 11th sector. Change it to A152 to check for 4 drives. If
your disk has a 35 after the 31 32 33 34 then you can use 1 address higher to
check for 5. Otherwise it is more compl)cated. You need a >35 that is never
changed. I believe I found one at byte >EE of 8th sector of R1, which
computes to >A7E8 (>A000 + >700 + >EE - >6). I replaced A151 with this
address and the program now accepts up to 5 drives.
You may also know that the program checks for the header of a file named
MGR1 in drive 1 for printer codes if you have saved them as such. The first
thing to do if you have renamed the program is create a dummy file called
MGR1 to enable this option. [in XB run the following program:
100 OPEN #1:"DSK1.MGR1"::PRINT #1::CLOSE #1]. Now how do you make it look
for the header in drive 4 or 5. First search for the hex sequence 010203.
On my disk this was at byte >C of 2nd sector of MGR1 (address computes to
>A106). This data will be inserted into another address which will then be
transferred to >834C which is used for the drive number in a sector access
routine. Now search for the sequence D820xxxxA155 where xxxx is the address
you just found. (This is ASL object code for MOVE a byte from xxxx to A155) If
nothing comes up then try not typing in the A155 and see what you get. In my
case there were two occurrences both in MGR2; at byte >A4 of 1st sector and >2E
of 19th sector. You must now change the xxxx in both cases to an address which
contains 04 or 05 depending on how many drives you want. 04 is easy, as the
beginning of the program at byte >6 of 1st sector of MGR1 is 0460 C074 (B @
>C074). So xxxx can be replaced by A000. For 05 I picked byte >48 of same
sector, apparently part of data for a PAB in LOAD mode. Use this address
(remember to add 6, i.e. A04E) for the replace- ment.
CURSOR
======
If you have used the E/AGRMDISK utility that came with the GK and
installed the CHARA1 file, you may have noticed (!) that instead of a true
cursor on the editor and assembler option screens you get a little 1f. This
is because the E/A uses character >1F for its cursor here, and CHARA1 hasn't
defined it as a block. As TI-WRITER never actually uses it as far as I can
tell, you can redefine it to whatever shape you wish. I put in a solid block
cursor, although the E/A module uses a hollow block. The eight bytes in
question are located as the last two of the first sector of CHARA1 and the
first six of the 2nd sector (if you have already created the speed loader,
these wind up being on the 25th and 26th sectors of the fourth file created.
You should see (00 40) (4C 50 10 1C 10 10) in these two sectors. Change
these all to 7E for a medium size block, or 3C for a narrow block, or (00 7E)
(42 42 42 42 7E 00) for a hollow block.
While you're at it, if you don't like the arrow instead of a circumflex
(caret), then go to the next sector and look at the 10th to 3rd bytes from
the end. If these are 10 28 44 10 10 10 10 00, you can change the 10 's to
00 's and get a regular caret back.
I hope this isn't all unnecessarily complicated, but if you can do it
you'll find your system much more useful. Have fun..............
Tom Freeman
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