The printed version of this document that ships with Persistors truncates the release history at the end of the eighth page. If you're interested in the complete change history, the version on diskette and the web completes the story. Note that diskettes and release notes shipped with Persistor orders may not contain the most recent versions - keep an eye on our web page for the latest developments.
Most of these revisions are the direct result of a customer telling us what we did wrong, or what we could do better. We are very grateful to these folks and encourage all PicoDOS users to let us know what you need. Odds are, other users need the same things.
CFExec Interactions with buffered serial I/O (XS, XR, YS, YR, DATE, TIME,
CAPTURE, CCC)
This should be fixed once and for all. You no longer need
to perform any explicit setup or cleanup between calls to execstr or CFExec.
fopen() update mode problem fixed
Our apologies to Aztec for
pushing the blame for this one on them. It actually was a PicoDOS bug that was
masked by CodeWarriors larger standard I/O buffer sizes. Ed Boss from Sigma
Solutions created an example program that let us isolate and fix this long
standing problem that only affected update mode ("r+", "w+", "a+") and we've now
fixed it.
Sub-optimum Optimizations
Archie T. Morrison III from McLane
Research passed along two problems with optimized Aztec code that may benefit
other developers. First, specify the -sa option (two pass assembly) if you use
the -mc and -md memory models (standard for TT8) or you may get "jsr greater
than 32K" errors. Note that -so (all optimizations on -- TT8 default) enables
-sa. Second, the -sr (automatic weighted register usage) appears to sometimes
corrupt variables after subroutine calls. Since this is included in the -so (all
optimizations on -- the TT8 default), he has taken to explicitly selecting
individual optimization options in his makefiles.
Y2K ok
The DATE and TIME commands in PicoDOS ignored all but the
last two digits of the entered year and always assumed 1900 as the base date.
The DATE and TIME commands in PicoDOS 1.41 now work correctly for two digit and
four digit entries, such that "00" to "69" evaluates to 2000 to 2070, "70" to
"99" evaluates to 1970 to 1999, and four digit entries that parse to a number
greater than 99 are accepted literally. Thanks for the nudge Jeff.
fopen() update mode with Aztec, not so
ok
We were recently shown that opening a file in update
mode "a+" or "ab+" using any version of the Aztec C compiler would fail on reads
after writing and rewinding the file. These same operations work properly with
the Metrowerks CodeWarrior compiler and both depend on the same low-level seek
operations in PicoDOS. This problem appears to be buried deep in the Aztec's
buffered I/O library, and while we do not have a fix, a viable workaround is to
close and reopen the file in order to reposition and read.
Bigger Cards, More Files
Until this release, PicoDOS limited you to
a maximum of 512 files. With 1.41, the size of the root directory increases with
the capacity of the card in the following fashion:
Size: Files: Dir Size: to 32MB 512 16KB >= 32MB 1024 32KB >= 64MB 2048 64KB >= 128MB 4096 128KB
Dungeon Example in Aztec C
We mentioned in the "After 1.30" notes
that this works fine when compiled and run from the Metrowerks system, but
crashes with an illegal instruction error after running for a while, or if you
ask for help or info. We never did find it, but John Bartholomew from Sandia
National Labs was less willing to let it drop and spent a fair bit of time
working through the problem. He traced it down to declarations of "const static"
variables which either do not get properly stored, or do not get properly
referenced at runtime with Aztec. We don't have a fix, but be warned that const
static variables may give you similar problems.
DIR to Memory
The After 1.34 had errant example code so we're
reprinting it here with the repaired code suggested by Cleo Zani. We also a
problem where using the DIR to memory option with an odd value for the maximum
number of bytes would cause an exception.
Added an optional /M flag to the DIR command to vector the output to memory for use from within your running programs with the execstr() function. To use this, you must provide a pointer to your own local storage area (malloc or static array) and optionally a maximum length parameter. Both of the parameters follow the file specifier mask and the /M switch in the form of hexadecimal strings as shown below:
dir *.* \m 2c0000 40
After which, the image left in memory has the following format:
AUTOEXEC.BAT 623\0 PD8R132.HEX 292736\0 \0
The file name is left justified in a 12 character field, and the file length is right justified in the next 11 characters, then terminated with a zero. There are no embedded linefeeds. The final entry begins with a zero. You can parse the information by stepping through in increments of 24 bytes, or with a structure approach as shown ahead. The above command string demonstrates the syntax, but is not how you would normally use this. In your program, you might have something like the following:
typedef struct
{
char name[12];
char lenstr[11];
char zterm;
} DirStrEntry;
DirStrEntry *dirlist;
char dircmd[40];
long maxlen = 400;
dirlist = malloc(maxlen);
sprintf(dircmd, "dir *.* /m %lX %lX", dirlist, maxlen);
execstr(dircmd);
while (dirlist->name[0])
puts((char *) (dirlist++));PicoDOS extensions now built into TxBASIC
Onset has incorporated
the TxBASIC extensions described in the PicoDOS software manual into their 4.10
distribution of TxBASIC as a convenience to their customers. You no longer need
to load a special version of TxBASIC to take advantage of the CF8 or AT8
functionality in your BASIC programs.
