knudsen@ihwpt.UUCP (mike knudsen) (04/22/86)
Some questions and comments about WordPak-II: Is it really true that the Wordpak-II driver won't work with 2.0? Why not? What happened to our elegant "modular" operating system (can you say "it got Shacked Up"?)? Is a WP-II driver likely to be available at the May 24 Rainbowfest? From whom? Or is it easy to patch the old 1.1 driver? The new Wordpak-RS lacks the video relay, but on WP-II it is easy to "poke" it on/off. I'll post the addres and bits if anyone's interested; the info is at home. I'd like to use 2.0 such that graphics goes thru CCIO and text thru WordPak -- supposedly that can be done. Some complaints about PBJ's Worpak construction: --The cheesy plastic case is too thin, so it wobbles a lot in the connector slot. I may glue pieces of cardboard to build it up to correct thickness. --The lack of grounding ears on the Wordpak edge connector contributes to the wobble problem, and the poor grounding causes electrical problems sometimes (monitor briteness varies when you jiggle the Wordpak; sometimes wordpak loses synch altogether; sometimes the video "sparkles", implying some chips are being run past their speed limits). All of RS' peripeheral packs have ground ears; 3rd-party manufacturers should wise up and clean up. --Wordpak-II's relay doesn't cut out on on Reset. Sometimes it cuts in on a non-wordpak boot-up. Both of these bugs led me to install a manual reset button on my Wordpak. Some DEBUG commands in STARTUP would also do the job I guess. --the WordPak-II OS9 keyboard driver is nice (auto-repeat), but sometimes adds/drops characters. In short, WordPak is a godsend, but was clearly made by mere mortals. Think RS will ever include a CCDISK that isn't "shacked up"? mike k
jimomura@lsuc (04/25/86)
I agree completely with your overall conclusions. Interestingly, I
found different problems from yours (I think).
First, I don't find the software switching useful for 2 reasons.
The output level of WordpakII doesn't match my Morton Bay double driver.
As such, I still have to readjust the brightness. Also, there seems to
be some "warming up" period for the circuitry to settle in mine. It
send garbage to the screen for about a minute after I switch from Wordpak
II to the standard CoCo output. Either problem alone is enough to
make it pretty useless in that regard (might as well have bought the
original WordPak I'd think).
I just got my version 3.1.2 of Stylograph, which was supposed to be
workable with WordPakII with version 1.01.00 OS-9 and the new 2.00.00
(provided you get a driver for the WordPakII and OS-9 Version 2.00.00).
I finished installing it and found that it doesn't work on my 1.01.00.
When in insert mode, instead of the reverse-video dashes, I get a
set of "!- !- " pattern. This is obviously some driver's version of
reverse dashes, but it mucks up my screen format (3 characters printed
in place of 1). I've given up trying it until I get the new WordPakII
driver. If it works with the version 2.00.00 OS-9 and WordPakII driver,
I'll keep the version 3.1.2 Stylo for the Color Computer. Otherwise,
it's more long distance phone calls and more complaints.
Cheers! -- Jim O.
--
James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura
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