Flashy Clock - Yet another DEV board

[exxos]

@exxos - Been a bit distracted today but have time to do the same tests on my board.

I think I may have found what the problem is

[exxos]

The problem seems to be basically a lack of using "ST_AS" in my firmware But really this could only trigger on bus transitions between various addresses and could issue DTACK momentarily.. But at that point nothing will be using the bus anyway because ST_AS is not yet gone low...So nothing should actually care about this, and yet something does In any case, my STOS loop now runs through each and every time fully without crashing.

I have just re-enabled the alt-ram and I did a quick routine to install 8MB into flashy software and now that seems to be working perfectly well. I need to do some more work on the software and firmware because there may well be a need for other RAM sizes other than 8MB. Basically it can use 2,4,6,8,10,12,14MB RAM... But of course currently there is only 8MB SRAM on the board, so 2,4,6,8MB is only possible. I guess if @terriblefire and I come up with a dedicated altram board, then that could be used instead of the onboard 8MB SRAM it currently has.

It would be nice to add a routine to actually test RAM as well. Obviously this is not going to be a good thing to have done in BASIC. It needs writing in assembly. So if anyone out there can do a quick as possible alt-ram test routine in assembly to test the various ranges, and report the result back to the software if it passed or failed, then I can add that into the assembly routines file.. If anyone wants to do that then probably need to figure out how the routines obtains and passes values from the basic side to the assembly side, but that should be pretty easy to figure out anyway.

So basically we seem to be on the homeward stretch now I am also considering writing a proper GUI for the software. The current one will basically be a "developer version" and a dumbed down GUI version just to setup the basics.

[PhilC]

Sounds good to me, well done.

[Icky]

Works nicely on my board. Flashing and selecting ROM works and SYSINFO shows 4MB + 8MB = 12MB. Plus RTC clock

[exxos]

I have been working on a GUI this past week (and still am). As I have near zero idea how GEM works , it is all taking a very long time to do even simple things

In order to speed things up I have started to use the HISOFT's "TOOLKIT" which contains various routines to make things easier. When I did GB6, I rewrote all the routines from scratch some months but they were still buggy in some ways The problem with the toolkit is I have no manual on what any of the functions are for. There is like 50 sub-routines and anyone's guess what any of them do. So it is all trial and error is taking a great deal of time. But the good news is I am making slow but sure progress.

The GUI will be a very simple way of using flashyclock. The current "crappy clock setter" software will basically become a "developer tool". It is unlikely anyone will meet this other than myself and possibly Icky. The GUI will make everything very simple and easy to use.

There has also been a lot of changes in the firmware and a lot of software changes in how things work over the past couple of weeks. Really I just want to inform people that even though I have been quite the past couple of weeks, I'm seriously trying to finish flashyclock off fully.

And a sneak peek at the first draft main menu...

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All the other menus have been done as well. They literally everything has to be programmed... There's actually a lot of code involved just to highlight the button once clicked on... And as there are a lot of buttons and things in the menus it is all going to take a great deal of time to program each and every one up. GEM/AES is really not friendly to work with. Its not like VB6, draw a button, double click it to get the sub routine for it and job done. It took me about 15 hours just to get a row of tickboxes to behave in the boot rom menu

[Icky]

@exxos - Have been watching your development woes. One thing I think it makes you realise how modern development tools have come on and how much easier it is to make an app.

I thought my analogy of what you are doing is like building a lego house with the smallest pieces, making larger pieces and then eventually a house was apt

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[exxos]

@exxos - Have been watching your development woes. One thing I think it makes you realise how modern development tools have come on and how much easier it is to make an app.

I thought my analogy of what you are doing is like building a lego house with the smallest pieces, making larger pieces and then eventually a house was apt

Comeback Visual Basic all is forgiven

GEM stuff seems seriously low-level in some respects. It is really just like pasting various images on the screen and any sort of functionality whatsoever you have to program it yourself. Then you can pop up dialogue boxes in a single line of code.. It's really bizarre. I guess considering the time restraints Digital Research would have had, I suspect some parts of the operating system are a lot more polished than others.

[exxos]

I have been working on the program box today among other things. The redline is to simulate a verifiy failure. I had to program in a simulation routine because I am not ready to have this working on real hardware yet. I also just finished the "LOAD" routines which now correctly identify TOS & EMUTOS versions.

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[Icky]

Looking good @exxos

[exxos]

RTC menu is "working".. Well the button clicks and numbers.

Next I have to start porting the actual register access code over...

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