pyILPER 1.4.0 released

[jsi]

Release 1.4.0 of pyILPER, a Python implementation of the HP-IL peripheral emulator, is available for download on GitHub now.

Notable features are:

• Virtual HP-IL device HP7470A plotter added.
• New device configuration facility to add or remove virtual HP-IL devices or to change their tab position.
  

For other changes, improvements and bug fixes please visit the release download page or see the change log in the online documentation.

If you installed pyILPER with the recommended Anaconda Python distribution you will get the updated version with a:

Code:

conda update --all

See the Installation Instructions for further details.

Note:
This version of pyILPER requires version 1.7.6 of the LIFUTILS. See See the download page to obtain the latest version for your platform. The Windows installer now provides 32 bit and 64 bit binaries. If you use Windows (64 bit) please deinstall a previous version of the LIFUTILS manually before running the installer because the old 32 bit version is not removed automatically.

All feedback appreciated,
Joachim

[Erwin]

(01-17-2017 05:46 AM)jsi Wrote:  Release 1.4.0 of pyILPER, a Python implementation of the HP-IL peripheral emulator, is available for download on GitHub now.

Notable features are:

• Virtual HP-IL device HP7470A plotter added.
• New device configuration facility to add or remove virtual HP-IL devices or to change their tab position.
  

For other changes, improvements and bug fixes please visit the release download page or see the change log in the online documentation.

If you installed pyILPER with the recommended Anaconda Python distribution you will get the updated version with a:

Code:

conda update --all

See the Installation Instructions for further details.

Note:
This version of pyILPER requires version 1.7.6 of the LIFUTILS. See See the download page to obtain the latest version for your platform. The Windows installer now provides 32 bit and 64 bit binaries. If you use Windows (64 bit) please deinstall a previous version of the LIFUTILS manually before running the installer because the old 32 bit version is not removed automatically.

All feedback appreciated,
Joachim

Hi Joachim,
installed the new version on my MacBook and its running smooth but I have not fully tested this version, neither the plotter option. Thanks for your great work - wings the old times to new life.
My question is - is it possible to implement a video interface in the future. There exist programs they need a video interface in the loop and checks it - i.e. the MONITOR program in the DATA-ACQ module.
Another question, is it possible to simulate a MSDOS disc drive with pyilper? I want to use the program MSDOSXFR but it needs a SS80 formated drive.

thank you
Erwin

[Dave Frederickson]

(01-19-2017 08:51 PM)Erwin Wrote:  My question is - is it possible to implement a video interface in the future. There exist programs they need a video interface in the loop and checks it - i.e. the MONITOR program in the DATA-ACQ module.
Another question, is it possible to simulate a MSDOS disc drive with pyilper? I want to use the program MSDOSXFR but it needs a SS80 formated drive.

Video emulations are available from Christoph Gießelink.
http://hp.giesselink.com/hpil.htm

If you try to mount a DOS image in pyILPER it will throw an error stating that only LIF Type 1 images are supported.
J-F's and CG's ILPer, on the other hand, supports DOS images, but only using the Filbert protocol.
http://www.jeffcalc.hp41.eu/hpil/index.html

I'd like to give ILPer a try anyway. Do you have a sample HPAF file?

Dave

[Erwin]

(01-20-2017 01:36 AM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  

(01-19-2017 08:51 PM)Erwin Wrote:  My question is - is it possible to implement a video interface in the future. There exist programs they need a video interface in the loop and checks it - i.e. the MONITOR program in the DATA-ACQ module.
Another question, is it possible to simulate a MSDOS disc drive with pyilper? I want to use the program MSDOSXFR but it needs a SS80 formated drive.

Video emulations are available from Christoph Gießelink.
http://hp.giesselink.com/hpil.htm

If you try to mount a DOS image in pyILPER it will throw an error stating that only LIF Type 1 images are supported.
J-F's and CG's ILPer, on the other hand, supports DOS images, but only using the Filbert protocol.
http://www.jeffcalc.hp41.eu/hpil/index.html

I'd like to give ILPer a try anyway. Do you have a sample HPAF file?

