> I also recently bought a new USB cassette drive for my wife who still
> has some language courses on cassette, I think I pay less than 12 UK
> pounds for it.
Interesting. My friend is actually still digitizing his music
collection. Vinyls were done long ago but he's still working on his
cassettes... But he has an actual tape deck with line level output
connected to his PC.
> Now finding a USB interface for my 8" floppy disks with Uniflex will
> be a challenge........
I'll bet.
Reply by HT-Lab●February 20, 20202020-02-20
On 20/02/2020 18:52, David Brown wrote:
> On 20/02/2020 16:37, HT-Lab wrote:
>> On 18/02/2020 17:29, David Brown wrote:
>>> On 18/02/2020 16:00, Rick C wrote:
>>>> On Monday, February 17, 2020 at 2:54:46 AM UTC-5, Josef Moellers
>>>> wrote:
>> ..
>>>>
>>>> I would ask if anyone remembers CDs! I've been looking for a new
>>>> laptop and it seems like the DVD/CD player is not fully deprecated.
>>>> Amazing!
>>>>
>>>
>>> I remember CD's - I have loads. (I don't know if I still have my
>>> original Walnut Creek CD - I bought my first CD-ROM player solely for
>>> use with that CD.) But I would not buy a laptop with a DVD drive
>>> now. A USB Bluray writer drive is simple, cheap, small, and handles
>>> everything of that kind of media. Buy it once, and use it on all
>>> your PC's and laptops.
>>
>> Exactly, you can buy a whole range of obsolete based peripherals with
>> a USB interface from eBay for peanuts. I still have a floppy drive on
>> a USB port (for some DOS stuff) and although it is slow it works fine.
>>
>
> I bought one of these at the office a few years back, after someone
> needed data from an old 3.5" floppy (we managed to get an old PC to boot
> and used that). I haven't even opened the box yet.
>
>> I also recently bought a new USB cassette drive for my wife who still
>> has some language courses on cassette, I think I pay less than 12 UK
>> pounds for it.
>
> That sounds a good idea. We have piles of old cassettes - old music,
> and audio books.
>
> I still have a VHS player connected to the telly, but it's been used
> only a handful of times in the last decade. We use DVDs, Blurays and
> audio CDs all the time.
>
>>
>> Now finding a USB interface for my 8" floppy disks with Uniflex will
>> be a challenge........
>>
>
> The only 8" floppy I have has hung on the wall for 25 years - I doubt if
> anything could read it!
>
I agree, I have a whole box of 8" floppies which I am sure are all dead.
I also have two 8" drives attached to a "Kees Schoenmaker" 6809 19" rack
system which might still power up if I am very very very lucky. The
system is close to 37 years old.
Ah...... the good old days :-)
Reply by David Brown●February 20, 20202020-02-20
On 20/02/2020 16:37, HT-Lab wrote:
> On 18/02/2020 17:29, David Brown wrote:
>> On 18/02/2020 16:00, Rick C wrote:
>>> On Monday, February 17, 2020 at 2:54:46 AM UTC-5, Josef Moellers
>>> wrote:
> ..
>>>
>>> I would ask if anyone remembers CDs! I've been looking for a new
>>> laptop and it seems like the DVD/CD player is not fully deprecated.
>>> Amazing!
>>>
>>
>> I remember CD's - I have loads. (I don't know if I still have my
>> original Walnut Creek CD - I bought my first CD-ROM player solely for
>> use with that CD.) But I would not buy a laptop with a DVD drive now.
>> A USB Bluray writer drive is simple, cheap, small, and handles
>> everything of that kind of media. Buy it once, and use it on all your
>> PC's and laptops.
>
> Exactly, you can buy a whole range of obsolete based peripherals with a
> USB interface from eBay for peanuts. I still have a floppy drive on a
> USB port (for some DOS stuff) and although it is slow it works fine.
>
I bought one of these at the office a few years back, after someone
needed data from an old 3.5" floppy (we managed to get an old PC to boot
and used that). I haven't even opened the box yet.
> I also recently bought a new USB cassette drive for my wife who still
> has some language courses on cassette, I think I pay less than 12 UK
> pounds for it.
That sounds a good idea. We have piles of old cassettes - old music,
and audio books.
I still have a VHS player connected to the telly, but it's been used
only a handful of times in the last decade. We use DVDs, Blurays and
audio CDs all the time.
>
> Now finding a USB interface for my 8" floppy disks with Uniflex will be
> a challenge........
>
The only 8" floppy I have has hung on the wall for 25 years - I doubt if
anything could read it!
