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  • msrobotsmsrobots Posts: 3,709
    edited 2017-10-21 21:27
    Heater. wrote: »
    ...I'm not sure why HTTP is a restriction for machines communicating over a local LAN.

    legacy systems? But there is some light on the horizon since GnuCobol now supports Node.js bindings...

    EDIT: Finally websockets in COBOL, hihi

    EDIT: to be back on the topic, GnuCobol may soon be able to display graphical X-Windows. is in development, but looks cool.

    Mike

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    msrobots,

    I'm not suggesting we delete X from the world. Of course there are systems that need it.
    ...GnuCobol now supports Node.js bindings... websockets in COBOL... GnuCobol may soon be able to display graphical X-Windows

    You have just blown my last remaining brain cells. Upended everything I knew was right in the world. I have to lie down. I may not recover....
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2017-10-21 22:35
    heater wrote:
    I'm not sure why HTTP is a restriction for machines communicating over a local LAN.
    It's not. HTTP is just a text-based protocol that sits on top of TCP/IP, and there are plenty of other protocols extant for LAN use. For example, Samba, the file-sharing system, uses the smb/cifs protocol.

    In fact, HTTP is also just one of many protocols used over the internet on top of TCP/IP, such as SMTP and Telnet.

    -Phil
  • Heater. wrote: »
    msrobots,

    I'm not suggesting we delete X from the world. Of course there are systems that need it.
    ...GnuCobol now supports Node.js bindings... websockets in COBOL... GnuCobol may soon be able to display graphical X-Windows

    You have just blown my last remaining brain cells. Upended everything I knew was right in the world. I have to lie down. I may not recover....

    Yes and someone even got it running with emscripten. That blew my mind. GnuCobol transpiles to C but has a big chunk of runtime libs.

    But someday I will get it running on a P2. Or Heater. gets CP/M running, I found a COBOL for CP/M.

    Never looked deeply at X, but like Phil said about http, X is also just a protocol, could run over tcp/ip or even serial.

    So how about a X-server or a X-client on a prop?

    Mike
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    I had CP/M running on the Propeller years ago. See the very long thread starting in 2009 here: http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/110804/zicog-a-zilog-z80-emulator-in-1-cog/p1

    It was my first ever Propeller project.

    Cluso even built that into the smallest CP/M computer in the world with it: https://hackaday.com/2009/12/27/zilog-in-a-matchbox/

    I'm sure if you want to run COBOL on the Propeller that can do it.





  • sadly I never was able to figure out what I really NEED going thru that long long thread. Links are broken, soon came various ram extensions I did not had so I never made it to a working CP/M prompt.

    Quietly I hope that CP/M will get a new life on a P2, Z80 emulator with xbyte, but of the two guys I know who could do that, one guy is MIA and the other one claims he will never write a emulator again.

    Mike
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    See my RamBlade if you want to run CPM.
    It's on www.clusos.com. I sell one once in a while. Still have parts.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    My Z80 adventure got put on hold when I changed jobs and got very busy.

    It was in my mind to pick it up again when a P2 came out that would have enough RAM to run it all self contained. Now I'm not sure I will ever regain the enthusiasm for it.

    I think ZiCog got a bit top heavy. Early versions could at least boot CP/M using just 16 or 24K of RAM on board the Prop.

    It ended up with a FAT32 files system in there to hold disk image files. Which I now think is a mistake, it's a CP/M machine not a DOS machine!

    It became dependent on external RAM so nobody without that could run it.

    Hmmm... perhaps if I went back and ripped all the Smile out of it I would feel more inclined to continue...

    Yeah, what happened to PullMoll and his excellent emulator ?
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    There is no FAT16/32 support currently in ZiCog, once it boots CPM. The way that part works is that while booting, I read the 8 x 32MB files although we only use the first 8MB. These files must each be contiguous sectors and are FAT16/32 files. I locate the first sector of each file and record those. Now those first data sectors are known, CPM boots using just direct sector reads and writes. Those files are all CPM HDD format.

    My Prop OS has commands that will transfer files between FAT16/32 and the CPM files within those FAT files. Also those files can be sent to/from the Serial/USB connection on a PC.

    You can load and run ZiCog/CPM from my OS, and return to my OS from CPM by running HALT from the CPM prompt.

    However, I had intended to try and see if I could modify CPM to fully support the FAT16/32 file system. I don't know enough to know if this is possible.

    I don't know where PullMoll is now, but a long time ago I contacted him and obtained his permission to use/modify his Z80 emulation.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Yes, sorry that is right. ZiCog fetches it's disk images from inside a FAT file system with out actually knowing anything of FAT. Just so that Windows users can easily drop CP/M images files on SD.

    That is the part I ended up not liking.

    I could have sworn we were able to use the maximum number of maximum sized hard disk images at some point. The down side of doing that is that it takes valuable space in the Z80 RAM.

  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    I don't recall if we read a 128 byte partial sector or a 512 byte sector and pass the respective 128 bytes thru to CPM.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    I created 32MB HDDs but wasn't sure how to change the block descriptors from 8MB to 32MB. Anyway 8x8MB is plenty for CPM. There is no floppy support.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Oh yeah, those descriptors were a pain. Took me an age to dig up documentation on that, then try to understand it a bit.
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