HP-71B back up and running again

[smp]

After taking some time off from hand-held computers, I recently found myself becoming interested in a Sharp PC-1500 on TAS. It was complete with the printer / cassette interface, and was advertised as working well (!). While the days went by and I pondered the situation, I found myself thinking, "I have that HP-71B, and with my PIL-Box I can backup my programs, so why not use that instead of spending more money?"

So, yesterday I pulled the old boy out of storage and set off to get it up and running again. Of course there was no problem with the HP-71B, but I had a bit of a time remembering how to get the PIL-Box attached to my virtual PC running in my Macintosh. Setting the proper speed and getting it to go took a bit of effort, but I was able to prevail. Then came the inevitable confusion about how to talk to the mass storage (oh, yeah! the COPY command) and then figuring out how to designate that I meant to save a file off to the mass storage, and finally figuring out if the file was actually there on the mass storage.

But, I am happy to report that I have successfully typed in my DOLLAR program in BASIC (How many ways can you make $1 from change?) and I've also successfully typed in the MAKELEX program. Both now reside in my HP-71B, and also on my TEST.DAT file on my "PC", backed up via ILPER via the PIL-Box.

Now, I wonder about the whole new world of virtual ILPER devices and such. Using the printer on the ILPER program as the display is OK, but I'd like to play around with a virtual video device.

Has anyone managed to get the newest version of Py-ILPER working on a Mac? Are there instructions around for a bonehead like me who knows nothing of what it takes to instantiate Python on a Mac and get this all going?

Thanks very much, in advance, for your patience and advice.

smp

[Dave Frederickson]

(05-25-2017 06:50 PM)smp Wrote:  But, I am happy to report that I have successfully typed in my DOLLAR program in BASIC (How many ways can you make $1 from change?) and I've also successfully typed in the MAKELEX program. Both now reside in my HP-71B, and also on my TEST.DAT file on my "PC", backed up via ILPER via the PIL-Box.

No need to type in MAKELEX. Practically every LEX file known can be COPYied from one of the LIF archives using your PIL-Box.

Quote:Now, I wonder about the whole new world of virtual ILPER devices and such. Using the printer on the ILPER program as the display is OK, but I'd like to play around with a virtual video device.

Cruise over to Christoph Giesselink's Virtual HP-IL webpage.
http://hp.giesselink.com/hpil.htm

While you're there, check out Emu71.

Quote:Has anyone managed to get the newest version of Py-ILPER working on a Mac? Are there instructions around for a bonehead like me who knows nothing of what it takes to instantiate Python on a Mac and get this all going?

Yes and yes. Search the Forum for posts by Sylvain pertaining to pyILPER and the Mac.

Dave

[smp]

(05-25-2017 08:45 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  

Quote:Has anyone managed to get the newest version of Py-ILPER working on a Mac? Are there instructions around for a bonehead like me who knows nothing of what it takes to instantiate Python on a Mac and get this all going?

Yes and yes. Search the Forum for posts by Sylvain pertaining to pyILPER and the Mac.

Thanks very much for your response, Dave.

I took a look, as you suggested, and I've stumbled through the installation process. For some reason, my PATH= does not work, but I can invoke pyilper by ./miniconda3/bin/pyilper , and it comes up. I configured to my proper /dev/usb... and I am connecting between pyilper and the PIL-Box.

I've enabled the printer, and I can issue the command DISPLAY IS :1 for it to become my display, or I can simply PRINT to it. I've enabled the terminal, and I can use it by the command DISPLAY IS :4 (this, of course, frees up the printer to be simply the printer).

I was initially stymied by the drives. I designated a file to be used, and the pyilper display properly showed the files contained within it. However, in the pyilper status, both of the drives first showed up having address 0. RESTORE IO fixed that, and now it appears like I have it all working!

Thanks again for your assistance!

smp