Dave

Hi Dave,

thanks for the hints. Would be fine if it is possible to implement this function too. I have a MacBook and use pyilper - and its great for me in combination with the PIL-Box and the FRAM71B kit. This are my main components besides the HP71 system (9114B, printer and cassette drive, WAND, ...). With Pyilper it ist possible to have all in one place without fiddling around with different programs or VMs and Windows programs.

So it would be helpful - maybe for others too to have the possibility to transfer the HPAF files to a computer?

The other function is to convert HPFA Data files to *.PRN files via the MSDOSXFR program to use it in LOTUS 1-2-3 and convert it to EXCEL. I don't know another way to do this. As far as I can see there has to be a DOS formatted target device. The explanation in the manual is not clear about this ...

I want to try to avoid the WINDOWS system or emulation.

Find enclosed some HPAF files in the LIF for testing. Except for the LOGDATA (only test) they are all for statistical analyses. Data from the AKAPEAK is in the text file too.
If I can help with some testing - I'm ready :-)

best regards Erwin

[Dave Frederickson]

(01-20-2017 10:42 AM)Erwin Wrote:  I want to try to avoid the WINDOWS system or emulation.

I figured that.

As I suspected, MSDOSXFR fails with "Device not SS80". It seems like your only recourse is to use the 9114, which I will try tonight.

This is a good arguement for adding SS80 support to ILPer and pyILPER.

Regards Dave

[Erwin]

(01-20-2017 05:47 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  

(01-20-2017 10:42 AM)Erwin Wrote:  I want to try to avoid the WINDOWS system or emulation.

I figured that.

As I suspected, MSDOSXFR fails with "Device not SS80". It seems like your only recourse is to use the 9114, which I will try tonight.

This is a good arguement for adding SS80 support to ILPer and pyILPER.

Regards Dave

Great Dave :-) Don't know if others are in similar situations. I don't have my laptop every time with me so the HP71 is a great instrument for small calculations and do first examination 'on the field' (statistics and so on). And, I'm used to use my calculator since many years now - there is no reason to change to a new calculator like the prime for me.

regards Erwin

[jsi]

(01-19-2017 08:51 PM)Erwin Wrote:  My question is - is it possible to implement a video interface in the future. There exist programs they need a video interface in the loop and checks it - i.e. the MONITOR program in the DATA-ACQ module.

The appendix F of the Data Acquisition Pac describes how to set up an alternate display. I can't test it because I don't have the HP 3421 so I would be happy to have your feedback for that tweak:

• Create a second terminal, give it the Tab name "Monitor". The HP-IL device name is "PILTERM(2)"
• Store the monset.bas below to the main memory of the HP-71
  

Code:


10 SUB MONSET(H$,P$(),E)
20 H$="" @ E=0 @ ON ERROR GOTO 80 @ RESTORE IO
30 H=DEVADDR("PILTERM(2)") @ IF H#-1 THEN H$=STD$(H) ELSE END
40 E$=CHR$(27)
50 P$(0)=E$&"<" @ P$(1)=E$&"H" @ P$(2)=E$&"J" @ P$(3)=E$&"K" @ P$(4)="" @ P$(5)=""
60 P$(6)=E$&"%"&CHR$(0)&CHR$(22)
70 END
80 E=ERRN
90 END SUB

Regards
Joachim

[Erwin]

Quote:

(01-19-2017 08:51 PM)Erwin Wrote:  My question is - is it possible to implement a video interface in the future. There exist programs they need a video interface in the loop and checks it - i.e. the MONITOR program in the DATA-ACQ module.

