john13@garfield.UUCP (07/04/86)
<> I've seen a lot of discussion on the Pro-line C-Power compiler lately, so I'm surprised no one has mentioned this problem (or does it only happen to me?): cc a program. Drive churns. Disks are swapped. You must use here the original C-Power disk, because the compiler is copy protected. Now try to link the program. System crashes. Eye your fastload cartridge suspiciously. Yes, after doing a cc the drive memory is presumably shagged. The only way I have seen to get around it is to cc, turn drive off then on, and link. I have also had my data disk header mashed, the bam screwed up, and a directory error (that's what it said) put on the disk. I am using Fastload, but someone else who uses a Mach-128 in 64 mode also experienced the directory problems. Anyone know of any solutions? I have no complaints with C-Power aside from this. John Russell PS: I have interfaced C-Power to a library of machine language graphics routines, which cover plot, line, circle (ellipse really), box, and filled box. The only thing I am lacking is a fill routine. Has anyone got source (C or ML) that they have written or is public domain? Something that I can modify to call test(x,y) to check a pixel, and plot(x,y,pentype) to turn it on or off. Please e-mail any responses. Thanks in advance.
dwl10@amdahl.UUCP (Dave Lowrey) (07/07/86)
When using Fastload with C-Power, you need to do the following two
commands after booting the shell, and before and after running the
compiler: disk u;
disk i0:
These commands reset the drive.
It is also a good idea to delete a .o file before re-compiling a
previously compiled program. cc uses save withb replace (shame on him!!!).
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Lowrey
"So it goes, so it goes, so it goes, so it goes. But where it's
going, nobody knows" [Nick Lowe]
...!{ihnp4,cbosgd,hplabs}!amdahl!dwl10
[ The opinions expressed <may> be those of the author and not necessarily
those of his most eminent employer. ]mab@druak.UUCP (Alan Bland) (07/07/86)
Here's some poop on various disk speeder-upper products with C-Power:
I have no direct experience with C-Power and Fastload, but there was
some discussion about it on the C-Power BBS about a year ago. The main
points I remember were that you must avoid save/replace in the editor,
and that you must initialize the disk fairly often: disk i0. Doing it
before and after a save is probably a safe thing to do (there is a
well-defined sequence, but I don't recall what it is). In case you
didn't know, the "i0" disk command causes the drive to re-read the BAM.
The 1541 ROM normally does this automagically when it detects a new disk
in the drive, but Fastload apparently confuses the 1541 occasionally.
C-Power 64 works extremely well with 1541 Flash, if you don't mind
making ROM changes to your 1541 and 64.
C-Power 64 and Mach 5 (Mach 128 in 64 mode) seems to have similar
problems as the Fastload cartridge. I don't know if the disk
initialization tricks help the situation.
Pro-Line (the makers of C-Power) sell a disk speeder-upper cartridge
that works with C-Power. I don't recall what it's called.
C-Power 128 and Mach 128 work great together. I have a 1571 and a 1541,
and it makes that second drive as fast as the first. I have discovered
one bug in this arrangement, however. Normally, when you attempt to run
a program that is already in memory, the program will run without
reloading it from disk (this feature is most useful to load a program
from one disk, change disks, and then have the program use the new disk
for data). With Mach 128 enabled, I've found that the shell always
reloads a program from disk. Fortunately, it's not a serious problem
with two drives. I haven't found any other compatibility problems so
far.
I hope this information has been useful.
--
Alan Bland
AT&T Information Systems, Denver CO
{ihnp4|allegra}!druak!mabdean@hyper.UUCP (Dean Gahlon) (07/08/86)
> <> > I've seen a lot of discussion on the Pro-line C-Power compiler lately, so I'm > surprised no one has mentioned this problem (or does it only happen to me?): > cc a program. Drive churns. Disks are swapped. You must use here the original > C-Power disk, because the compiler is copy protected. Now try to link the > program. System crashes. Eye your fastload cartridge suspiciously. > Yes, after doing a cc the drive memory is presumably shagged. The only way > I have seen to get around it is to cc, turn drive off then on, and link. I have > also had my data disk header mashed, the bam screwed up, and a directory > error (that's what it said) put on the disk. I am using Fastload, but someone > else who uses a Mach-128 in 64 mode also experienced the directory problems. > Anyone know of any solutions? I have no complaints with C-Power aside from > this. > > John Russell My suggestion is : Don't Use Fastload! I've had too many disks munged by trying to write to them with the Fastload cartridge installed. (Aside from the fact that it won't allow my printer to work, which is another reason not to use it). About the only thing I use the cartridge for these days is as a handy quick-and-dirty sector editor. Writing anything to a disk with it installed (with the exception of the sector editor functions) seems to be bad news.