See comments given below.
Mark E. Scott
Jr.
mscott@dbcity.net
-----Original Message-----
From:
KKokiri89@aol.com [mailto:KKokiri89@aol.com]
Sent: Saturday,
July 17, 1999 8:41 PM
To: assembly-89@lists.ticalc.org
Subject: Re: A89:
LinuxTI & Memory Expander
Great idea! Yes it was mentioned
earlier, and i kind of put it aside. That
should probably be a priority,
since we would likely have to cut out
functions and features of the programs
to reduce size. Also this would act as
a separate "partition" or perhaps
drive which you could mount and unmount,
and either store user defined
programs or other things. If we end up making
our own calc linker (we will
probably have to, if we want to send .exe or
.txt files), we should make it
so that we can send files directly to the
extension to make sure that we dont
have to load files on the the calc which
are too big, then have to send them
to the expansion.
Here are the Top 10 Concerns of this project : (note that i
am getting ahead
of myself...but linux took a long time of planning too, so
why not?)
- People who use the original TI-OS will get cheesed off
because current
games such as SMQ and SF2T etc... will not work on this
OS
(Response) Who cares? New programs will come out
quicker for the Linux port due to its "neatness". So many programs used to
come out for the ti-85 zshell when it came out because it was so different and
cool. I believe this would generate the same interest.
- TI
will be angry if we break there key (and we might have to use parts of
their
OS for mathematical purposes.)
(Response) I am of the
opinion that we should just make our own boot loader, I could easily make a link
program for the pc that is custom. I haven't understood enough about the
bootloader to be sure, but what I think is that you only need the key if you
plan to use their bootloader.
- There won't be enough memory and
people will have to purchase memory
expansion kits (hopefully you wont charge
us _too_ much :)
(Response) I think this is
unavoidable, besides most people I know would like an expansion but have no need
for it. Once they see the things we can program and will program, it will
become well worth it. At first it may be deemed not worthwhile, but
everything starts out that way.
- We may not even be able to get
it up and running with/without ditching the
TI-OS
(Response) This is just my opinion, but TI-OS could go. We
run into problems here if we want to let people run it as a program.
Perhaps we could make it work - somehow convert it to a linux capable program,
but I doubt that. It might be easier to make our own program, but TI has
done a good job making all these math functions. This is the only issue I
really see a problem on
- We will have to be able to have a BASIC
programming language, otherwise non
ASM people can't contribute
(Response) One word: PERL
- More likely than not, we
will have to rewrite any software to include grey
scale, floating point, and
black and white (sigh), as well as, the link port,
odd networking hardware
(Mark, maybe you could make some Networking adapters
too?) as well as stuff i
wont argue about (like the ROM, i enjoy learning
about it from you guys
rather than explain it:-)
(Response) This is done in
the libraries, and would be essential to the OS. While this isn't negating
your point, its just gonna have to be and has already been talked about I
believe. I believe there are simple network adapters that you can plug
into a serial port, but not sure, this is kinda a big if. Depends on the
port speed. If not you'd have to hook directly into the calc which isn't
quite an easy way to do it.
- We need to create drivers and such
for our keyboards and link ports and
LCDs (not a big problem i dont
think)
(Response) You're right, not a problem
compared to porting to OS in the first place. Don't know about LCD's
though
- Other calculators will want this Linux TI for Z80 - could
we write ROMs for
that? I'm thinking not.
(Response) I believe TI-89 could be fairly easily ported to due to
its being nearly the same calc, but others are out of luck. This would
generate want for the ti-89 and 92 (I prefer 89 though)
-
EXTENSIVE bug testing...of course this is the ROM and shouldn't be
cleared,
but then again...how did we get it on there (talking from the future
:-)
(Response) This is involved with creating any
OS. Big thing is to make sure our bootloader is perfect, I could put my
rom back in, but I doubt most can normally, and its a pain in the
A$$
- Hmm, okay i didn't make it all the way to 10, but i don't
want to diss this
project at all...nor do i want to waste valuable time (i
still haven't made
any ASM programs :-(.
(Response) This would be a very good project, and is probably
doable, and I bet would get a lot of attention. I can see big things for
it.
Lets go onto the good points...
- We have much respect
for getting such a tremendous task completed
- Every could learn about
programming who would like to contribute
- Our calculators aren't any
longer "a waste of skin"...not that they are if
you need it for math, but TI
doesn't exactly push the hardware's limit...its
too easy i guess...(let me
know what you think, even though they are probably
all flames :-)
-
Make this mother WORK!!! AHAHAHA!!! (excuse me)
- Networking capabilties,
with file sharing and permissions
- Much better application
development
- The source code is freely free, if we all agree to this
lets have it be a
GNU program/OS
- We could do plenty with the
different memory types...the ROM is for the
Kernel
The RAM is just
that- the RAM, and the extension (hopefully we get one) is
for programs, like
a hard disk
- Okay, this is very very long...(at least it looks like it)
so ill sum it up
I dont think it really likely to happen on this calc,
but im not in the
position to judge that yet...its real hard to
say.
Nothing has been done to work with the ROM except AU (archive utility)
and im
not sure if thats even ROM?
Hopefully we DO get passed this
issue...if not i have a back up plan!
Perhaps there is some bug waiting to be
found in the TI-OS that lets us go
straight to the processor (or am i living
in the past...help me out here, the
TI OS handles the ASM and you can't
directly program for the 68K...its more
or less programming for the TI-OS?,
whatever any way what i was saying) and
we can comletly ingore, disable
temperarly, whatever to the TI OS. Then we
can have the program be stored in
RAM for the TI part of it, then Load it
self into the expansion, and
whatnot...then go from there. (that was most
likely the stupidest sounding
thing i have said...or maybe not :-)
Well, I wish you all the best of
luck and i hope this opens up to be a great
"hack" that TI wont be happy
about, but we will be going around like nerds
with Linux on every thing we
own...including our watches (yes im over
exagerating...but you never
know..they do run some smart VCRs)
With any luck, we will be discussing
this developement for a good long time,
perhaps we should start our own list
so the people that dont want to help
dont have to listen to our rambling (I
feel like a spammer or something) but
i really hope to see every one in on
this...after all, its our calcs, lets
customize!!
(Response) I could easily create a list - I work at an ISP and
have access to any of this kind of stuff, and I'm sure ticalc.org would do it
too, but we wouldn't have as much control of it.
And if we get a
large enough expansion...(im still not real certain on that
idea...its a
great idea but i have a strange feeling that i can't
understand...a bad
feeling that this isn't going to work and we will be come
the the village
idoits, but i wont care as long as we all try at it...you
really can't say at
this point though)...like a few megs...5 or 10...then we
really could start
something revolutionary here!!
This has got me all revved up...and i hope
it goes as well as i think it
can
Regards,
Kyle