wAxpander with wAx2

[chysn]

With the latest update, a slash before a quotation mark will put screen codes into memory instead of PETSCII values. This works in any memory editor that uses quotation marks:

[chysn]

Here's the first wAxpander cartridge!

I haven't quite decided how to do the reset button yet, but I want to make it available. I've consistently cracked cartridge cases in the past by putting in reset buttons. I might have more luck drilling a hole on top, next to the label.

Everything's on the table. I even considered just having a couple wires hanging out the slot in the back that you touch together. That seems classy.

[AndyH]

Did you say you'd be putting this up on your etsy store?

[chysn]

Did you say you'd be putting this up on your etsy store?

Yeah, absolutely. It won't be too much longer. I'm waiting on the Jolly Cartridge PCBs from Italy, and the cartridge cases from the UK. I've got everything else.

With wAxpander, the printed manual will be optional, to keep the price down. The wAx manual was gorgeous, but added a lot to the cost. wAxpander will have an equally-gorgeous printed manual available separately. The idea is that the wiki will be well-organized and thorough.

For this reason, the cost doesn't need to be much higher. It'll be $50 USD, which is only a $10 increase for a cartridge with RAM.

But, the release will be announced here, so watch this spot!

[mathom]

...
Everything's on the table. I even considered just having a couple wires hanging out the slot in the back that you touch together. That seems classy.
...

Great! we can "hotwire" our VICs now!

[AndyH]

Did you say you'd be putting this up on your etsy store?

Yeah, absolutely. It won't be too much longer. I'm waiting on the Jolly Cartridge PCBs from Italy, and the cartridge cases from the UK. I've got everything else.

With wAxpander, the printed manual will be optional, to keep the price down. The wAx manual was gorgeous, but added a lot to the cost. wAxpander will have an equally-gorgeous printed manual available separately. The idea is that the wiki will be well-organized and thorough.

For this reason, the cost doesn't need to be much higher. It'll be $50 USD, which is only a $10 increase for a cartridge with RAM.

But, the release will be announced here, so watch this spot!

I have $50 + Tax + UK P&P standing by Good call on the manual. I would like to get one too, would it be through Lulu? They are a cheap option for me as I think they can print + send more locally to my part of the world.

Now you have one other problem to solve. You need to invent a time machine, in a DeLorean preferably, and get this out on the market mass produced in 1981. 10 year old me would be very grateful. Five times that age me will be equally grateful in 2022, if the time machine thing does not work out.

[chysn]

Good call on the manual. I would like to get one too, would it be through Lulu? They are a cheap option for me as I think they can print + send more locally to my part of the world.

Yeah, I'll just make it available at or near Lulu's cost, and you can order it directly from them.

Now you have one other problem to solve. You need to invent a time machine, in a DeLorean preferably, and get this out on the market mass produced in 1981. 10 year old me would be very grateful.

Me too, except I couldn't drive at 10, especially at 88 MPH. And also, a DeLorean was a brain-damaged design for a time machine. They almost got themselves killed with every jaunt. They're lucky they didn't materialize into a water tower or something. "Just a matter of time" takes on a whole new meaning when you're being that careless with it.

Back to the Future is one of my top 10 favorite movies, so it knows I kid.

[chysn]

I used wAx2 extensively to work on a minor project (20RDLE) this weekend, and it gave me several ideas for minor tweaks.

One of the things that I kept wanting was a quick memory display tool. The M command is great for seeing big hex displays. But for debugging, it was more common to need to see just the value of an address, or the value of a pointer at an address, without having to specify a range with M.

So, I added a "Quick Peek". If no values are provided for the Assertion Test tool, it'll just show two values at the specified address:

Code: Select all

.= 0314
., 0314:BF EA

It's convenient, and quicker than ?PEEK(something), and you have the option to cursor up and edit the values. (The Memory Editor update is enclosed in SEI/CLI, so feel free to change the IRQ vector directly).

