[comp.sys.atari.st] ZOO bombs

AWINFHAH@HMARL5.BITNET (07/13/89)

Hello Netfolks,

I just acquired ZOO from the SSYX server before it went down. I like the
features, but I observe it throwing three bombs (address error). I have a
ramdisk (an ancient one from Gert Slavenburg, works fine all the time).
When ZOO and the archive are both on the ramdisk (drive D:), zoo bombs.
When ZOO is on the ramdisk, and the archive is on the floppy, it works!
I have a 1040 with the 1985 roms. Any pointers???

Thanks,
-Roger Hunen

ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) (07/17/89)

In article <8907131551.AA27783@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> AWINFHAH@HMARL5.BITNET writes:
>I just acquired ZOO from the SSYX server before it went down. I like the
>features, but I observe it throwing three bombs (address error). I have a
>ramdisk (an ancient one from Gert Slavenburg, works fine all the time).
>When ZOO and the archive are both on the ramdisk (drive D:), zoo bombs.
>When ZOO is on the ramdisk, and the archive is on the floppy, it works!
>I have a 1040 with the 1985 roms. Any pointers???

I suspect the ramdisk.  I used ZOO with ETRNL2 by Moshe Braner. 
and had nothing like the problem you mention.  This ram disk,
like many ram disks today, survives warm boot.  You can control
the size and name of the disk.   The program is very small, 
presumably because it is written in assembler.

-- 
    L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
	ljdickey@water.UWaterloo.ca	ljdickey@water.BITNET
	ljdickey@water.UUCP		..!uunet!watmath!water!ljdickey
	ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu	

ralph@cc.brunel.ac.uk (Ralph Mitchell) (07/20/89)

In article <2514@water.waterloo.edu> ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) writes:
>I suspect the ramdisk.  I used ZOO with ETRNL2 by Moshe Braner. 
>and had nothing like the problem you mention.  This ram disk,
>like many ram disks today, survives warm boot.  You can control
>the size and name of the disk.   The program is very small, 
>presumably because it is written in assembler.


ETERNAL2 doesn't actually work in a Mega 4...  Using HiSoft's resident
monitor I have tracked it down to the bit where it checks to see if the
ram disk is already resident.  It picks up the system variable that gives
the physical top of memory and then fetches the word (or byte ?) from that
location.  The location specified is one past the end of real memory, but
the MMU is quite happy to return 0xFF for non-existent locations.  In the
Mega 4, however, the non-existent location is beyond the maximum address
that the MMU can handle, so it gets a real bus error.  Moshe ??

Ralph Mitchell
-- 
JANET: ralph@uk.ac.brunel.cc  ARPA:  ralph%cc.brunel.ac.uk@cwi.nl
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"There's so many different worlds, so many different Suns" - Dire Straits
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity" - Salvor Hardin, Foundation

ralph@nastassia.laas.fr (Ralph P. Sobek) (07/24/89)

I would just like to clearup a confusion (for me at least).

In article <2514@water.waterloo.edu> ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) writes:
|I suspect the ramdisk.  I used ZOO with ETRNL2 by Moshe Braner. 

In article <764@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk> ralph@ccs.brunel.ac.uk (Ralph Mitchell) writes:
|  ETERNAL2 doesn't actually work in a Mega 4...  Using HiSoft's resident
|  ...
|  that the MMU can handle, so it gets a real bus error.  Moshe ??

So will the real ram-disk please stand up?  I have both, and they seem
to be different.  I believe that ETRNL2 was written by a certain Mr.
Franco (all this is from memory -- so please excuse my bumbling).  Are
they all different versions of the same ram-disk?  If so, which is the
most recent?


Ralph P. Sobek			  Disclaimer: The above ruminations are my own.
ralph@laas.laas.fr			   Addresses are ordered by importance.
ralph@laas.uucp, or ...!uunet!mcvax!laas!ralph		If all else fails, try:
SOBEK@FRMOP11.BITNET				      sobek@eclair.Berkeley.EDU
===============================================================================
Upon the instruments of death the sunlight brightly gleams.   --   King Crimson

ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) (07/26/89)

In article <399@laas.laas.fr> ralph@laas.laas.fr writes:
>I would just like to clearup a confusion (for me at least).
>
>In article <2514@water.waterloo.edu> ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) writes:
>|I suspect the ramdisk.  I used ZOO with ETRNL2 by Moshe Braner. 
>
>In article <764@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk> ralph@ccs.brunel.ac.uk (Ralph Mitchell) writes:
>|  ETERNAL2 doesn't actually work in a Mega 4...  Using HiSoft's resident
>|  ...
>|  that the MMU can handle, so it gets a real bus error.  Moshe ??
>
>So will the real ram-disk please stand up?  I have both, and they seem
>to be different.  I believe that ETRNL2 was written by a certain Mr.
>Franco (all this is from memory -- so please excuse my bumbling).  Are
>they all different versions of the same ram-disk?  If so, which is the
>most recent?

