Re: A85: Shell Switching/Multiple Shells on same calc
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Re: A85: Shell Switching/Multiple Shells on same calc
-> > -> >If anybody has any ideas I'll be glad to hear them. -> >
-> If i'm not mistaken, there is a shell for the 86 that runs all 85
-> shells. you may want to speak to the author of that for additional
-> info. i was thinking you might want to make more of a hybrid shell.
-> you could have a program that patches the locations of the ROM calls
-> within the shell (a series of jumps) that would be unique to each
-> shell. i dunno if that would work though.
-> -mike pearce
That shell on the 86 most likely works by remapping, which is a total
pain in the butt. Besides, the 86 is very little like the 85, at least
when you get down in to the guts of it. I think it even has a Z180, and
not a Z80, but I'm not sure.
I'm not making a hybrid shell. I'm making one that uses the main
strings of other shells. Automatic 100% compatibility, without all the
work. :-) This also provides cross-shell compatibility.
I've even thought of a way to have my program at a fixed address,
without taking up the standard shell area. Its kind of a way to have
two shells at once, but one of them has to fit in a 255 byte area.
What you do is make a type 20 variable (The hidden kind), then you make
the name the size of the program you are putting in, then put your
program in the name space. I've tested it, and the TI-OS completely
ignores the variable with the REALLY big name. If need be, you can
create multiple files like that, and put more program code in. The best
part is, its at a FIXED address. Getting stuff in to it will be quite
interesting...
You can even put other stuff in the area the VAT entry points to. I'm
not sure if this will work, but I'll find out. :-) I don't see any
reason it wouldn't work.
What I'm planning to do is create a main shell string that has the menu
program, to locate programs, then I'm going to create the program that
it calls to to move it out, and move in Usgard, Summit, Rigel, etc.
I'm also going to make the menu programmable, so you can make it work
with ANY shell, just my changing a parameters file. This might turn out
to be a VERY delicate system, but I'll see... It may not even transfer
over a backup properly. Right now, it is mostly theoretical.
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