Subject: Re: a scary idea for the DEC Rainbow

From: [email-masked] (James E. McNalley)
Date: 29 Sep 1994 20:21:28 GMT

Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but why not just kermit into
a unix host and use the DEC box as a dumb term?  For SLIP to be useful,
you would really want a multitasking OS, wouldn't you?  Unless you
made a SLIP TSR thing just to run a telnet  or ftp daemon (although you'd
still need a multitasking OS if more than one person wanted to log in)...
sounds like an interesting hack though, if just for the sake of a hack,
but I thought hacks were supposed to be insant *looking* solutions to *real*
problems...

David Moisan ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In article <[email-masked]>,
: Dwight A. Schwartz <[email-masked]> wrote:
: >Hi Rainbow lovers,

: Well, I used to use the Rainbow and liked it, but that's not what 
: this is about, exactly. :)
: >

: >	My idea is this:  MS-DOS Kermit for the Rainbow contains source code
: >which directly handles the Rainbow's communciations hardware.  KA9Q appears to
: >contain the code needed to run SLIP on an IBM-PC style MS-DOS machine.  How
: >feasible is it to take the code from the Rainbow's Kermit for controlling the
: >serial port hardware and using it within a program like KA9Q, with the end
: >result that we would have SLIP for the Rainbow?  My thought was that then we
: >could use the latest Rainbow Kermit (perhaps modified to connect to a BIOS

: I have wondered this myself, albeit with my DECmate II, which has the Z80
: card.  I know that, of all the terminal programs I've seen in the CP/M
: environment, Kermit-80 was the only one with a specific overlay for 
: my machine, oddly enough.

: I have been tracking down leads for a CP/M-based KA9Q but have come up 
: empty.  I've even thought of taking Phil Karn's source and running it 
: through HiTech C (which I've not downloaded yet) to get a working (NOT!)
: copy there.  
:  
: I don't think you need a PhD to do this.  I was planning on doing a SLIP
: for my HP48 just from reading Douglas Comer's books and Phil's code,
: though admittedly I've a CS degree. :)

: You'd probably have to accept a more limited feature set than you'd get
: on a Linux or even PC box, but for my purposes, that's fine.  The DECmate
: will be connected to a TNC (radio modem) and the ham radio TCP/IP network 
: (ampr) and thence by SLIP to my PC.  I'd like to explore the HP for 
: portable applications.

: I've crossposted this to comp.os.cpm, alt.sys.pdp8, and rec.radio.amateur.
: digital.misc, since the folks there might have more ideas for us.

: Dave

: -- 
: | David Moisan, N1KGH    /^\_/^\   [email-masked]      |
: | 86 Essex St. Apt #204 ( o ^ o )  [email-masked]                |
: | Salem. MA 01970-5225     | |     [email-masked]    |
: |                                                                 |

--
James McNalley          | "I have never let my schooling interfere with my
Linux/Unix  Hacker      | education" -Mark Twain 
Portland, OR            |  "Live free or die" -New Hampshire motto 
[email-masked] -or- [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Tony Konashenok)
Date: 29 Sep 1994 23:44:49 GMT

[email-masked] (James E. McNalley) writes:

$!  Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but why not just kermit into
$! a unix host and use the DEC box as a dumb term?  For SLIP to be useful,
$! you would really want a multitasking OS, wouldn't you?  

KA9Q *is* a multitasking OS. Yes, it runs on top of MS-DOS, so what?
-- 
Tony Konashenok  [email-masked]  510-843-5632(h),510-642-5831(w)
Strauss research group, Latimer Hall, UC Berkeley, Berkeley CA 94720, U.S.A.
** Assembler programmers drive stick shifts **            GAT !d H+ s:- !g p? 
a? w+ C(++) U--/S++++$ N+++ W--(---)/$ V+++ !tv b++++ B-- h----@ f* r+++ y+++

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 30 Sep 94 09:08:56 MDT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Charles Lasner) writes:
> Writing the support for the 6120 side would be more practical though!

Speaking of which, does anyone have some documentation describing the protocol
used between the Z80 and the 6120? I've only gotten about halfway through my
disassembly of the Z80 BIOS (I keep getting distracted by other things), so
I don't have much documented.
-- 
----------------+------------------------------------------------------
Roger Ivie      | Don't think of it as a 'new' computer, think of it as
[email-masked] |     'obsolete-ready'

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From: [email-masked] (David Moisan)
Date: 30 Sep 1994 15:56:50 -0400

>> Writing the support for the 6120 side would be more practical though!

I thought the same.  Is the slushware included in the OS/278 source?  

I need to modify the serial printer port driver so that it goes bidirectional.
(The radio TNC will go on the printer port and the SLIP will go on the 
comm port.)

Alternately, I've a serious need for a 6120 disassembler and disk editor.

>I don't have much documented.

Makes two of us;  I can probably get KA9Q with BIOS calls, if I get it going
at all, but using the 6120 I/O would make things more efficient and perhaps
even more interesting (!) as well...

Dave
-- 
| David Moisan, N1KGH    /^\_/^\   [email-masked]      |
| 86 Essex St. Apt #204 ( o ^ o )  [email-masked]                |
| Salem. MA 01970-5225     | |     [email-masked]    |
|                                                                 |