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HP Forum Archive 15

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82143A printer working in Nonpareil!
Message #1 Posted by Eric Smith on 12 June 2005, 4:37 a.m.

It's not ready for release yet, but I basically have the 82143A printer simulation in Nonpareil working now! You can see the result of PRA, PRP, and PRSTK in this screenshot.

There's not yet any way to save or copy the printer output, nor to change the printer mode (MAN/TRACE/NORM) or press the printer ADV or PRINT buttons. I also want to add a double-size view.

I'll make a new release available soon.

I'm missing one character in the font, code 123 (0x7b hex), because I couldn't make it out at all in the manual scan. I haven't the slightest idea what it's supposed to be. There are probably other errors in my transcription of the character set, so I'd still like a better scan of either the actual printer output, or the page of the manual showing it, as I requested before.

Hmmm, maybe I need to add printer sound effects too! :-)

Eric

Edited: 12 June 2005, 4:41 a.m.

      
Re: 82143A printer working in Nonpareil!
Message #2 Posted by Les Bell [Sydney] on 12 June 2005, 5:07 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Eric Smith

Excllent stuff, Eric - I'm amazed at what you've achieved with the entire Nonpareil project.

I've sent you char 123 in grey-scale 1200 dpi - it looks like pi, to me.

Best,

--- Les
[http://www.lesbell.com.au]

            
Re: 82143A printer working in Nonpareil!
Message #3 Posted by Eric Smith on 12 June 2005, 3:03 p.m.,
in response to message #2 by Les Bell [Sydney]

Les Bell sent me a 1200 DPI greyscale scan of a printout of the entire character set, from which I can readily distinguish the pixels of each character. I'll use that to correct any mistakes in the character generator table I wrote yesterday.

Thanks, Les!

      
Re: 82143A printer working in Nonpareil!
Message #4 Posted by Paul on 12 June 2005, 5:29 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Eric Smith

Where can I get a compiled version of Nonpareil?

            
Re: 82143A printer working in Nonpareil!
Message #5 Posted by Namir on 12 June 2005, 6:13 a.m.,
in response to message #4 by Paul

I second that!! A compiled version for Windows??? Please!!

                  
plans for Nonpareil for Windows
Message #6 Posted by Eric Smith on 12 June 2005, 4:30 p.m.,
in response to message #5 by Namir

I do plan to have a version of Nonpareil precompiled for Windows, but I don't have a schedule for it. I don't normally do Windows development, so it's somewhat of a hassle for me. I've considered selling the Windows version (probably around $30 for the full package), but I haven't yet decided whether to do it that way or to give it away.

                        
Re: plans for Nonpareil for Windows
Message #7 Posted by Namir on 13 June 2005, 6:42 p.m.,
in response to message #6 by Eric Smith

Eric,

Using Borland Builder C++ you can quickly build a visual interface and have C/C++ code drive it.

I remember your presentation at the HHC2004 in San Jose. I remember telling myself that I had to get my hands on the Windows versions of all the very cool emulators/simulators you presented!

Namir

      
Re: 82143A printer working in Nonpareil!
Message #8 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 12 June 2005, 7:32 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Eric Smith

Hello, Eric;

I have one computer at home only for Linux (Athlon 800MHz, MB PC CHIPS 810, 128MB RAM, 20GB + 10GB 2×HD) and I have not yet compiled Nonpareil on it (shame on me...8^( Anyway, may I ask you something? I draw/wrote the complete HP82143A character set as TTF file, along with many others, and you can download them from here. You can use any of them as you wish, and you can check that character code 123 is actually PI.

Best regards and congrats, again! What a job you have done...

Luiz (Brazil)

P.S. - I did not mention it before because I thought you were aware of my fonts... Sorry!

Edited: 12 June 2005, 7:34 a.m.

            
Re: 82143A printer working in Nonpareil!
Message #9 Posted by Eric Smith on 12 June 2005, 3:08 p.m.,
in response to message #8 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil)

Luiz,

I'd forgotten about your TTF fonts. While TTF wouldn't have been directly useful for this project, I could have used them as a model, but it didn't occur to me until reading your posting.

Once I have added the ability to save the simulated printer output, I should either include your 82143A font in the Nonpareil package (if that's OK), or put a link to the download in the documentation.

Thanks!
Eric

                  
Re: 82143A printer working in Nonpareil!
Message #10 Posted by Vieira, Luiz c. (Brazil) on 12 June 2005, 3:15 p.m.,
in response to message #9 by Eric Smith

Hi, Eric;

the TTF files are 'public-domain', mainly because they are free to download without the need to enter password or the like. They are my contribution to the community. Be my guest!

Please, don't bother yourself with the need to mention my name if you use them. Go ahead! My pleasure. Having something we've done as part of such a great job as yours is an honnor.

If you plan to compile Nonpareil under Windows and you feel it's easier to use my TTF files, better yet! Go ahed!

