Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucsd!nosc!crash!pro-sol.cts.com!mdavis From: mdavis@pro-sol.cts.com (Morgan Davis) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: Proposal: Apple II+ 60Hz Timing Signal Message-ID: <5398@crash.cts.com> Date: 1 Nov 90 17:36:07 GMT Sender: root@crash.cts.com Lines: 55 Dru Nelson writes: } Well, it is a good idea, but there is no need for it. Most ][+ users } have upgraded. This would have been a great hack in 1981 or 80. } There would have been a great opportunity to set a standard. No, there is a need for it. I wouldn't have spent as much time hunting down a solution if I hadn't been asked to make my software compatible with the II+. You can't say, "there is no need for it" if my customers tell me that they need it. Plus, in 1980 there were no other Apple II machines, let alone speed up cards and processors which would affect hard-coded timing loops. Back then it would have been a useless hack for the most part. Today, it is very necessary if you writing any time-dependent code that you need to support on the II+. } Now, well, I would be interested in seeing how much support is there } for such a thing. I don't see why you'd care. It isn't a "let's vote to support it" to see whether or not it is "interesting" to you. It is a problem that many developers have recently come to terms with. Because unlike the IIe and IIGS there is no pollable signal in the II+ that allows you to synchronize timing in the same easy manner that you can on it's predecessors. } The VBL indicator is already there (as you probably already know). Of course I know! How else would I have been able to write up my proposal if I hadn't known? The problem with the II+ is that even though it has a 60Hz signal that lives in the machine, it isn't mapped to a readable register that software can use. On the IIe and IIGS, VBL can be detected by reading $C019. Not so on the Apple II+. } p.s. Out of curiousity, would you know the address for any of the } A+ or incider writers? No. If I did I wouldn't let anyone else know without asking them first. } p.s.s. What language do people use to add on to a Proline BBS. I used } to be on one down here and I never asked. Is it just applesoft } on top of your Modemworks? I ask because I have learned that } other BBS systems use a compiled or different language. I liked } the quality of a ProLine bbs and wondered if you used a compiler } in any way (the stuff worked nice and fast and unix like) The languages that ProLine can be used with are Applesoft, MD-BASIC and 6502. We don't use a compiler (and as you noted, the system is quite peppy). All the speed critical things have pure assembly language routines built into ModemWorks (and AmperWorks) to run even faster than a compiled (or p-code style) 8-bit language. } %% Dru Nelson %% Miami, FL %% Internet: dnelson@mthvax.cs.miami.edu %% UUCP: crash!pro-sol!mdavis AOL, BIX: mdavis ARPA: crash!pro-sol!mdavis@nosc.mil GEnie: m.davis42 INET: mdavis@pro-sol.cts.com ProLine: mdavis@pro-sol