71B EPROM Programming

[rprosperi]

(02-02-2018 02:53 AM)Mark Hardman Wrote:  I'm still digging through Joe's wonderfully well organized site for more ideas, but will likely not be able fill 32K completely. Adding TEST32KE LEX uses another 117 bytes (every little bit helps). Maybe there are some BAS files I could add.

Too much memory space to fill is NEVER acceptable....

Here are some suggestions:

1. CURLEX LEX file (109 bytes). Advances cursor by 1 'screen full' at a time when pressing [g] [->], rather than all the way to the end. Avail on Joe's LEX page.

2. SYSLEX LEX file (643 bytes). Lets you access a variety of system settings, such as command stack depth, DELAY settings, etc.; very useful though some of these are also accessible via JPC ROM commands. Avail on Joe's LEX page.

3. FILECOPY - Short BASIC program that lets you copy files between 71Bs connected together via HP-IL. See here.

4. MCOPY LEX file 932 bytes) - Lets you copy complete disk/tape/virtual disk to another with a single command, e.g. COPY :TAPE(1) TO :TAPE(2). Note this LEX does not add any new keywords, it extends the built-in COPY command via poll handler.

5. ULIB52 - A collection of nearly every User Community LEX files which HP issued LEX IDs for. Although somewhat large (6KB) it provides 54 useful commands for all kinds of day-to-day 71B use/programming, etc. This collection was carefully reassembled by JFG over the years, see the full description here, a bit over halfway down. Strongly recommended if you have the room.

Note that if you do include this, you can omit some of the others, e.g. ULIB52 contains all the same commands (with identical LEX IDs) as STRINGLX.

6. KEYBOARD LEX file (Rev C, 1401 bytes) - As Dave mentioned in another thread, this file fixes bugs in the version included in the FORTH/Assembler ROM, which makes a difference when using remote terminals such as pyILPer provides. But make sure the EPROM that contains this LEX is in a lower PORT than the FORTH ROM. See link 2 posts down.

7. PLEX BASIC Program - Prints out all the LEX files installed, and all the commands within each LEX file (a super HELPLX) including argument types, LEX IDs, etc. which is very helpful when writing BASIC programs and you need the exact command spelling, argument order, etc. Available in the OLDP archives.

There are many equivalent programs available as well, SYSCAT, SYSTCAT, and others. Check them out, you may prefer the output style of one over another.

And some things to NOT include in the EPROM:

A. RPN BIN file - RPN Calculator binary program (by C. Capener). Although very tempting to include this so one always has an RPN calculator handy, it uses the poor technique of writing data into itself, and therefore is not compatible with read-only storage.

Note that the RPN BIN program came with RPNLEX (172 bytes) which provided a means to access the RPN stack registers from BASIC programs.

There is also another LEX file (by John Baker, one of the real 71 LEX gurus), also called RPNLEX (much larger), which provides a different RPN Calculator, which likely could be included, but as I use the BIN program (stored in an IRAM) I'm not real familiar with this 2nd one, and am not sure what it provides. Available in the OLDP archives.

B. TAPECATB BASIC program (by Tapani Tarvainen, another of the 71 masters) - excellent program (from many perspectives - useful, coding techniques, etc.) for creating detailed CATalogs of HP-IL media, that include details such as starting/ending sectors, actual byte counts, etc. The output format for this utility is so useful, it has been copied many times by most similar programs since it appeared. Available in the OLDP archives.

Although this is a must-have program, the storage device it examines and reports on is hard-coded and you will, sooner or later, need to use another.

One option is to include it in EPROM, and if/when you need to change drives, just copy it to RAM, change the line (1250) and proceed.

Another option is to modify it to ask for the target drive. (Been on the to-do list for about 10 years...)

Hope this suggestions help, feel free to ask about them if unclear.