I am afraid that in my effort to shed light, I may have spread confustion.
I am sorry.

Fact:  My ZOO did not bomb in the ramdisk created by something called ETRNL2.

However, Moshe Braner informs me that, yes, he posted an early warm-boot-
surviving ramdisk, but ETRNL2 is something that came along later.
I still suspect Ralph's ramdisk.

The ramdisk program that I use, I have also stored in an ARC file which has
these characteristics:

Name          Length    Stowage    SF   Size now  Date       Time    CRC
============  ========  ========  ====  ========  =========  ======  ====
ETRNL2.PRG        1024  Crunched   24%       784  27 Oct 88   2:15p  c37e
        ====  ========            ====  ========
Total      1      1024             24%       784

The date here does not have to proves only that it has been around since
last October, not that it was written then.


-- 
    L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
	ljdickey@water.UWaterloo.ca	ljdickey@water.BITNET
	ljdickey@water.UUCP		..!uunet!watmath!water!ljdickey
	ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu	

ralph@cc.brunel.ac.uk (Ralph Mitchell) (08/02/89)

In article <2536@water.waterloo.edu> ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) writes:
>>In article <764@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk> ralph@ccs.brunel.ac.uk (Ralph Mitchell) writes:
>>|  ETERNAL2 doesn't actually work in a Mega 4...  Using HiSoft's resident
>>|  ...
>>|  that the MMU can handle, so it gets a real bus error.  Moshe ??
>
>However, Moshe Braner informs me that, yes, he posted an early warm-boot-
>surviving ramdisk, but ETRNL2 is something that came along later.
>I still suspect Ralph's ramdisk.
>
>The ramdisk program that I use, I have also stored in an ARC file which has
>these characteristics:
>
>Name          Length    Stowage    SF   Size now  Date       Time    CRC
>============  ========  ========  ====  ========  =========  ======  ====
>ETRNL2.PRG        1024  Crunched   24%       784  27 Oct 88   2:15p  c37e
>        ====  ========            ====  ========
>Total      1      1024             24%       784


I have looked at ETERNAL2, and it has these sizes:

	eternal.doc	1753
	eternal.prg	 703
	confgram.tos	6087

Umm, I've just noticed it called ETERNAL, not ETERNAL2.  However, pressing
on...  In the doc file it says:

        (c) Robert Fischer and OSS, 1986.

When running the configuration program, CONFGRAM, it comes out with Robert's
address in Hamden, CT.  Eternal itself puts up 2 bombs...

This version of ETERNAL came on a floppy that was stuck to the front of
a magazine called ST/Amiga Format.

Ralph Mitchell
-- 
JANET: ralph@uk.ac.brunel.cc  ARPA:  ralph%cc.brunel.ac.uk@cwi.nl
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"There's so many different worlds, so many different Suns" - Dire Straits
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity" - Salvor Hardin, Foundation

root@yale.UUCP (Root Of All Evil) (08/07/89)

In article <777@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk> ralph@ccs.brunel.ac.uk (Ralph Mitchell) writes:
>In article <2536@water.waterloo.edu> ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) writes:
>>>In article <764@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk> ralph@ccs.brunel.ac.uk (Ralph Mitchell) writes:
>>>|  ETERNAL2 doesn't actually work in a Mega 4...  Using HiSoft's resident
>>>|  ...
>>>|  that the MMU can handle, so it gets a real bus error.  Moshe ??
>>
>>However, Moshe Braner informs me that, yes, he posted an early warm-boot-
>>surviving ramdisk, but ETRNL2 is something that came along later.
>>I still suspect Ralph's ramdisk.
>>
>>The ramdisk program that I use, I have also stored in an ARC file which has
>>these characteristics:
>>
>>Name          Length    Stowage    SF   Size now  Date       Time    CRC
>>============  ========  ========  ====  ========  =========  ======  ====
>>ETRNL2.PRG        1024  Crunched   24%       784  27 Oct 88   2:15p  c37e
>>        ====  ========            ====  ========
>>Total      1      1024             24%       784
>
>
>Umm, I've just noticed it called ETERNAL, not ETERNAL2.  However, pressing
>on...  In the doc file it says:
>
>        (c) Robert Fischer and OSS, 1986.
>
>When running the configuration program, CONFGRAM, it comes out with Robert's
>address in Hamden, CT.  Eternal itself puts up 2 bombs...
>
>This version of ETERNAL came on a floppy that was stuck to the front of
>a magazine called ST/Amiga Format.

Software lives on!  As I recall the history, Robert took Braner's
original ETERNAL and modified it to make it easier to configure.  I
believe he also tightened up the code to use slightly less memory.
The problem on the Mega 4 is probably due to the ramdisk reading the
first location after the top of memory to see if a magic number is
stored there, indicating an existing ramdisk.  That doesn't work on
the Mega 4, so the strategy would have to be changed.  Robert might be
willing to make the change and release a new version if there is still
interest in this program.
==================================================
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