[Mike]

I suppose the manual is still 'in flux' anyhow, so I'd like to point out, ...

Here's another thing that I've wanted to do since the beginning. wAx2 now interpolates BASIC single-letter floating-point variables when the variable name is prefixed with apostrophe: [...]

Variable interpolation can be used freely in conjunction with label assignment, arithmetic operations, and more. In fact, interpolation is observed not just in the assembler, but in all commands: [...]

... that "interpolation" is quite a bit of a misnomer here. In the field of numerical analysis, interpolation strictly means inferring (function) values located within an interval of known values, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpolation.

The apostrophe actually acts as a substitution operator, i.e. it substitutes the value of a given BASIC variable for an argument.

[chysn]

... that "interpolation" is quite a bit of a misnomer here. In the field of numerical analysis, interpolation strictly means inferring (function) values located within an interval of known values, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpolation.

In this context, it's a programming term, not a numerical analysis term, and my usage is correct. About a million years ago, I started my development career in Perl, but the term has a much longer history than Perl. wAx's interpolation is really a string interpolation, because the BASIC variable gets converted into a two- or four-character hex string before being expanded into the input buffer. For interpolation, it doesn’t matter that the variable started life as a numeric variable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_interpolation

However, I have no objection to any of the synonyms. It might be a bit arcane (as Perl tends to be), and I think you're right in that "substitution" is clearer, and I think I'll go with that. Larry Wall never uses a simple word when an arcane one would do, and I don’t abide that habit consciously. Thanks!

Update: I made the change from "interpolation" to "substitution," on the basis that more people will understand it. I especially appreciate manual-related comments, because I've been spending a lot of time trying to make command templates and parameter terminology consistent. It's in flux now, but will soon be committed to print which, as we all know, is forever.

[chysn]

The extra 24K of memory makes the wAx2 test suite way easier to deal with. Originally, it was written for an unexpanded VIC, and it had to be broken up into a different BASIC file for each test. Now I can put all the tests in one file, having plenty of room for the tests and the data they generate.

In the original wAx, I ran the test suite with just about every change, and now I can start doing that again. It tests every addressing mode for every instruction, and every kind of syntax and assembly feature. Each test involves entering code or data, and then using the wAx "=" tester to make sure the data is as expected. The original 6502 instruction test was made with XA, using XA's output as the test data, to keep test data independent of wAx's assembler. Just in case something goes wrong.

The new test suite adds tests for arithmetic, substitution, screen code data entry, and the new BASIC-mode variables.

This has already caught two sneaky regression issues, one on immediate decimal arithmetic, and one on screen code entry. So I'm happy.

[chysn]

I thought I found the perfect reset buttons. They're just the right size to poke out of the slot on the back of the cartridge without drilling any holes. I can just epoxy them into place.

But instead of receiving my buttons, I received a pack of 100 "Data Phone Wire Butt Splice 3 Ports UR Connectors." I don't even know what these things are and Amazon doesn't want them back. They're probably not recyclable. And the buttons I wanted won't be back in stock until the end of March. Also, I have no way of knowing whether I'll simply receive another pack of whatever these damn things are!

It's like instead of getting the atomic bomb you wanted, you get a shoddy bomb casing full of used pinball machine parts.

Gah! Back on the hunt....

Update: I found a tact switch assortment that contains the ones I wanted. There aren't as many of them, but at least I can stay on schedule.

[Mike]

[...] I don't even know what these things are [...]

OT: watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__WDHQrTeLg for your run-of-the-mill TV advert.

These things deceptively look like switches, but they actually connect (or 'splice') two or three AWG wires once and for all.

[chysn]

These things deceptively look like switches, but they actually connect (or 'splice') two or three AWG wires once and for all.

In 2010, I removed the landline telephone jack on the kitchen wall, drywalled over the hole, and put up a hook for cooking aprons instead.

[MCes]

What about this?.....
https://www.ebay.it/itm/144032909219?ha ... SwkqZgliN6