41 MCODE Question - Page #4 Library

[Ángel Martin]

Greetings fellow MCODErs, here's a question for those still practicing the arcane arts..

ok, so I have successfully compiled a library of frequently-used MCODE routines and they are placed in a custom-made page#4. It is not a take-over rom, it just sits there and waits for the other modules to call upon it.

This Lib#4 can be configured in the ML2k, Clonix, and of course the CL - so not a problem. Also V41 supports it, so emulation is possible for trouble-shooting.

Works like a charm, finally all that unused space is put to work for a practical cause. BTW I have reserved addresses 0x4100 to 0x41FF for NoVRAM 64 settings, not a problem,

And the question, you ask? Well I though it'd be a nice touch if upon startup the library page announced itself with a friendly message, something like "#4 ON-LINE". Problem is page #4 does not offer polling points as interrupts, so no chance to use that method.

I tinkered a bit using the take-over address 0x4000, with the sole purpose of showing the message and then returning control back to the OS - but all my attempts have failed so far. It just keeps repeating the message upon every light-sleep event, duh.

Can anyone offer some suggestions? Sure the work-around is for another module to check for its presence and report on its behalf, but that's not so elegant.

Best, 'AM

[Håkan Thörngren]

I would say don't. I rather have my HP-41 come up as fast as possible, no need for a splash message.

If you really need to do it, I suggest you look at the return address on the stack. It will be different if you come from deep or light sleep. You should probably also call PACH11 (0x3f5).

[Raymond Del Tondo]

Quote:

---

I would say don't. I rather have my HP-41 come up as fast as possible, no need for a splash message.

---

1+

Back in the early eighties, when I learned how to use the interrupts, I also made startup messages.

I thought it would be cool if the calc showed me some random greeting text upon turn-on.

But soon the messages became disturbing, and thus I removed the code.

If you can't live w/o a msg flash, I'd suggest to make it optional, using a flag or s.t. ;-)

[Gene Wright]

1+

No startup message please :-)

[Ángel Martin]

So you guys must love working with your Windoze systems, right? Coming to think about it, they do little more than putting up splash messages the whole time...

I've changed the approach and now it's only a warning message when the library is NOT on-line - done by the other modules that use it, of course.

Eric's reminder of the disabled printer ROM is timely and important: that would create a conflict, so it's up to the user not to let that happen.

[Eric Smith]

Warning: using page 4 is problematic on a real 41 if you have the HPIL module installed with the printer functions "disabled". The switch on the module doesn't actually disable the printer ROM, it just moves it to page 4.