probably not, since SymbOS is an OS, not a Graphic shell on top of DOS. It might be possible to 'return to' an MSX-DOS app tho.

We were already thinking about a CP/M emulator for SymbOS. It would be somehow possible, the only problem is, that usually the area from #0000-#03ff is used by the SymbOS kernel, so it will be quite tricky. MSX-DOS is much more powerful than CP/M, so it is even more difficult.
First I would try to have this CP/M emulator. Having CP/M shells open in different windows would look quite funny

The "return" option would be indeed more simple. I am thinking about a rom based application, that can start MSX-DOS (on MSX) or CPC-OS (on CPC) programs by freezing SymbOS first. With a simple command you can then return back to SymbOS.

Another option for scrolling: copy letters from a graphical font in SCREEN6 or SCREEN7 instead of SCREEN0 and scroll with VDP R#23. It would enable you to use multiple colours and implement for example support for ANSI codes. Basically, the SymShell would just be running full screen instead of windowed.

An idea for CP/M emulation: put a different mapper bank in slot 0, set it up like page 0 is usually set up in DOS. Intercept all calls (BDOS, interrupt, inter slot call) by jumping to a helper routine high in page 3 which switches the SymbOS kernel in page 0 and then calls the SymbOS routines to emulate CP/M. Take care that any data in page 0 (FCBs etc) must be read from the CP/M page 0, not the SymbOS page 0.

An alternative would be to use dynamic recompilation of CP/M COM files, similar to what Patriek did in GEM. But this is requires some complex coding and introduces overhead, so only do it if the alternative page 0 approach does not work.

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Another option for scrolling: copy letters from a graphical font in SCREEN6 or SCREEN7 instead of SCREEN0 and scroll with VDP R#23. It would enable you to use multiple colours and implement for example support for ANSI codes. Basically, the SymShell would just be running full screen instead of windowed.

So would you get something like this?:



Sonic_aka_T and Sd-Snatcher did an excellent work with this client. I remember these chatnights testing for first time the HispaMSX BBS as it was yesterday. It would be great to see some day such a nice things (MSX <-> Internet, full color) on SymbOS.

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Quote: Another option for scrolling: copy letters from a graphical font in SCREEN6 or SCREEN7 instead of SCREEN0 and scroll with VDP R#23. It would enable you to use multiple colours and implement for example support for ANSI codes. Basically, the SymShell would just be running full screen instead of windowed. So would you get something like this?: Sonic_aka_T and Sd-Snatcher did an excellent work with this client. I remember these chatnights testing for first time the HispaMSX BBS as it was yesterday. It would be great to see some day such a nice things (MSX <-> Internet, full color) on SymbOS.

Indeed, those were some fun times! I had almost forgotten we made that!

Especially the V9990 version of the client was incredibly fast! The V9938 version wasn't bad either tho, as long as you weren't using the fossil drivers... I hope SD-Snatcher finds the time to finish this project some day, although I guess in the days of the www people aren't all that interested in ansi/telnet anymore.

Looks really great, I saw that already some time ago Unfortunatly currently SymShell doesn't support multiple colours, so Screen 0 would be OK for the first step.
But Toby is right, I would first concentrate on a HTML browser running inside the normal SymbOS-GUI.

Another question:
I can't use the CPC font for SymShell in fullscreen (text) mode on the MSX, as chars only have a width of 6 pixel. To save memory I would like to rip the font out of the MSX rom. I figured out, that in many roms the font data starts at #1bbf.
- Is that true for all MSX?
- If not, is there a way to find out the font data position in the rom?

No, AFAIK that is not true for all MSX computers...

From #F91F you can find the SlotID of font (Check out the CPU change routine for SlotID info) the font address can be found as word in #F920. You can also change these in order to switch font to another.

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@Alex: Here is the link: http://www.symbos.de/files/symbosmsx.zip

Hi,

I have some problem using SymbOS on my MSX configurations.

