On Aug 18, 2016 12:08 AM, "Brent Hilpert" <hilp...@cs.ubc.ca> wrote: > > On 2016-Aug-17, at 8:26 PM, william degnan wrote: > >>> No doubt you can get it to work, and it can be a useful ability in some > >>> situations. > >>> But monitors and loaders tended to be written with different objectives. > >>> > >>> Monitors targetted interactive use, not receipt of back-to-back > > characters, > >>> which would be why you have to add per-char delays. > >>> The monitor is likely dropping a character or starting a read in the > > middle > >>> of one and getting garbage because it went away for too long while > > looking > >>> up the command. > >>> It only has the stop bit period, or even less time, to do processing > > after > >>> receipt of a character. > >>> > >>> Loaders expect back-to-back characters and are written or optimised > >>> accordingly, not that one can't still run into problems, which is why > > the > >>> checksums can be good. > > > > It would be a lot easier if everyone picked top or bottom posting when they > > reply but I digress.... > > Yes, we've had that debate a few times. > AIR, it was decided that bottom-posting was the 'list practice'. > > > > My suggestion to use the "monitor method" is a stop-gap just to get to the > > point of loading in something useful when no other means was workinhg. I > > agree any process that has no checksum will be unreliable. Whatever.. . > > Let's say for now you have at least the monitor method until something > > better comes along. > > But as far as MIKBUG/SWTBUG goes, you also always have the "L" command with S-record method. > If the data in your TSC BASIC "M" text were converted to S-record format - a trivial programming exercise - > it would be easier (no delays required) (and more reliable) to load into the SWTP. > They're both ASCII text input, just different formats. > > I'm not clear why you resorted to the M-command method, was the TSC BASIC data not originally > in S-records? - that would be the standard format for loading such software into an SWTP. > >
The regular S1 tape exists in a few places, yes use L to load tape. This is the best practice. Purely as an experiment I made a monitor script so I could run at a slow speed so I could watch the screen as commands were entered. I can't remember if it was because the load (L) was not working or if there was a cpu card issue. I thought as a first step, given at the time in the flow of the thread the OP was having issues, my monitor script would be worth trying. Bill