Thanks and success.

Luiz (Brazil)

      
Interesting bug
Message #11 Posted by Eric Smith on 13 June 2005, 12:04 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by Eric Smith

I added buttons for the "print" and "paper advance" functions, and radio buttons for the MAN/TRACE/NORM switch. I've posted an updated screenshot.

There's an interesting bug. When the calculator is not in PROGRAM mode, the print and paper advance buttons behave mostly as expected. In program mode, the print button works OK (puts a PRX or PRA in the program). But if you press the paper advance button, the simulated 41 starts reporting "OUT OF PAPER". And once it starts doing that, there's no way to get it to stop. I've verified with the debugger that my printer code NEVER returns status to the 41 with the OOP status bit set.

I haven't much of a clue what's going wrong. One hypothesis is that perhaps this results from my simulated printer being instantaneous; it never returns a BUSY status. I could add some code to make it return BUSY for a while.

Edited: 13 June 2005, 2:42 p.m. after one or more responses were posted

            
Re: Interesting bug
Message #12 Posted by Phil Green on 13 June 2005, 3:32 a.m.,
in response to message #11 by Eric Smith

Hi Eric, I notice on your web site that you have the source code available. Is there a compiled version for Windows available or can I only compile it under Linux? Regards Phil Green

                  
Re: Interesting bug
Message #13 Posted by Eric Smith on 13 June 2005, 4:14 a.m.,
in response to message #12 by Phil Green

Currently it doesn't work on Windows. There's a plan for a future Windows version, but I don't have an estimate of when it will be available.

                        
Nonpareil on WinXYZ
Message #14 Posted by Mike (Stgt) on 13 June 2005, 4:50 a.m.,
in response to message #13 by Eric Smith

Not on plain Win, use Cygwin. It is definitely something for nostalgic calculator enthusiasts because to install Cygwin you need quite some MB to download - probalby worth to wate for Eric's port if you do not need Cygwin for other reasons.

Ciao.....Mike

            
Screenshot (was: Interesting bug)
Message #15 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 13 June 2005, 4:14 a.m.,
in response to message #11 by Eric Smith

Hi, Eric;

I could not open the screenshot link, so I checked it. It has non-valid code. It should be:

screenshot

The code you used seems to have some html codding (href:"). It seems this one works.

Cheers.

Luiz (Brazil)

Edited: 13 June 2005, 4:17 a.m.

                  
Re: Screenshot (was: Interesting bug)
Message #16 Posted by Eric Smith on 13 June 2005, 2:46 p.m.,
in response to message #15 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil)

Thanks, I've edited the posting to correct that.

            
Re: Interesting bug
Message #17 Posted by Mike (Stgt) on 13 June 2005, 4:38 a.m.,
in response to message #11 by Eric Smith

Hello Eric!

In NutEm currently I do _not_ offer the ADV and PRT button of the Helios printer. Only a switch to loop through MAN-NORM-TRACE-OFF. In my setup I find following:

hs(1)  = 3                            Ü  Manual  
hs(2)  = 8                            Ü  LEOL = 1
sp9flg = 6
To set on/off I change sp9flg from 6 to 0, to change MAN-NORM-TRACE I change only 2 bits of Helios status: HS(1) = iand(HS(1), 63) + (64 * (PRS - 1)) -- with PRS = 1, 2, or 3. I hope you see what I mean <G>, otherwise Emu41 of JF Garnier is the most complete emulator of the HP41 system, IMHO.

BTW, I patched the Voyager ROMs to make a) the CLEAR PREFIX command (and similar) wait exactly 1.2 seconds disregarding the speed of the OS and b) reduce the trace output about 4,000 lines for such commands. Side effect: the self test now shows "Error 9" due to wrong ROM checksum. Do you know which ROM word contains this checksum? On the HP-41 this is the last one, but in the Voyagers?

Ciao.....Mike

                  
Re: Interesting bug
Message #18 Posted by Eric Smith on 13 June 2005, 2:45 p.m.,
in response to message #17 by Mike (Stgt)

I don't have any trouble with the MAN/TRACE/NORM switch, only the PAPER ADVANCE switch.

I have no idea which word of the Voyager ROM is the checksum. It does not appear to be the last word.

                        
Re: Interesting bug
Message #19 Posted by Mike (Stgt) on 14 June 2005, 3:24 a.m.,
in response to message #18 by Eric Smith

Quote:
I have no idea which word of the Voyager ROM is the checksum. It does not appear to be the last word.

I asked here because I had the same impression, the last word of the HP12C-ROM is 0, a 1:2^10 chance for the checksum to be Zero. BTW - the un-patched HP15C shows on ROMcheck Error 9. What do I wrong?

About the Helios ADV button: currently I am hounting down dead code in NutEm for the Voyager emulation. My "HP41-Printer" is only a simulation (no graphics, text only), I do not emulate the complete PIL chip.

Ciao.....Mike


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