I have tried following scenario's:
1) Boot my MSX turbo R (an FSA1GT) from the ROM-Drive under MSX-DOS 2.3 and start SymbOS from a floppy disk
2) Boot my MSX turbo R from the ROM-Drive, load the FAT16 driver and then start SymbOS from an SD-Card in a SD-to-CompactFlash adapter that is plugged in to the Sunrise CF ATA-IDE interface. The SD-card has one single FAT16 partitition
3) Put the SD-card in the ESE-MSX, boot the ESE-MSX and then start SymbOS from it (ESE-MSX has a mega-SCSI compatible SD-card reader and build-in FAT16 support in the disk-rom)

In all scenario's I get to see the desktop screen with the various icons, the bottom-panel with the start button and I see the mouse pointer. However, when I move the mouse (I have tried the mouse in both mouse ports), nothing happens. When I press keys on the keyboard (I tried all of them), nothing happens. I can not even make the caps-lamp go on/off by hitting the caps-lock key. I have also tried with the joystick plugged-in instead of the mouse. I can't make the mouse pointer move with the joystick neither

On the MSX turbo R I have tried it in both Z80 mode and in R800 mode

Any idea on what I'm doing wrong?

Kind regards,
Alex

Hi Alex, did you start SymbOS with the f0 option? otherwise it will crash on the TurboR as its floppy controller isnt supported yet. i will include a readme in the next preview.

PS: The Euskal Encounter / Retro Euskal this weekend was unbelieveable great!! Konamiman chatted with a Dumas prototype on the workshops big screen! hope the photos and videos will be online soon!

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PS: The Euskal Encounter / Retro Euskal this weekend was unbelieveable great!! Konamiman chatted with a Dumas prototype on the workshops big screen! hope the photos and videos will be online soon!

Me too ^^

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Hi Alex, did you start SymbOS with the f0 option? otherwise it will crash on the TurboR as its floppy controller isnt supported yet. i will include a readme in the next preview.

Hi Prodatron,

With F0 option I get one step further. Both on MSX turbo R and on ESE-MSX. Now, SymbOS reacts to the mouse but when I double-click one of the icons to start an application, I get the error message:
Error while loading:
A disc error occured during the loading process (error code 00)

Note that I read in some messages that SymbOS should be on partition 4 so I have purchased a new SD-card, created 4 FAT12 partitions on it and installed SymbOS on partition 1 and 4 (don't know from which side to start counting). The error code above occurs both on this multi-partition FAT12 memory card and on the single partion FAT16 memory card.

Nevertheless, it is cool to see it run on ESE-MSX. Will soon put a picture of it on my home page.

Kind regards,
Alex

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it will crash on the TurboR as its floppy controller isnt supported yet.

I think that's the culprit But very cool to see you're willing to even buy new SD cards just to test this amazing OS!

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[quote]Hi Alex, did you start SymbOS with the f0 option? otherwise it will crash on the TurboR as its floppy controller isnt supported yet. i will include a readme in the next preview.

Hi,

I'm one important step further. I noticed the 'run...' option in the start menu and then with the browse option in the run window, I realized that the IDE interface is linked to drive C: and that I can start the applications from it :-)

Though, the less good news is that SymbOS browser does not recognise the SD-Card when it is directly inserted in the ESE-MSX. Which makes sense; the FPGA in the ESE-MSX contains a MEGA-SCSI emulation to access the SD-Card and not an IDE emulation. However, if I plug the Sunrise IDE interface into the ESE-MSX, it does get recognized and I can start applications.

Now I have to figure out how to convince SymbOS that the icons reference applications on the C: drive and not on the A: drive but that is not anymore for today. I remember having seen several messages regarding this topic somewhere in this thread so I will try to find those back.

Kind regards,
Alex

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Quote: PS: The Euskal Encounter / Retro Euskal this weekend was unbelieveable great!! Konamiman chatted with a Dumas prototype on the workshops big screen! hope the photos and videos will be online soon! Me too ^^

http://damaramu.blogspot.com/