CFExec Interactions with buffered serial I/O (XS, XR, YS, YR,
DATE, TIME, CAPTURE, CCC)
Previous PicoDOS releases have
alluded to fixing buffered serial I/O problems when using C's execstr or
TxBASIC's CFExec extension, but they keep coming back. If you use buffered
(interrupt driven) serial I/O, you'll need to make the following accommodations
to call these PicoDOS functions from within your programs.
From TxBASIC use something like the following:
extension SerBuffered SerBuffered(0) // turn off buffered serial (PicoDOS installs its own) CFExec("XS test.tst") SerBuffered(1) // turn buffered serial back on
From C, enable buffered serial the same way you normally do, but turn
it off temporarily with:
SerSetInBuf(0, 0); // turn off buffered serial (PicoDOS installs its own) execstr("XS test.tst"); SerSetInBuf( ... // whatever is appropriate
PicoLog Example
Lots of customers have requested an example program
that demonstrates how to perform continuous high speed sampling while streaming
the data on to the card. Now there's PicoLog. Check out the HTML description in
the examples folder or up on the periph.com web site.
Atmel Flash Loads from PicoDOS
Fixed a bug in PicoDOS that slipped
in with version 1.37 and caused .AHX loads to the Atmel flash to quietly fail,
and then crash when the application would next run from a reset. We also took
this opportunity to add a second phase of verification to the burn to prevent
any future occurrence.
Sixteen Command Line Arguments
We needed more than the previous
limit of ten command line arguments to make the new PicoLog example work.
Ten Open Files
We've always said you could have ten open files, but
PicoDOS was actually refusing to open more than seven. We also found this out
while creating PicoLog.
Updated Onset Libraries
Onset has released updated versions of the
Model 8 libraries which are compatible with the Persistors, and these, along
with updated header files are included on the PicoDOS diskette. Contact Onset if
you want a complete update package.
Fixed BOOT Command Bug
Code changes in 1.36 exposed a long standing
but dormant bug that could cause the BOOT command to reset to the TOM8 monitor
on completion.
Faster File System Operations
The standard C file system and DOS
file system compatibility add a great deal of overhead to flash card operations,
and for writing, the overhead increased as the card filled up. This was almost
unnoticeable for 2MB cards, a little annoying with 15MB cards, but downright
intolerable with new and bigger PCMCIA cards that work with the Persistor AT8.
PicoDOS 1.37 uses some new algorithms that level the write speeds such that
writing to a near full card operates as fast as to an empty card.
512 Files Maximum
This has always been the maximum number of files
supported by PicoDOS, but it was not declared in the software manual or earlier
release notes. Now that we can have cards with up to 300MB capacity, this
limitation has more impact on the design of your logger experiment. If you need
to write huge numbers of small files, consider writing to a single file using
append mode and inserting identifiable delimiters, or write a second log file
containing offsets to the start of each small data segment.
Format from PicoDOS
Format your cards from PicoDOS, and not from
Windows. When you buy flash cards from Peripheral Issues, they come preformatted
in the manner preferred by PicoDOS. If you buy cards from other vendors, make
sure to format them at least once from PicoDOS before using them with your
Persistor. If you have not been doing this, don't worry as PicoDOS can deal with
just about any DOS compatible format, but future versions of PicoDOS will likely
include optimizations that rely on PicoDOS formatting, and though they will
still work with non-PicoDOS formats, there will not be able to take advantage of
these enhancements.
ERASE *.* (or DEL *.*)
PicoDOS still does not support wildcards for
the erase operation, but it will accept "*.*" to perform a clean wipe of the
card. This is the preferred way to prepare and clean a card for a new
experiment.
Persistor AT8 PCMCIA Compatibility
PicoDOS 1.36 has been tested for
operation with both the Persistor CF8 for CompactFlash cards and Persistor AT8
for Type I/II/III PCMCIA ATA flash cards from Peripheral Issues (or SanDisk
SDP3B).
No Media Startup
Changed the initialization search criteria such
that the first Persistor found in the search order CS2, CS1, CS10 is the default
card whether or not a flash card is installed. This fixed a problem with the
last 1.35 initialization code that failed the search when it didn't find a
populated card. PicoDOS would report a very confusing "No Persistor hardware
found" instead of "No media detected", because that was what it found at
CS10.
20MB and 24MB Cards
We finally got our hands on some of these new
high capacity cards, and as expected, they work just fine with PicoDOS.
CCC Command Extended
The CCC (Cooperative Card Change) command now
accepts an optional chip select values of 1, 2, or 10 corresponding to the
jumper selection on the Persistor, and like the Persistor, it defaults to CS2.
