[comp.sys.amiga] Comm 1.34

bryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Bryce Nesbitt) (08/25/87)

[ Got an A500 today for a project.  Nice, but the first thing I noticed ]
[ was the *two* "Del" keycaps and *zero* "help" keycaps.  Later I noted ]
[ that the red & green power and drive LEDs where reversed.  Guess the	]
[ people a the keyboard factory where on drugs or something.		]

In article <211@dana.UUCP> rap@dana.UUCP (Rob Peck) writes:
> 
>I suspect that the program, COMM 1.34, might possibly be communicating
>with the serial device in a gimmee-one-character-per-message-passed
>mode thereby and with characters coming in continuously at 1200 baud
>it may have kept the system busy enough to keep my microemacs at a
>lower priority.

I suspect it reads one character from the serial.device at a time...
a real no-no.  But your problem was caused because Comm 1.34 sets it's task's
priority to 1.  You can change that... 
here's a file describing that procedure:

----------
Here is the patch file for use in customizing Comm 1.34.  There are actually
two versions of Comm 1.34 floating around, so you will have to check the
size of your particular version and apply the patches as appropriate.

  The two correct sizes are 49144 bytes and 49152 bytes.  If your version
is not either one of these sizes, then it isn't an `official' version.

Djj
---------------------


		Comm version 1.34  patch info.	     5/9/87


NOTE: The sector numbers and byte offsets given in this file are those
supported by the NEWZAP 3.0 program by John Hodgson.  If you don't have
NEWZAP, just search for the text area and go from there.

---------------------------
If your file is 49144 bytes
---------------------------
sect   offset	size default value	  function
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
72     1F5	40   RAM:		  Default Drawer in file requester
73     01E	40   SYS:		  Default dir for Phone & key files
73     048	 2   0000		  screen color_0
73     04A	 2   0000		  screen color_1
73     04C	 2   0000		  screen color_2
73     04E	 2   0000		  screen color_3
73     050	40   RAM:Capture.Txt	  Default capture file
73     07D	 1   01 		  Run at this priority
73     07E	 1   01 		  Use baudrate found in preferences
73     087	 1   01 		  Default to interlace mode
73     088	 2   0080		  Number of buffered XMODEM sectors
73     08A	 2   00C8		  Beep period
73     08C	 2   0040		  Beep volume
73     08E	 2   00C8		  Beep cycles

---------------------------
If your file is 49152 bytes
---------------------------
sect   offset	size default value	  function
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
72     1FD	40   RAM:		  Default Drawer in file requester
73     026	40   SYS:		  Default dir for Phone & key files
73     050	 2   0000		  screen color_0
73     052	 2   0000		  screen color_1
73     054	 2   0000		  screen color_2
73     056	 2   0000		  screen color_3
73     058	40   RAM:Capture.Txt	  Default capture file
73     082	 4   00000001		  Run at this priority
73     086	 1   01 		  Use baudrate found in preferences
73     08F	 1   01 		  Default to interlace mode
73     090	 2   0080		  Number of buffered XMODEM sectors
73     092	 2   00C8		  Beep period
73     094	 2   0040		  Beep volume
73     096	 2   00C8		  Beep cycles
73     09A	 2   0000		  Load key file when dialing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
   For directory names, do not exceed the length allocated (40 bytes) or
      very strange things will happen.	Also, as per C string convention,
      you MUST place a zero byte after the last character in the string.

   Comm checks the screen color fields.  If any value is non-zero, then
      all 4 values are treated as valid colors -- so if you change one,
      change them all.	See color examples below.

   Enter the priority you wish Comm to run at as a signed long integer.
      That is, negative priorities must be sign extended.  Example,
      a priority of -2 should be FFFFFFFE.

   If you wish Comm to initialize at 1200 baud instead of the value set by
      preferences, patch the 01 to a 00.

   If you wish Comm to startup in the interlace mode, patch the 01 to 00.

   Comm will attempt to allocate a data buffer as large as the value in the
      buffer field.  If there isn't enough memory for this many buffers,
      Comm will decrease the value by 8 and try to allocate the buffers
      again.  This will continue until either the requested memory can be
      allocated, or the size is less than 16 sectors.  Comm will abort if
      it can't allocate at least 16 sectors of buffer space for XMODEM
      transfers.

   Change the beep period value to a larger number for a lower pitched
      beep.
   Change the duration of the beep by patching the beep cycles field - a
      larger number gives a longer duration.
   These two parameters interact somewhat so some experimentation is in
      order.


------------------
	xRGB		Usage		      (standard WB color)
color_0 0000	Screen background color.      (BLUE)
color_1 0000	Text color.		      (WHITE)
color_2 0000	Not used.		      (BLACK)
color_3 0000	Status line and Cursor color. (ORANGE)

   The RGB values are specified in the standard Amiga fashion.	Some
examples:

   xRGB   color 	xRGB   color	       xRGB   color
   0FFF  White		0D00  Brick Red        0F00  Red
   0F90  Orange 	0FF0  Lemon Yellow     08E0  Lime Green
   00F0  Green		02C0  Dark Green       00BB  Blue Green
   06FE  Sky Blue	000F  Blue	       006D  Dark Blue
   091F  Purple 	0C1F  Violet	       0F1F  Magenta
   0FAC  Pink		0DB9  Tan	       0C80  Brown
   0A87  Dark Brown	0CCC  Light Grey       0999  Medium Grey
   0000  Black

-----------------------
Comm 1.34 has the ability to load a Key Macro file associated with a phone
library entry.	To use this feature, you need to create a key macro file
with the same name as the phone library name entry.  For instance, if you
had a Phone library entry such as:

A good BBS	  555-1212	 1200	   a comment

when you select this from the phone menu, a file named "A good BBS" will be
searched for and if found, will be interpreted as a key macro file.  The
search path is the same one normally used by comm.  That is, it will look
in the current directory first, then it will search the default directory
as set above.  (defaults to SYS:)

To disable this feature, patch Comm 1.34 as follows:

For file size 49144 -- your file has this option installed.  To remove the
			option, at sector 8 offset 148 change 4EBA 199E
			to 4E71 4E71

For file size 49152 -- you don't have the option installed.  To activate the
			option, at sector 73 offset 9A, change 0000 to 0001
--------------------