🚀 go-pugleaf

[Is there still a line eater out there?  Or am I just looking foolish?]


Hi out there in Netland.  Long time no see.  I am back online again by the
gracious permission of the sysop of pnet.  I can receive mail here, but the
prefered place is my school account, lxw6035@ux.acss.umn.edu.

Anyway, on to some questions that I have been building up.

Currently I have 2 projects:  a terminal called Lazy Term, and an update of
Schizo, it will be v1.5.  I am having major problems with both.  If I can get
some help from people who know better out there, they will both be out soon. 
On to the first.

Lazy Term (why do we need another terminal emulator?) will be a SMALL,
reasonably full-featured VT52 emulator.  You will be able to call it up from
anywhere with a key combination.  I am debating XMODEM capability, but it will
surely have macro capability, and dialing capability (automatic redialing,
RS232 settings PER PHONE NUMBER, etc).  It also will answer like a real VT52
(for those of you that use qterm on UNIX).  Most everything is working, except
for the most important part, calling it up! <grin>  At first I was going to
make it a desk accessory.  But then I had major problems looking for a key
combination from the desktop (anyone know why the Desktop ignores MU_KEYBD
events?).  So, I decided to try and put a keyboard intercept in.  No go.  I
have never messed with interrupt routines before, so I don't know what the
problem is.  Right now, I can't even install a dummy routine.  I am replacing
the routine that I find from Kbdvbase in the kb_kbdsys pointer.  I use Mark
Williams' C, and the setrte routine (which saves registers) first, and then
pass control to the original routine after finishing.  This always bombs out. 
If anyone can help, I'd be thankful.  I am also wondering whether it is safe
to use system calls (like Bconout) in an interrupt routine.  Any code would be
much appreciated.

On to the second set of problems.  Schizo v1.5 will have two major
improvements:  it will have a corner clock, and it will select a desktop.inf
file that matches the current resolution.  Of course, I am having problems
with both.  The corner clock is related to the interrupt routine problems.  I
am using a VBI to keep the clock working in non-GEM programs.  I can install a
VBI, but am wondering whether it is safe to use system calls within the
routine.  The second problem is with the desktop.inf reading.  Right now,
short of reading it myself, the only way I can do this is to rename a file to
desktop.inf, and then reboot.  Obviously this is a poor answer.  Is it the
only answer though?

Those are my problems.  I apologise for asking.  I program to learn.  Every
new revision or program has taught me loads about how the ST works.  I am
obviously still learning <grin>.

Any comments, suggestions, and help is welcome.  Thanks.

John Ogawa

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