Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!shrinkit
From: shrinkit@Apple.COM (Andrew Nicholas)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: GBBS Zmodem Drivers
Keywords: Whats the Latest?
Message-ID: <53298@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 24 May 91 08:36:47 GMT
References: <8794@drutx.ATT.COM>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 46

In article <8794@drutx.ATT.COM> dvac@druwa.ATT.COM (Daniel Vachon) writes:

>Well, a week or two ago I sent mail to Andy Nicholas asking what the latest
>was on the Zmodem driver fund for GBBS Pro?  I haven't heard back from him
>yet and thought I would ask everyone on the net, what the latest IS?  About 
>a month and a half ago, he had about 33 checks....  He was asking for $840
>for the whole thing?  How close are we to the $840 he wanted?
> Andy?!

Dan, your letter is probably in my mailbox someplace, unread.  I've been very
busy lately having to attend the WWDC, working on the Finder, being sick
(incredible cold, I couldn't breath worth a darn), etc.

In the last couple of weeks I had found a problem with the Zmodem drivers and
GBBS, notably that when uploading at 9600 baud on a GS, the serial port
firmware wouldn't keep up when using a 2k buffer.  After receiving about 6-12k,
the buffer would overflow and you'd lose characters.  Technically, this wasn't
the Zmodem driver's fault, so I had to rewrite the GBBS GS port firmware
drivers just to be safe.  And, at the same time, I also rewrote the GBBS 
Super Serial Card (SSC) driver to use interrupts and a ring buffer.  The SSC
driver drove me nuts for nearly a week while I was trying to find out why it
was losing characters -- turned out that reading the status register at $c089+
$Cn (where N is the slot number of the ssc) actually clears the interrupt,
something I really didn't know.  So, once that was fixed (it took me a week),
I sent the new drivers to Lance (and they subsequently didn't fit, but that's
another story) and to someone who's helping me test the Zmodem driver.  The
new drivers will be a standard part of GBBS v2.14 and will be required if
you want to have someone upload something to you at 9600 baud and expect it
to work.  One of your options is to not get the newer version of GBBS and
buy an accelerator like a ZipGS which is a bit more pricey for a fix.

Because I've been sick and doing nothing the bulk of this week, the Zmodem
drivers are still being tested and evaluated.  The disks and mailers arrived
from MEI, so the earliest I could probably see shipping anything would be
monday of this coming week... but this is an optimistic estimate the depends
on a number of things.


>- Dan Vachon    dvac@druwa.ATT.COM

andy

-- 
Andy Nicholas			GEnie & America-Online: shrinkit
Apple IIGS System Software		    CompuServe: 70771,2615    
Apple Computer, Inc.			      InterNET: shrinkit@apple.com