The appendix F of the Data Acquisition Pac describes how to set up an alternate display. I can't test it because I don't have the HP 3421 so I would be happy to have your feedback for that tweak:

• Create a second terminal, give it the Tab name "Monitor". The HP-IL device name is "PILTERM(2)"
• Store the monset.bas below to the main memory of the HP-71
  

Regards
Joachim

Hallo Joachim,

I tried your code - thank you (it's similar to the Terminal code in appendix F - oversaw this). The problem is, that like in the screenshot the new MONITOR (video) get no device ID as PILTERM(2). So it is not recognized by the system and the program. What I'm doing wrong in pyILPER?

With the CHANLIST program in chapter F it should not be necessary to use the physical HP3421A (except the run mode which needs the 3421A) - but the MONITOR program ends in an error 'ERR L60:Data Type' - can't find out the problem).

Code:

10 SUB CHANLIST(B1,B2,C(),E)
20 DATA 2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,0,0 ! SLOT 0
30 DATA 3,3,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 ! SLOT 1
40 DATA 3,3,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 ! SLOT 2
50 FOR I=0 TO 29
60 READ C(I)
70 NEXT I
80 B1=2 @ B2=1 @ E=0
90 END SUB

The MONITOR program make a call in line no 400 to CHANLIST

Code:

0400 CALL CHANLIST(B1,B2,C(),E) @ IF E=1 THEN DISP "No HP3421 Found" @ END

Running the MONITOR with the physical 3421A there is only the problem with the simulated 'new' video card.

regards
Erwin

[jsi]

Did you activate the new terminal "Monitor"?
Regards
Joachim

[Erwin]

(01-21-2017 06:53 PM)jsi Wrote:  Did you activate the new terminal "Monitor"?
Regards
Joachim

Hi, you made my day :-) silly fault from myself ... its running very fine - see the sreenshoot.

thank you very much - didn't recognize it after activation
best regards
Erwin

[dayd]

Hi all,

Great update! Thanks Joachim. It’s very pleasant to see a useful program, that I love, going forward.
The only real trouble I’m having is with the terminal, that sometimes freezes or add a scroll bar that I need to push see the last update of the screen. In that case I have to close and reopen pyilper to continue. My latest setup is: Mac Os Yosemite and the new version of pilterm(2) on the 71b. It’s easy to reproduce the freezing, using ted2 that come on the WORKBOOK71 suite, it happens on the exit of ted2 for instance. For the scrolling issue (on mac only, maybe…) I put the scroll up buffer size to 0 to reduce the effect.
Anyway, very good work, Joachim, thanks.

(01-20-2017 05:47 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  This is a good arguement for adding SS80 support to ILPer and pyILPER.

Whaou, probably not an easy task! I do have an unused HPIB Winchester drive (9133L) that would love to make working at some point; 15Kg for 40MB !

(01-21-2017 05:33 PM)Erwin Wrote:  - but the MONITOR program ends in an error 'ERR L60:Data Type' - can't find out the problem).

The error come from the DATA lines, just remove the comments:
40 DATA 3,3,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 ! SLOT 2 > 40 DATA 3,3,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1

Best regards,
André

[Erwin]

(01-21-2017 05:33 PM)André Wrote:  The error come from the DATA lines, just remove the comments:
40 DATA 3,3,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 ! SLOT 2 > 40 DATA 3,3,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1

Hi André, thank you. I recognized it now --> reference handbook page 63. What I did is to put the program from the DATA-ACQ handbook (F-5) and made it like my configuration. Forgot that the examples are for the HP85 basic, there the remarks seems to be allowed.
It's the same in the service handbook - but there it was clear for me that the syntax of HPIL codes have to be changed to HP71 one. For example the OUTPUT command. The CMD3421 and REFTEMP command doesn't exist in the HP85 ...

The problems with WB I can't see like you - but I only have the TED not TED2 like you described. My configuration: MacOS El Captain and PILTERM2 and HP71B (2DCCC).

