SJLOAD-20 release 07

Diddl · Post by **Diddl** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 6:58 am

SJLOAD-20 (für VIC-20) release 07 (thanks to nbla000!)

Release Info:

- Fixed the DEVICE NOT PRESENT Vic hang by using IECNAMOUT, DISK_LISTEN, DISK_TALK, DISK_CLOSE[_SA] present on FE3 r19

- Fixed the Drive not closed (on Jiffy drives) issue by calling DISK_CLOSE_LO routine on ends

- some new compile options for smaller code without messages, with std. messages, without Load/Save params, without SAVE

Binaries for $0400 and $B000 are included.

Source code is included.

Have fun!

Many thanks to nbla000 for his great workl!

.

download as usual from my HP: SJLOAD

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:17 pm

I am intrigued by this utility, but I don't understand its requirements to have successful operation. Do I need JiffyDOS in the kernal(s) to take advantage of this? Or is it natively compatible with uIEC/SD for faster loads, i.e., +8k programs like Berzerk and Quikman take 30-seconds to load from uIEC/SD now.

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:26 pm

I'm with Robert. Not entirely sure of the requirements/benefits/usage.

Diddl · Post by **Diddl** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 3:04 am

SJLOAD-20 changes nearly all VIC-20 vectors for disk operation to make it Jiffy compatible.

In other word, if SJLOAD runs on your VIC, it is same as your VIC would have a Jiffy kernel.

For normal drives there is no difference.

For Jiffy drives you speed up all operations to jiffy speed. SD2IEC and µIEC are usable as "Jiffy drives".

Especially SD2IEC and µIEC have a big benefit of it. Cause this drive replacements has no mechanical slow downs (seek time, track change time, BAM access time, spin up time).

But all other Jiffy drives has also a big speed up.

Final Expansion 3 has a built in SJLOAD (diskloader, flasher). If you start with FE3 wedge you have also automatically SJLOAD resident in memory.

Anyhow a real Jiffy kernel has a benefit again SJLOAD:

+ It is much better integrated

+ It is available after a reset without loading.

+ last but not least it has a valid licence

SJLOAD is good for people who has Jiffy drives (or µIEC) but no Jiffy kernel. A real Jiffy kernel is much better.

In conclusion, currently no legal VIC-20 kernel is available. Maybe in future Jim Brain will offer us such a kernel. After this kernel is available there is no reason to support SJLOAD further and maybe all sources of SJLOAD-20 will be deleted.

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 6:55 am

Thanks for that detailed and complete explanation -- I will endeavor on checking out its performance on my VIC and uIEC drive.

Any chance of this getting integrated in Mega-Cart II with the built-in uIEC drive?

Diddl · Post by **Diddl** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 7:09 am

rhurst wrote:I will endeavor on checking out its performance on my VIC and uIEC drive.

You'll be impressed, I was also.

rhurst wrote:Any chance of this getting integrated in Mega-Cart II with the built-in uIEC drive?

There are plans for a MegaCart-II?! Good news!

I'm sure nbla000 will integrate SJLOAD-20 into MegaCart-II, he knows this tool very well now.

Is something public about MegaCart-II, something to read or pictures?

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 7:15 am

Er, I was sounding off a 'wish' for MCII ... I just want it all in one package. FE3 sounds grand, but I am just not into kits. For example, I would love to have one of uIEC drives modded to my datasette -- but I am too wary to hack away at hardware -- I am a nightmare with the soldering iron.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 11:59 am

Diddl wrote:Many thanks to nbla000 for his great workl!

Thanks to you for your vic porting, I've just found a problem and fixed.

Diddl wrote:There are plans for a MegaCart-II?! Good news!

There are no plans for a MegaCart-II, btw I'm working on a firmware revision for a better integration with SD drives.

My new CBM-FileBrowser will be integrated on new Mega-Cart units for example.

Is something public about MegaCart-II, something to read or pictures?

It's just a rhurst's dream at the moment

RobertBe · Post by **RobertBe** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 4:04 pm

Diddl wrote:In conclusion, currently no legal VIC-20 kernel is available. Maybe in future Jim Brain will offer us such a kernel.

