ubee512 macOS

[fathertedcrilly]

Now up to v6.0.8



Tape loading was failing due to strict bounds checking on strcopy in latest versions of GCC

Inching closer to a windows version cross-compiled from Debian

Thanks
Tony

[fathertedcrilly]

Finally,  a windows build of v6.0.8

https://onedrive.live.com/embed?resid=B3...7RMLnhoFyU

Cross-compiling was a pain in the proverbial



As my windows environment is Windows 11 on ARM under UTM,  I would appreciate any feedback from those with native windows machines

Thanks
Tony

[ChickenMan]

Thanks, I gave it a good try out.  Was able to load a tape in a Microbee IC, able to boot 2mhz kit bee with Basic 5.00, PC85's version all run. Didnt try Quickload or TAP file loading. All disks were able to boot , including 56k, ciab, 128k(prem& std), cpm3, zcpr3, pjb, dreamdisk and 256tc boots and works.  All games ran that I tried.  It was even able to boot up a CF image -

   

[someone]

... Cross-compiling was a pain in the proverbial ...

Why? Was it because the dependencies were stale?

Where can someone obtain the updated source and make files and see your Herculean effort?

[fathertedcrilly]

... Cross-compiling was a pain in the proverbial ...

Why? Was it because the dependencies were stale?

Where can someone obtain the updated source and make files and see your Herculean effort?

The reasons were many and varied

But basically :

1. Unfamiliarity with the entire cross-compiling process
   
2. A lot of the packages used ( libdsk/libzzip/libz/libbz2 ) don't exist as binary versions and need to be compiled on the host platform
   
3. Depending on the package(s) above,  significant work is required to amend configure scripts and Makefiles in order to get things to compile 
   

At the end of the day,  the msys2 dev/distibution platform ( msys2.org ) on windows made it relatively seamless to build things ( though not without some pain as per item 3 )

I think I am now pretty close to submitting the source and binaries to MSPP for upload

Included will be any dependencies and how to install/build

Thanks
Tony

---

Thanks, I gave it a good try out.  Was able to load a tape in a Microbee IC, able to boot 2mhz kit bee with Basic 5.00, PC85's version all run. Didnt try Quickload or TAP file loading. All disks were able to boot , including 56k, ciab, 128k(prem& std), cpm3, zcpr3, pjb, dreamdisk and 256tc boots and works.  All games ran that I tried.  It was even able to boot up a CF image -

good to hear

I'm going to document a few things,  build some binaries and then submit to MSPP for upload

Presumably the files can also be hosted here

Thanks
Tony

[ChickenMan]

Presumably the files can also be hosted here

Thanks
Tony

Absolutely

[fathertedcrilly]

Thanks, I gave it a good try out.  Was able to load a tape in a Microbee IC, able to boot 2mhz kit bee with Basic 5.00, PC85's version all run. Didnt try Quickload or TAP file loading. All disks were able to boot , including 56k, ciab, 128k(prem& std), cpm3, zcpr3, pjb, dreamdisk and 256tc boots and works.  All games ran that I tried.  It was even able to boot up a CF image -

Are you able to do me a further favour ?

Can you run with openGL enabled ( --video-type=gl ) and see whether that works ?

I'm not having much luck in the windows VM with any version but that might be a VM issue

Also, in the shell that you have booted up with,  how do you navigate around the files ?

Thanks
Tony

[ChickenMan]

I found opengl run exactly the same as on original ubee512, I need to press ALT 2 to bring the screen down to a reasonable size on my 28" screen. I have an older Nvidia Geforce GTX 960 video card running in 3840 x 2160 resolution.

As for the shell, it depends on which version, I generally use ver 3.00, so just use the Arrow keys to move around. For non-premium older version, you use Wordstar ^E, ^S, ^D, ^X to move around or the very first ver used ^W, ^A, ^S, ^Z to move around. Linefeed (PageUp in the emulator) will tag a file, like if you want to run a Basic game, move curser to BASIC.COM, Linefeed, move to the game.mwb hit Linefeed again, then Return starts Basic and loads and runs the game.

[fathertedcrilly]

I found opengl run exactly the same as on original ubee512, I need to press ALT 2 to bring the screen down to a reasonable size on my 28" screen.  I have an older Nvidia Geforce GTX 960 video card running in 3840 x 2160 resolution.

As for the shell, it depends on which version, I generally use ver 3.00, so just use the Arrow keys to move around.  For non-premium older version, you use Wordstar ^E, ^S, ^D, ^X to move around or the very first ver used ^W, ^A, ^S, ^Z to move around.  Linefeed (PageUp in the emulator) will tag a file, like if you want to run a Basic game, move curser to BASIC.COM, Linefeed, move to the game.mwb hit Linefeed again, then Return starts Basic and loads and runs the game.

Good to know ( re: open GL )

It's a tribute to the original coding that it still works

The wordstar keys do indeed work.  I had thought something was broken

Thanks
Tony

[vivid]

I built this in v5.x on OSX years ago

I packaged it up as a 'MacOS app' with multi-res icons & main shell script 'droplet' to enhance the drag-drop experience.

As OSX is BSD and real unix, it also supports bash which I have a bunch of scripts launch ubee512 that are compatible with how I dragdrop them in windows.  

The bash stuff is an "ansi bash menu skeleton" I develop for my work I find handy using over tty. 

In windows I have some 'machine' scripts that can take files, and other scripts.
Fairly unorthodox but convenient. they work the same as bash scripts, bat files or windows links.
Of course they also work from commandline, I also use a script to create windows links on-masse as they use absolute links.
I have been meaning to "write a script for this" to generate microbee "machine" scripts/links.
batches are better because you can add a pause and include debug to a console outside ubee512, without adding madness to windows links. edge case you can also register app protocols in your browser(s)

An example may be a windows shortcut or a bash/sh oneliner, I might call ubee512-pc85-tapei-asteroids
"C:\ubee512\ubee512.exe --model=pc85 --tapei=mbee_asteroids_22_16bit_mono.wav" 


instead if I drag the file mbee_asteroids_22_16bit_mono.wav (or shortcut)
we can use %1 in windows to drag drop a file and pass its filename to the shortcut.

I might call this ubee512-pc85-tapei and put it in my 'machines' folder with other links and batch files. 
"C:\ubee512\ubee512.exe --model=pc85 --tapei=%1"

same of course applies to a batch, or a bash/shell script but you get more lines to write your code than a shortcut dialogue.
bash uses $1 and is way more civilised than dos/win32 'scripting'. 

Happy to share my code / ideas / experiences. I am not sure much will have changed compiling in OSX, although I did avoid using fuse. 

In the meantime I encourage migrating the code from SDL1 to SDL2. 

Although its relatively mundane task, there are not many commands to deal with. This would further improve performance on older machines, however keeping backwards compatibility is too difficult I would think.

I would suggest keeping a branch for sdl1.x open a while, until a few missing features / models are sorted.
That way those old widows 7 machines on ancient GPUs can still run it. 

my latest version is the public 6.0.0

is Stewart releasing 6.0.8 to the public, or can you share the source?

Thanks, David.