Reply by HT-Lab●February 20, 20202020-02-20
On 18/02/2020 17:29, David Brown wrote:
> On 18/02/2020 16:00, Rick C wrote:
>> On Monday, February 17, 2020 at 2:54:46 AM UTC-5, Josef Moellers
>> wrote:
..
>>
>> I would ask if anyone remembers CDs! I've been looking for a new
>> laptop and it seems like the DVD/CD player is not fully deprecated.
>> Amazing!
>>
>
> I remember CD's - I have loads. (I don't know if I still have my
> original Walnut Creek CD - I bought my first CD-ROM player solely for
> use with that CD.) But I would not buy a laptop with a DVD drive now. A
> USB Bluray writer drive is simple, cheap, small, and handles everything
> of that kind of media. Buy it once, and use it on all your PC's and
> laptops.
Exactly, you can buy a whole range of obsolete based peripherals with a
USB interface from eBay for peanuts. I still have a floppy drive on a
USB port (for some DOS stuff) and although it is slow it works fine.
I also recently bought a new USB cassette drive for my wife who still
has some language courses on cassette, I think I pay less than 12 UK
pounds for it.
Now finding a USB interface for my 8" floppy disks with Uniflex will be
a challenge........
Hans
www.ht-lab.com
Reply by Josef Moellers●February 20, 20202020-02-20
On 18.02.20 18:29, David Brown wrote:
> On 18/02/2020 16:00, Rick C wrote:
>> On Monday, February 17, 2020 at 2:54:46 AM UTC-5, Josef Moellers
>> wrote:
>>> On 14.02.20 19:49, Rick C wrote:
>>>
>>>> You could fire up gForth on your rPi. The SB180FX appears to be
>>>> a Z80 like home computer from very early days from what I can
>>>> gather. If you ask on the Forth group or just use Google I am
>>>> sure you will find many, many versions of Forth to play with,
>>>> some ANSI (the current standard), some Forth-83 and likely
>>>> FIG-Forth. > No shortage of candidates. comp.lang.forth.
>>>
>>> Thanks for the pointers. As the Zsystem, which ist the SB180's main
>>> "OS" is upward compatible with CP/M, there is indeed no shortage of
>>> obsolete (not in the negative use of the word) software available
>>> for download. I even have a few CDs with PD software from Walnut
>>> Creek (anyone remember WC?).
>>>
>>> Josef
>>
>> I would ask if anyone remembers CDs! I've been looking for a new
>> laptop and it seems like the DVD/CD player is not fully deprecated.
>> Amazing!
>>
>
> I remember CD's - I have loads. (I don't know if I still have my
> original Walnut Creek CD - I bought my first CD-ROM player solely for
> use with that CD.) But I would not buy a laptop with a DVD drive now. A
> USB Bluray writer drive is simple, cheap, small, and handles everything
> of that kind of media. Buy it once, and use it on all your PC's and
> laptops.
+1
My wife an I have two laptops: an iBook and a DELL (running openSUSE
Leap) and both are just too thin to actually put a disk reader/writer
inside so I have bought an external drive that we can now use on both.
I vaguely recall that when CDROMs were first appearing, I got myself a
SCSI-CDROM drive that I connected to the SB180FX (which has an NCR53C80
host adapter) and wrote some software to read files off CDROMs. I had to
go around in the company I worked then to find the (was it a blue?) book
of the standard to understand what I had to do.
Now you almost cannot even buy a SDcard with the capacity of a CDROM ;-)
Josef, feeling older every day!
Reply by David Brown●February 18, 20202020-02-18
On 18/02/2020 16:00, Rick C wrote:
> On Monday, February 17, 2020 at 2:54:46 AM UTC-5, Josef Moellers
> wrote:
>> On 14.02.20 19:49, Rick C wrote:
>>
>>> You could fire up gForth on your rPi. The SB180FX appears to be
>>> a Z80 like home computer from very early days from what I can
>>> gather. If you ask on the Forth group or just use Google I am
>>> sure you will find many, many versions of Forth to play with,
>>> some ANSI (the current standard), some Forth-83 and likely
>>> FIG-Forth. > No shortage of candidates. comp.lang.forth.
>>
>> Thanks for the pointers. As the Zsystem, which ist the SB180's main
>> "OS" is upward compatible with CP/M, there is indeed no shortage of
>> obsolete (not in the negative use of the word) software available
>> for download. I even have a few CDs with PD software from Walnut
>> Creek (anyone remember WC?).
>>
>> Josef
>
> I would ask if anyone remembers CDs! I've been looking for a new
> laptop and it seems like the DVD/CD player is not fully deprecated.
> Amazing!