The VIC-20 JiffyDOS (and the Plus4 JiffyDOS) were developed by Maurice Randall. One can hope that Maurice will release the rights to those. As it stands, the above two kernels are legally in the hands of the few beta testers.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

brain · Post by **brain** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:35 pm

RobertBe wrote:
Diddl wrote:In conclusion, currently no legal VIC-20 kernel is available. Maybe in future Jim Brain will offer us such a kernel.
The VIC-20 JiffyDOS (and the Plus4 JiffyDOS) were developed by Maurice Randall. One can hope that Maurice will release the rights to those. As it stands, the above two kernels are legally in the hands of the few beta testers.

I'd appreciate any help folks can offer in this area. I've been in contact with MR on a number of occasions lately about the VIC and +4 ports, but he is unwilling to license or otherwise offer the intellectual property. Legally, he cannot sell them without a JD license, but legally, I cannot sell them either without his consent/agreement, because MR does hold some portion of the rights to the ports.

I am trying to alleviate the issue, but it requires re-porting the code. I've asked in here about someone re-porting the JD to the VIC, but as yet, no one has stepped up to help.

Jim

Wilson · Post by **Wilson** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 12:06 am

I've been taking a stab at porting JiffyDOS to the Vic-20 the past few days, and, as was quoted in the bounty thread, it seems very easy. So easy in fact that I've subconsciously been trying to make it harder for myself by retyping everything (including comments from the document linked to in the bounty) by hand. The problem is that between SJLoad and the C64 JiffyDOS, the result is going to be very near a duplicate of the original Vic-20 JiffyDOS.

The features requested in the bounty (generalizing the kernal for arbitrary screen sizes) also seems very easy. Not much will change even after implementing them.
Maybe this isn't a problem at all. The resulting ROMs won't be identical, but they're going to be extremely close.
Aside from the CIA vs VIA code, the only notable difference between the C64 JiffyDOS and the Vic20's is that some things are moved in the Vic20's to places that were previously unused (there are some jmps to and from these regions). And its fairly obvious when and where to do this. It's only necessary a few times. And, though in a different location, it is still the same code, so I guess it still is owned by the creator of the C64 version.

Anyway, to put it bluntly my question is: will the result of my work be legal?

BTW, I'm aware the bounty is closed. I don't want a reward if I succeed either. Diddl and nbla000 deserve one far more than I for SJLoad which is making the port so ridiculously easy. I'm also not following the "success will be defined as" guidelines exactly. Namely, I'm not doing conditional assembly, though I suppose I could do something like this to add that option:
#ifdef JIFFY
.source "jiffy.a65"
#else
.source "original.a65"
#endif

brain · Post by **brain** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 10:33 pm

Wilson wrote:Anyway, to put it bluntly my question is: will the result of my work be legal?

The port has been authorized by the copyright owner, but even if not, there are no legal issues with the port itself.

Distributing it can get hairy, as one can tell.

However, there is more to the ROM changes than just the JIFFY code. Things like dir listings, printing from screen, etc., will act slightly differently due to the screen size.

And, bounty or not, I am happy to compensate a bit for the effort. Many people ask for the version, as they want a legit copy, but I can't oblige them.

Jim

Wilson · Post by **Wilson** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 5:27 pm

Thanks for the response, Jim.

brain wrote:Many people ask for the version, as they want a legit copy, but I can't oblige them.

Indeed I am one of those people. My motivation is somewhat selfish in that regard.

I'm happy to report that I finally have my ROM booting to the BASIC prompt. Things do not work quite as expected beyond that yet.

Wilson · Post by **Wilson** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 6:17 pm

A little update.
Everything seems to work as expected with a non-JiffyDOS equipped drive. And the Jiffy routines seem to function fine on PAL machines (if VICE is anything to go by). So my next order of business is to get the same functionality on NTSC. I really have no idea why it isn't working right now, so who knows how long it'll take. After that, I'll work on replacing all the hard-coded screen junk with size independent code.. In order to squeeze it in I may remove the screen dump code. Another feature I thought would be nice is to allow the user to hold various keys on boot to force unexpanded memory or to not start the inserted cartridge. Any other suggestions are welcome.

brain · Post by **brain** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 11:44 pm

Very impressive!

Jim

Denial

SJLOAD-20 release 07

SJLOAD-20 release 07

Re: SJLOAD-20 release 07