pjd@alpha.ces.cwru.edu (dr. funk) (12/22/89)
Well....
I finally have my Portfolio alive, well and communicating
with my Mac via Xmodem. Here are some pitfalls and suggestions
I ran into.
1. Get tmxm2 (.doc, .com, .hex) from Compu$erve, your local
pet store or from whereever you download. This program is
nicely done -- and it's shareware.
2. Get chksum.com and hexbin.com, again from Compu$erve, etc.
The Atari Productivity forum has a Portfolio library with
these programs and other fun stuff.
3. First, transfer chksum.com to the Portfolio. You must have
program such as Microphone or Red Ryder to do this on the
Mac side. In Microphone, you will use the "Send text" item
in the file transfer menu. On the Portfolio side, you must
copy from the AUX device to the file chksum.com, i.e.,
COPY AUX CHKSUM.COM
You will need to type control-Z on the Mac side to send the
end of file character to the Portfolio.
4. Run chksum on chksum.com. You should get a checksum of 309A.
5. Do not vary from this procedure! I attempted to download
hexbin.com and tmxm2.hex without bothering with chksum.com.
Beware! This "simple" copy process is fraught with communication
errors. You will be reseting your Portfolio many times (even
via the magic switch on the bottom) as hexbin.com crashes
for unknown reasons.
6. Are you a Microphone user? Make sure Microphone is not
modifying the chksum.com file as it sends it as "text."
Turn off XON/XOFF, do not send CR-LF's and delete the number
in the word-wrap field. Word wrap will not be turned off
unless deleted -- setting this field to a huge number does
not work.
7. Try a slow transfer speed. I had better luck at 300 baud (!)
than 1200.
8. Once you have a good checksum program, copy hexbin.com to
the Portfolio via the same method. Do a "send text" on the
Mac side and a copy from AUX on the Portfolio.
COPY AUX HEXBIN.COM
Don't forget to add the control-Z.
9. hexbin.com will convert the ASCII hex file, tmxm2.hex, to its
binary form. Run chksum.com on hexbin.com:
CHKSUM HEXBIN.COM
and you should get a checksum of 4080.
10. When you have a good hexbin.com (and this may take several
tries!) you are ready for tmxm2.hex. Again, copy this file
to the Portfolio via the AUX port.
COPY AUX TMXM2.HEX
Control-Z will be required again.
11. Run hexbin.com on tmxm2.hex. hexbin will produce a file called
RESULT.OUT. Run chksum on RESULT.OUT. You should get a checksum
value of FC6D. If you do, rename RESULT.OUT to TMXM.COM.
12. You are now in business. The chksum and hexbin programs
require a bit of time to execute (especially hexbin.) Be patient.
If the Portfolio hangs up for more than five minutes, you are
in trouble and need to reset the system. Try Control-Alt-Delete
for a warm-start or push the hard reset button to cold start.
13. I successfully downloaded the Berkeley FP (functional program)
interpreter as a test. It ran OK modulo an MS-DOS keyboard
setting problem. tmxm2 looks solid and is easy to use. Kudos and
a tip of the Hatlo hat!
paul j. drongowski usenet: {decvax,sun,att}!cwjcc!pjd!pjd
case western reserve university csnet: pjd@alpha.ces.cwru.edu