What I recognized that in rare circumstances the TERMINAL window and the HP71B is delayed or freezes and the HP71B could only get back to operation when I make a 'hard' break (double the ATTN). But I could not find out the reason why. Maybe it's during heavy testing :-)

regards Erwin

[dayd]

(01-22-2017 08:29 AM)Erwin Wrote:  The problems with WB I can't see like you - but I only have the TED not TED2 like you described. My configuration: MacOS El Captain and PILTERM2 and HP71B (2DCCC).

What I recognized that in rare circumstances the TERMINAL window and the HP71B is delayed or freezes and the HP71B could only get back to operation when I make a 'hard' break (double the ATTN). But I could not find out the reason why. Maybe it's during heavy testing :-)

regards Erwin

Ted2 can be found in the of the last page of the compendium. Now that I said that, I couldn't reproduce the error that way, but it's still there. ATTN or CLEAR doesn't wake up pyilper. I do have some feedback from the Shell window, tough;

Code:


Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/AM/bin/Miniconda3/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pyilper/pyilpermain.py", line 442, in tab_current_changed
    self.ui.tabs.widget(idx).becomes_visible()
  File "/Users/AM/bin/Miniconda3/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pyilper/pilwidgets.py", line 538, in becomes_visible
    self.hpterm.becomes_visible()
  File "/Users/AM/bin/Miniconda3/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pyilper/pilqterm.py", line 997, in becomes_visible
    self.win.terminalwidget.update_term(self.dump)
  File "/Users/AM/bin/Miniconda3/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pyilper/pilqterm.py", line 520, in update_term
    (self._cursor_col, self._cursor_row, self._cursor_char, self._cursor_attr), self._screen = dump()
  File "/Users/AM/bin/Miniconda3/lib/python3.5/site-packages/pyilper/pilqterm.py", line 805, in dump
    d = self.screen[y * self.w + x]
IndexError: array index out of range

I don't know if it changes anything for python but I have my scroll bar reversed from the mac original settings (under pref. mousse, “Scroll direction: natural” unchecked)
regards,
André

[Erwin]

(01-22-2017 10:02 AM)dayd Wrote:  Ted2 can be found in the of the last page of the compendium. Now that I said that, I couldn't reproduce the error that way, but it's still there. ATTN or CLEAR doesn't wake up pyilper. I do have some feedback from the Shell window, tough;
André

Hi André,

it looks like, that I have an older version of WB with TED no TED2 so I can't test it (see screenshot). The other errors looking strange - but I'm not an expert on this.

regards
Erwin

[jsi]

(01-22-2017 08:29 AM)Erwin Wrote:  What I recognized that in rare circumstances the TERMINAL window and the HP71B is delayed or freezes and the HP71B could only get back to operation when I make a 'hard' break (double the ATTN). But I could not find out the reason why. Maybe it's during heavy testing :-)

What kind of HP-IL rom version do you have - mine is 1A? I have this problem from time to time and don't have a clue up to now. I recommend to run PILTERM2 whenever the device configuration was changed.

Regards
Joachim

[Erwin]

(01-22-2017 08:48 PM)jsi Wrote:  

(01-22-2017 08:29 AM)Erwin Wrote:  What I recognized that in rare circumstances the TERMINAL window and the HP71B is delayed or freezes and the HP71B could only get back to operation when I make a 'hard' break (double the ATTN). But I could not find out the reason why. Maybe it's during heavy testing :-)

What kind of HP-IL rom version do you have - mine is 1A? I have this problem from time to time and don't have a clue up to now. I recommend to run PILTERM2 whenever the device configuration was changed.

Regards
Joachim

Hi Joachim,

at the moment I use my HPIL modul 1B and PILTERM2. I can try to monitor this problem when it appears next time and put it on the forum too. As I said till now I couldn't see a possible context for the problem.
The problem I had with model 1A was described in the thread (but with HPIL 1A, pyILPER 1.3.4 and PILTERM): HPIL 1A and pyILPER

regards
Erwin

[Dave Frederickson]

(01-20-2017 10:30 PM)Erwin Wrote:  

(01-20-2017 05:47 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  I figured that.

