[comp.sys.acorn] Automatic Application startup

snb90@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Brodie SN) (01/23/91)

  Is there any way of taking applications and sticking them in EPROMs or
EEPROMS etc. so that they can be permanently in the machine without
running until required?  Maybe in the form of a filing system, it would
then be possible to run the applications without having to access a
disc.  This would be handy, since I normally load applications like Edit,
Paint, Pipedream, compilers, modules such as the basic editor, the C
library, FP Emulator and ColourTrans.  

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<<  Stewart Brodie - Dept. Computer Science - snb90@uk.ac.soton.ecs   >>
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OSmith@acorn.co.uk (Owen Smith) (01/24/91)

In article <6408@ecs.soton.ac.uk> snb90@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Brodie SN) writes:

>Is there any way of taking applications and sticking them in EPROMs or
>EEPROMS etc. so that they can be permanently in the machine without
>running until required?

Try the ROM podule. It doesn't solve all your problems, but it does give
you some sockets to plug your EPROMs in.

Owen.
The views expressed are my own and are not necessarily those of Acorn.

nbvs@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nicko van Someren) (01/25/91)

In article <6408@ecs.soton.ac.uk> snb90@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Brodie SN) writes:
>
>  Is there any way of taking applications and sticking them in EPROMs or
>EEPROMS etc. so that they can be permanently in the machine without
>running until required?  Maybe in the form of a filing system, it would
>then be possible to run the applications without having to access a
>disc. 

I once saw a program that built ROMs for the ROMFS that comes with the Acorn
ROM podule.  COme to think of it I think that it is in the ROMFS itself.
The only problem that I can see is that it will be nessesary to edit all the
!Run and !Boot files of any applications you put in ROM to make sure they do
not try to put temporary files inside the application directory or update
internal configuration files.

dhmyrdal@solan.unit.no (Dag H}kon Myrdal) (01/29/91)

In article <6408@ecs.soton.ac.uk> snb90@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Brodie SN) writes:

|> >
|> >  Is there any way of taking applications and sticking them in EPROMs or
|> >EEPROMS etc. so that they can be permanently in the machine without
|> >running until required?  Maybe in the form of a filing system, it would
|> >then be possible to run the applications without having to access a
|> >disc. 
|> 
If you can live with the limitations of the loader, the standard system for loading off RM's, sprites o.l. from extension cards can be used.
For instance, on my SCSI-card, there is a 32K EPROM, of which only about
20Kbytes is used, so I can use the remaining to hold two relocatable modules,
a !setdir utility and a menu utility.... with no cost at all!
You will find a detailed description of the format of this kind of ROM-images
in the PRM.

--
Dag Haakon Myrdal, student of electronics
--
email:   dhmyrdal@solan.unit.no         (-SUN  internet, Trondheim)
snail:   DH Myrdal, Moholt Alle 2-01, N-7035 Trondheim, Norway
phone:   +47 7 588244
--
About MS-DOS: 
	    "... an OS originally designed for a microprocessor that modern
            kitchen appliances would sneer at...."
		   - Dave Trowbridge, _Computer Technology Review_, Aug 90