[A86] TCP/IP stack for the ti-86...

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[A86] TCP/IP stack for the ti-86...


All,

     I'm working on a TCP/IP stack for the TI-86.  I thought I would throw 
this out to the mailing list to see what kind of interest or feedback I 
could get for such a project.  I've done a survey of several other 8-bit 
TCP/IP stacks including one for the z88 called ZCast.  I feel this project 
is very much doable for the ti-86 as well.  I plan to impliment the TCP/IP 
protocols and have it connect to an ISP over PPP.  Also, I will initially 
create a tv100 telnet program to make use of the stack.  This will be my 
senior project at school, so rest assured, by the end of this simester it 
will be done.

     These are a few of the concerns I currently have about the project:

(1) Limited capabilities of the TI-OS:  Currently assembly programs are 
limited to around 8Kbytes in size for the TI-86.  Also the TI-OS in general 
does not appear to be very conducive to such a project.  I'm currently 
planning to come with a quick and dirty way to get around this for the first 
version, but in the long run, it would be nice to have a more general 
solution. (perhaps an alternative OS...)

(2) Programming Language:  I want to stay away from Assembly because it 
would tie the program to a particular object code layout, which might not be 
easily changed in the future.  I've surveyed a few C compilers for the z80, 
but I'm not currently sure which one to use.

(3) Modularity:  I would like to write the components of this system in a 
modular way, but am currently unsure how to accomplish this on the ti-86.  
For now, I may just write the telnet/TCP/IP/PPP all in one big monolithic 
proram.  But I at least would like to keep as much modularity as possible in 
the source code so that in the feature the various sub-systems could be 
pulled apart.

     The potential uses for such a system could be far reaching.  Once a 
modular TCP/IP stack is created, then various internet programs from 
ICQ/AIM, email clients, ftp clients, simple web browsers, to even http 
servers could be written for the calc.

Later,

David E. West

p.s.  Imagine this sort of software coupled with a wireless TI-graphlink.  
Wireless internet access from a TI-86!

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