As I suspected, MSDOSXFR fails with "Device not SS80". It seems like your only recourse is to use the 9114, which I will try tonight.

This is a good arguement for adding SS80 support to ILPer and pyILPER.

Regards Dave

Great Dave :-) Don't know if others are in similar situations. I don't have my laptop every time with me so the HP71 is a great instrument for small calculations and do first examination 'on the field' (statistics and so on). And, I'm used to use my calculator since many years now - there is no reason to change to a new calculator like the prime for me.

regards Erwin

Okay, when I run MSDOSXFR with pyILPER in the loop with a 9114, "Device Not SS80" is reported. If I substitute ILPer 2.22 for pyILPER, then the transfer completes with "Done".

[Christoph Giesselink]

(01-24-2017 05:06 AM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  Okay, when I run MSDOSXFR with pyILPER in the loop with a 9114, "Device Not SS80" is reported. If I substitute ILPer 2.22 for pyILPER, then the transfer completes with "Done".

To make it clear, the drive simulations in ILPer and pyILPER aren't supporting the SS80 protocol. The SS80 communicates with the SAD command with the drive specific extentions, whereas the Filbert protocol, supported by ILPer and pyILPER, use the DDL and DDT commands.

The SAD command is normally used in connection with the "Auto-extended address mode" (AEP, AES). The real HP9114 don't support this mode, so SAD is completely reserved for the SS80 protocol.

But we have different behaviours with the drive simulations. The drive in pyILPER is generally supporting the "Auto-extended address mode", so SAD maybe interpreted as Secondary Address. In ILPer this dependes on the "AutoExtAddr" setting. If it's set (AutoExtAddr=1), the drive supports the "Auto-extended address mode" like in pyILPER. If it's cleared (AutoExtAddr=0), it's the default setting, the "Auto-extended address mode" is disabled.

Some years ago, I searched for SS80 documentation and reference implementations. The main reason, why I never begin with such an implementation is the fact, that I don't have a machine using the SS80 protocol. Even, if I would have the possibilty to get such a machine for free, I'm not interested in. For many these machines are collectable items, perhaps they remember them on their early days in company. I'm too young for this, my HP career began with a HP15C followed soon by a HP28S.

So some of you may wonder how I get in contact with HP-IL? My origins in the community are base on my work on Emu48 and later on Emu42. So over the years I collected Pioneers and Clamshell calculators to get the ROM images. And of course I bought a HP71, because it was the first calculator with the Saturn CPU. Also I was able to get a cheap HP 82401A HP-IL module, so I had the calculator and the IL module, but no peripheral. In 2009 I decided to buy a PIL-Box, for playing with my HP71 and HP41 HP-IL interface.

[floppy]

Using:
- Debian11 anaconda3 pyilper 1.8.3
- python 3.8.12 and Qt 5.12.1
- 64bits and ext4 file system
- lifutils https://github.com/bug400/lifutils/relea..._amd64.deb
it don't access the HDRIVE1.DAT from the zip file from here https://hp.giesselink.com/HPIL/ilper2.4.zip ("issue 1").
And on the other way, the pyilper created LIF file on the PC above is not accessible from giesselink ilper started in "wine" on the same system ("issue 2"; which I for now address to "wine" issue or file system issue).
This is not dramatic: the effect is that for now, I cannot use a LIF file created from the setup above on a raspberry pi4 which starts ilper from "wine" (= not a single LIF file on an USB I could connect on the PC or PI).
So far tested, looks like the LIF files created from my setup PC 64bits above can be read on ilper started directly on windows (testing result from JF Garnier).

I am searching for a solution: using FAT instead of ext4, "wine" setup change,..
Any idea/recommendation is welcome.