🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1990Sep21.172327.16426@techbook.com> fzsitvay@techbook.com (Frank Zsitvay) writes:
>   is there anything i can do to make int 18 work like it does in
>the pc clones??   i'd really like to use bascom on the rainbow, although
>if i can't i could live with the restriction.

INT 18 on the clones does nothing, at least according to the interrupt
list.  It is used by various people for things that I know very little
about (compilers, etc).  If you want INT 18 to do the ROM basic thing,
then NO, there is NO WAY to do it now (unless you want to write your
own BASIC).  However, there will soon (Real Soon Now) be a program
that will let you run programs that are run programs that want to use
INT 18 for their own evil deeds (I'm using the program now to compile
stuff using Turbo C++).

>   what of the possibility of an adaptation kit, ala windows??  is
>there someone out there that markets such an item??

I'm not sure what you want here.  Windows is designed to run on
differing hardware and has specific prvisions for replacing hardware
specific parts of it.  As far as I know, BASIC doesn't allow for this.

>   right off, i know of several things that won't work on the rainbow
>when programmed in bascom.   the interrupt driven i/o for the serial port
>would have no way of working unless it knew about the rainbow in the first
>place, the various graphics libraries wouldn't work, all of the machine
>specific stuff would die.   but i'd still like to use it even with these
>restrictions if possible.

You would be in the same boat you are now in if you buy Turbo C or
Pascal.  They offer support for all kinds of neat graphics programs,
but these graphic programs don't work on the rainbow%.  You can,
however, get stuff like Micro Emacs working on the Rainbow using Turbo
C (modulo a few bugs that I seem to have introduced that I can't quite
find).

>   the qbx environment uses mda mode 0 for output, and the scrolling is 
>slow enough on my 16 mhz 286 to lead me to believe that it uses bdos
>functions to write to the screen.

If it uses the BIOS to write to the screen, then it should run under
code blue.  I don't know if the debugging functions that it uses would
be usable on the Rainbow.

Warner

--
% I seem to recall there was a graphics library posted for Turbo
  Pascal that would work on the rainbow, but I may be misrembering.
--
Warner Losh		imp@Solbourne.COM
How does someone declare moral bankruptcy?