Basic ROM for HP Portable Plus

[pamphonica]

Having got a recently acquired HP Portable Plus working well, I am of course looking for a version of Basic that I can run in ROM. I want to be able to write control programs for HPIL/HPIB test equipment, to keep myself amused!
Dave Fredrickson did post an MSBasic ROM quite a while back but the link/attachment doesn't work any more.
Ideally I would like HPBasic for compatibility with my HP85s (plural), HP71B etc.
Can anyone help point me in the right direction for ROM image(s)?
Many thanks
Jeremy

[Dave Frederickson]

Here's the ROM image and manual.
http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?sw=587

Dave

Edit: The QRG is on the HP-150 page.
http://www.hpmuseum.net/exhibit.php?swdoc=77

[pamphonica]

Thanks Dave!
I did see that but did not realise that it was a ROM image. I'll give it a try. Which size EPROM - standard 32K?

[Dave Frederickson]

(11-17-2020 07:26 PM)pamphonica Wrote:  Which size EPROM - standard 32K?

Correct, a 27C256.
Do you need any other ROM images?

[pamphonica]

The ROM drawer contains:

H0: Reflection 1 L0: empty
H1: MemoMaker/Time L1: empty
H4: Advancemail H L4: Advancemail L
H5: Exec Card Mgr H L5: Exec Card Mgr L
H6: Lotus 123 H L6: Lotus 123 L
H7: empty L7: Lotus 123 Help

So I should be able to sneak in some extra ROMs on banks 0, 1 and 7?

I like the sound of the EMU41 ROMs from Jean-François. I can ditch AdvanceMail and probably Reflection.

Do you have any other suggestions for "must-have" ROMs? My interest is less in programming and more in controlling equipment on an HP-IL/HPIB loop.

What a really neat machine - a bargain at 50 of our old-fashioned UK Pounds!

-Jeremy

[Dave Frederickson]

J-F has a nice collection of utilities on EPROM and I have a copy of Squish Plus. It's a file compression utility that runs in the background, kinda like Stacker.

[Martin Hepperle]

A few months ago I burned me an EPROM with TurboPascal 3.00 configured for the Portable Plus.
I could make this image available too.
I used Turbo Pascal for writing a small HP-IL and a HP 110 screen access library for reading the 3468 voltmeter and the 3241 Data Acquisition box.

I tried to bring Turbo-C 1.5 down in size for a modified 128 KB EPROM, but the files are still a bit too large (even with compressed executables and compacted header files with spaces, tabs minimized and comments removed). I probably habe to spread it over two individual EPROMS, which I tried to avoid. All later C compilers seem to be too large.

[pamphonica]

Hi Martin,
the binary for a Turbo Pascal ROM might be an interesting addition. You have my email!
thanks,
Jeremy

[pamphonica]

Well, that was easy - ran up my old Win98 machine, connected my old Dataman S4 programmer, loaded up the BASIC file Dave F pointed me to, burned it to a 27C256, slotted it into the software module and bingo!
I now have Basic, which will help to do a few sinple things, hopefully.
I'll need to find out how it deals with sending things to HP-IL devices.

Why isn't software installtion this easy any more. This whole process was probably no slower than a modern software load, and it certainly boots quickly.

Thanks everyone

-Jeremy

[Martin Hepperle]

(11-18-2020 11:24 PM)pamphonica Wrote:  Hi Martin,
the binary for a Turbo Pascal ROM might be an interesting addition. You have my email!
thanks,
Jeremy

The attached archive contains the 64 KB image file for the generic MS-DOS Turbo Pascal 3.0, adapted for the HP Portable Plus. It can be burned into a 64 KByte (27C512) EPROM.

This was obviously the last version which used terminal escape sequences for its GUI and thus can be adapted to the screen of the Portable Plus.
It allows for short development cycles directly on the Portable Plus, but produces COM programs so that only part of the RAM can be used. Good enough for many applications, though.

The ZIP file also contains two Pascal include files for accessing HPIL and graphics and some test programs which have to be adapted to your needs.