>
I remember CD's - I have loads. (I don't know if I still have my
original Walnut Creek CD - I bought my first CD-ROM player solely for
use with that CD.) But I would not buy a laptop with a DVD drive now.
A USB Bluray writer drive is simple, cheap, small, and handles
everything of that kind of media. Buy it once, and use it on all your
PC's and laptops.
Reply by Rick C●February 18, 20202020-02-18
On Monday, February 17, 2020 at 2:54:46 AM UTC-5, Josef Moellers wrote:
> On 14.02.20 19:49, Rick C wrote:
>=20
> > You could fire up gForth on your rPi. The SB180FX appears to be a Z80 =
like home computer from very early days from what I can gather. If you ask=
on the Forth group or just use Google I am sure you will find many, many v=
ersions of Forth to play with, some ANSI (the current standard), some Forth=
-83 and likely FIG-Forth. >
> > No shortage of candidates. comp.lang.forth. =20
>=20
> Thanks for the pointers. As the Zsystem, which ist the SB180's main "OS"
> is upward compatible with CP/M, there is indeed no shortage of obsolete
> (not in the negative use of the word) software available for download. I
> even have a few CDs with PD software from Walnut Creek (anyone remember
> WC?).
>=20
> Josef
I would ask if anyone remembers CDs! I've been looking for a new laptop an=
d it seems like the DVD/CD player is not fully deprecated. Amazing! =20
--=20
Rick C.
-+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209
Reply by Josef Moellers●February 17, 20202020-02-17
On 14.02.20 19:49, Rick C wrote:
> You could fire up gForth on your rPi. The SB180FX appears to be a Z80 like home computer from very early days from what I can gather. If you ask on the Forth group or just use Google I am sure you will find many, many versions of Forth to play with, some ANSI (the current standard), some Forth-83 and likely FIG-Forth. >
> No shortage of candidates. comp.lang.forth.
Thanks for the pointers. As the Zsystem, which ist the SB180's main "OS"
is upward compatible with CP/M, there is indeed no shortage of obsolete
(not in the negative use of the word) software available for download. I
even have a few CDs with PD software from Walnut Creek (anyone remember
WC?).
Josef
Reply by Rick C●February 14, 20202020-02-14
On Friday, February 14, 2020 at 5:34:18 AM UTC-5, Josef Moellers wrote:
> On 13.02.20 17:06, Rick C wrote:
>
> > Have you ever worked with Forth? Being a hardware guy I find the interactiveness of Forth to be ideal for working with hardware. I can write code and then thoroughly test it from the command line, essentially without a compile stage. More accurately, while other languages require a compiler to produce an executable image a resident Forth compiler on the target allows the code to be compiled during the source download with the compile being invisible. Or you type in your definitions to be tested interactively.
>
> During a period of practical work at NPL (the "National Physical
> Laboratories" in Teddington (UK)) in ... ohmygodwhenwasthat ... 1979, I
> worked in a team that developed and built the DEMOS Multicomputer: a
> multicomputer with a ring as the connection infrastructure. The
> computers were off-the-shelf Ferranti Argus 700F while the ring hardware
> was developed and built at NPL (the software was mostly done by
> London-based "SCICON Consultancy"). I was tasked with writing test
> software and, unknown to me at that time, I wrote a FORTH-like runtime
> system where the user could construct tests using predefined primitives
> and build on top of that. The primitives and the tests had a simple
> "verb argument(s)" syntax very much like FORTH.
> Later, when I realized that, I bought "Threaded Interpretative
> Languages" and tried to get that to run on a NASCOM I Z80-based
> microcomputer.
>
> But, no, I never actually used FORTH. Lately, when I want to play around
> with hardware, I usually turn to a RasPi and control it using shell
> scripts and accesses to /sys/class/gpio.
>
> > It's more than I can explain in a couple of paragraphs, but it's very nice for interacting with hardware.
>
> From what I know about TILs in general and FORTH in particular, you're
> right. Maybe I should give it a try on my SB180FX whan I test the
> FDC-simulator.
>
> Josef
You could fire up gForth on your rPi. The SB180FX appears to be a Z80 like home computer from very early days from what I can gather. If you ask on the Forth group or just use Google I am sure you will find many, many versions of Forth to play with, some ANSI (the current standard), some Forth-83 and likely FIG-Forth.
No shortage of candidates. comp.lang.forth.
--
Rick C.
-- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209
Reply by Josef Moellers●February 14, 20202020-02-14
On 14.02.20 12:42, Jan Coombs wrote:
> Your code seems to be missing an else clause to define the
> outputs when the peripheral chip is not being accessed.
Thanks for the pointer!
As for the CLI stuff: I'll come back later.
Josef