SymbOS network support development

[KaosOverride]

Im sorry but my work on wiznet chip must wait some time... I'm now discovering the life of how to be a father 

Also, I will have to deal with some kind of sync/timing bug that makes indirect I/O of wiznet chip to fail because of some double increment at the address counter when reading high values (like 0xff).

[qbert]

Yeah.... a full-fledged traditionnal CPC-firmware-oriented IRC client : if you want to flood the channel with sentimental messages like "my 464/6128/PLUS rulezzz" or "Ataga ZMSXC64 spectrum 400 suxxxx", instead of copy/paste paradigm, you'll massively use the SHIFT-ARROWS-COPY keys paradigm at  the prompt 

IRC in BASIC with the CPC    Can't wait to read about it at The Amstrad CPC news portal soon. 

[qbert]

xx

[Gryzor]

Methinks we ought to launch our own IRC server soon

[robcfg]

That would be awesome

[CraigsBar]

Methinks we ought to launch our own IRC server soon

hell yes, first priority after we all have mx4 format ethernet network cards.

[KaosOverride]

I have been playing with the irc client from the spectranet examples source code (the ethernet card for zx spectrum, with the wiznet w5100 chip, the same I am using) and is extremely easy. C compiled irc client for CPC will be powerfull!!

[MacDeath]

So what about MMORPG on CPC ? is the technology ready ?

[Poliander]

So what about MMORPG on CPC ? is the technology ready ?

Wonderful idea. Something like BrowserQuest?

[Prodatron]

Methinks we ought to launch our own IRC server soon

Please note, that both the W5100 and the ESP8266 only provide 4 sockets. So some server stuff will be nice for "yeah, it's working!" purpose, but I guess most of the usefull apps will be client specific.
IRC is a good example how easy all these old "classic" 7bit ASCII message based internet protocols are. Most of them are from the 70ies and the 80ies.

[Prodatron]

The network daemon is starting to take shape.
[attachimg=1]
TBH writing the W5100 low level network routines was less work than implementing all the management stuff around it.
Hope to get the network apps connected to the daemon soon.

[Joseman]

Incredible, when I grow up, I want to be like you @Prodatron 

[TFM]

Incredible, when I grow up, I want to be like you @Prodatron 

Yes, he is our Bill Gates for the Amstrad. 

[Joseman]

or linus tolvards?

[Bryce]

Incredible, when I grow up, I want to be like you @Prodatron 

We're retro enthusiasts, we don't grow up

Bryce.

[MacDeath]

Dear Prodatron : why didn't you do that in 1987... now it is too late to become a billionaire...


Anyway, keep up the good work and also prepare a nice 512k Cartridge PLUS version of symbOS as well (with hardsprite and rasters)

he is our Bill Gates for the Amstrad

as with my coffee : only one Sugar is enough.

[Prodatron]

TBH currently I admire Elon Musk much more than Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds
The SymbOS GUI is WinXX style but the SymbOS kernel is Minix oriented (which is based on a pure micro kernel like SymbOS; Linux has a monolithic kernel, and Windows NTxx has a hybrid kernel), so in this case Andrew Tanenbaum is rather my ideal [oh yes, and he is probably not a billionaire]
A catridge version sounds nice, and as soon as the Plus features are reactivated it could be a good option!

[TFM]

or linus tolvards?

Who is that? Ok... I will research that later. 

[AMSDOS]

Dear Prodatron : why didn't you do that in 1987... now it is too late to become a billionaire...

Gary Kildall would of sued. 

[Joseman]

Who is that? Ok... I will research that later. 

linus torvalds stepbrother!

[TFM]

A catridge version sounds nice, and as soon as the Plus features are reactivated it could be a good option!

Yes, you talk about this since a long time. Would be really great to add the 6128 Plus to computers capable of running symbos. I mean msx and Enterprise can do it, why not the Plus? What's the problem?

[Prodatron]

Lol, SymbOS runs fine on the CPC+.
Some SYMBiFACE II cards are crashing with activated Plus mode, when using SF2 features. I figured that out in April 2006 at Tolkins 6128+ on the VCFe and deactivated the Plus-stuff. And in a flexible GUI you don't have many improvements with the Plus features, only a larger palette and the possibility to have the mouse pointer as a hardware sprites - and that's it. Not so many good reasons to invest time in this until the MotherX4 arrived
If anyone of the CPC+ owners is interested I can compile a version with activated Plus mode again for testing.

[Bryce]

Can you do a cartridge version of it, that we could install on the C4CPC? I'd be interested in having this.

Bryce.

[TFM]

Lol, SymbOS runs fine on the CPC+.
Some SYMBiFACE II cards are crashing with activated Plus mode, when using SF2 features. I figured that out in April 2006 at Tolkins 6128+ on the VCFe and deactivated the Plus-stuff. And in a flexible GUI you don't have many improvements with the Plus features, only a larger palette and the possibility to have the mouse pointer as a hardware sprites - and that's it. Not so many good reasons to invest time in this until the MotherX4 arrived
If anyone of the CPC+ owners is interested I can compile a version with activated Plus mode again for testing.

Probably its a problem with some floating bits on some CPCs floating bus. 2006!! OMG!!! Ok, so you want to know advantages of the Plus? I can name some..


You already mentioned:
- Bigger color palette
- Mouse pointer as hardware sprite


Now there are some more:
- Analogue input (joystick) for non SF2 owners ;-)
- Real 8 bit printing of Graphic (Can SymbOS print now actually?)
- Task-Bar can have it's own colors (screen split)
- Icons can be more colorful (15 hard sprites are left)
- use DMA for sound output
- of course there is more and more possibilities...

[TFM]

Can you do a cartridge version of it, that we could install on the C4CPC? I'd be interested in having this.

Bryce.

Yes, that's a great idea! Is this possible?