Martin

[pamphonica]

Turbo Pascal was less successful.
The binary file from the zip (TURBO-PASCAL30.HAF) burned to a 27C512 ROM and verified fine. But once inserted into the software drawer, the PP does not find it or display it in PAM, even after a re-scan. It does appear in the directory listing for b: .
I did check the first few bytes in thge EPROM and it reads TURBO30 at location 00020.
It also hangs if I run turbo30 from the relevant directory via MSDOS
Am I doing somthing obviously wrong here?

[J-F Garnier]

For the PAM issue: to make an application PAM-compatible, you have to include a file PAM.MNU in the ROM
The PAM.MNU is a text file with a list of the PAM entries and the executable names for the ROM, e.g.:

Code:

Turbo Pascal 3.0
turbo30

J-F

[pamphonica]

Thanks J-F, I checked and there is no PAM.MNU file, so this software expects to run from a DOS prompt. I still cannot get it to run though. It just hangs, whether I run it from the rom (B or copy all files to a: and run it from there.
It's not important though for now. I have what I need.
thanks
-Jeremy

[Martin Hepperle]

Hmm... I have it running on my 110.
There should be a directory TURBO30 on your B: drive. It should contain TURBO.EXE (yes .EXE as I compressed it) as well as TURBO.MSG. plus some additional files, not absolutely necessary.
Maybe your memory configuration is not suitable? My setup is 512KB RAM / 1024KB RAM-Disk.

I did not create a PAM file as I always use it from the command line, because I usually also want to start the compiled program later from the command prompt, manipulate files etc.

Martin

[pamphonica]

I can see the directory, and I already set my memory config to 512/1024 main/edisk as well.
When I run "turbo" from within the correct (turbo30) directory (with the files you mention), it just hangs, and occasionally puts odd characters on the screen!
Odd. I may have to re-burn the Eprom binary into a different device and see if that helps.
Thanks for the hints
-Jeremy

[pamphonica]

Problem Found.

I am now pretty sure that the problem was a corruption introduced during the binary file transfer from my old Win98 machine to the Dataman S4 programmer.
This serial link has no flow control and I may have lost bits along the way.
So the ROM image on the programmer verified nicely with the burned ROM, but was garbage!

I splashed out on a nice TL566IIplus programmer, which runs off a USB port on my main computer.

I have now succesfully re-burned and run:
- Bob Prosperi's 2-ROM Turbo Pascal 3.02
- Martin Hepperle's 1-ROM Turbo Pascal 3.00
- J-F's Utilities ROM

So all is now full speed onto understanding how to use Martin's TP includes to run testgear over HP-IL.
Thanks all for your very helpful suggestions.
In the end it was effectively operator error!

-Jeremy

[Dave Frederickson]

Be aware that TP 3.02A is for PC-DOS. The accompanying text file states that it's compatible with MS-DOS, but there could be issues. This copy came from WinWorldPC.com.
https://winworldpc.com/product/turbo-pascal/3x

Dave

[pamphonica]

Hi Dave,
thanks for the update. I'll run the TP 1-ROM version from Martin for the moment.
BTW I am pretty certain that my issues did stem from data corruption from PC to burner. I just re-burned the EMU41 emulator by J-F via the new burner and it now works fine.
That will teach me to rely absolutely on old-tech!
Other chores to do first (as ever), then I'll be getting Pil-Box and Ilper running to transfer some files to the PP to create custom ROMs.
Onwards and upwards....
Thanks all.

[dreamy]

Hello, can you please point me to or dump the MemoMaker/Time, Advancemail H,L, Exec Card Mgr H, L and Lotus 123 Help ROMs? My Portable Plus never had those and I would like to try them out. Utilities ROM works just fine, I am currently trying the Pascal 3.0 one.

[Dave Frederickson]

(11-22-2021 04:36 PM)dreamy Wrote:  Hello, can you please point me to or dump the MemoMaker/Time, Advancemail H,L, Exec Card Mgr H, L and Lotus 123 Help ROMs? My Portable Plus never had those and I would like to try them out. Utilities ROM works just fine, I am currently trying the Pascal 3.0 one.

I don't have AdvanceMail or Exec Card Mgr and all the others are 128k devices. You'll need to wait until Martin completes his Rombo project.
https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-15356.html

I did split the MemoMaker/Time ROM into two 64k EPROM images, though.
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=downl...OEt2RK2HOt

Dave