If you have multiple stacked Persistors, you can use this command to select the
active card. This is also available from within your programs using the
execstr() function, and you can use the optional /Q (quiet) flag to skip the
prompts and messages. We still don't have documentation on the mechanics of
stacking Persistors, so contact us before attempting this on your own.
DIR to Memory
(See After 1.40 for a corrected description and
example)
YMODEM Send Fix
Fixed a bug where the YMODEM send function (YS) was
truncating files larger than 65536 to length modulo 65536.
XMODEM execstr() Return Code
These were added with 1.33, but until
now, returned incorrect values.
pdcfinfo() - Important Notes
There's been some confusion on how to
use the pointer arguments with this function, and also some surprise that the
call can take several hundred milliseconds to complete (it has to scan the
directory). The example below demonstrates its use:
long cfsize, cffree;
pdcfinfo("A:", &cfsize, &cffree);Installation
Really changed the name of the installer program from
PD8Rnnnr.HEX to PD8Rnnnr.RHX (alleged to have done that in 1.30), and fixed all
pertinent references of .HEX to .RHX in the software manual and release
notes.
Batch files
1. Fixed a bug where batch files which invoked .RUN
files were no passing their parameters to the .RUN files properly.
2. Setting the baud rate inside AUTOEXEC.BAT with a BAUD /Q XXXXX now leaves the selected baud in effect even after entering the PicoDOS command shell.
Buffered Serial/PicoDOS Interactions
(See the updated information
in After 1.40) Model 8 programs that explicitly enabled buffered
(interrupt driven) serial input used to fail in execstr() calls to PicoDOS
functions that performed serial I/O. The old workaround was to turn buffered
input off (SerSetInBuf(0,0)) before calling execstr() for the and of the XMODEM
functions, as well as Format, Capture, and Baud. This is now handled
transparently inside PicoDOS.
RUN Command with Arguments
This is the same as the GO command, but
accepts a command line to pass to the running program which must still call
initargs(). This is a great way to test command line arguments from RAM based
programs before committing to a flash burn, and only made it into PicoDOS
because one of my customers was smart enough to think of it and make the
request. Thanks Jeff.
XMODEM execstr() Return Code
The XMODEM commands now return an
error flag to indicate success (zero) or failure (non-zero) when called from the
execstr() function. These are currently the only command that may return
non-zero failure codes.
Date and Time
1. Added recognition of command line arguments for
DATE and TIME (mostly for execstr()). Typing DATE or TIME with no arguments
prompts for a date/time string just like before, but if a date/time string is
passed as an argument, the prompt is suppressed.
2. Fixed a cosmetic problem with the DATE and TIME commands which were not returning the PicoDOS prompt to beginning of next line.
1MB Model 8s
Modified the .RUN launcher and the CAPTURE command to
work correctly with both 256KB and 1MB flash TT8s by calling library function
GetRamInfo for the load address.
TYPE Command
Added optional /N /N flag to the TYPE command to force
linefeeds after carriage returns.
TPU UART XMODEM Request
One customer requested the ability to use
the auxiliary TPU UART with the built-in XMODEM functions. I had to bail out
when it turned out to be much more difficult than first appeared. Now I'm
soliciting input from other customers on how useful this capability would be,
and what memory/complexity compromises would be acceptable.
Installation from diskette
Yet another change attempting to unify
installation, whether from disk or ftp (soon). All PC files are now shipped as
self extracting ZIP archives and a batch installer (INSTALL.BAT) puts all of the
files in the proper place.
Software Manual - Revision 7
The software manual has been updated
to contain all of the pertinent information from the release notes. If you are a
new user, you can safely ignore the remainder of this document.
TxBASIC Support
PicoDOS now supports TxBASIC with extensions to
read and write datafiles to CompactFlash, and to access the built-in commands
using the CFExec extension See the updated software manual for details.
No more PDOS!
We tripped over another company selling a product
called PDOS on the web, and since this was just an abbreviation for us, we
decided to proactively eliminate any future tradename collisions. We've renamed
one header file and a few function calls, but we've kept placeholders files and
macros with the old names to allow earlier code to compile and run. You should
use the new names in new projects, and gradually migrate older code to the new
names.
-- 0ld -- -- New -- <pDOS8.h> <PicoDCF8.h> ResetToPDOS8 ResetToPicoDOS pdosver picodosver pdospro pdcfpro
pdcfinfo() - Return card size and current capacity
We've had a lot
of requests for a function to tell a running program the size of the
CompactFlash card, and the amount of free space remaining. The prototype for the
new function is shown below. It returns zero if the operation was successful, or
a non-zero error code. Pass the string "A:" for the drive parameter, and
pointers to longs to hold the size (max) of the card and the free space.
short pdcfinfo(char *drive, long *size, long *free);
BATCH Files
Fixed a problem with batch files refusing to execute
file level commands. Try them again.
PicoDOS programs on no PicoDOS TT8's
The call to InitCF8() now
correctly handles the error condition where no PicoDOS image exists in high
flash. You still need to check the global errno variable for non-zero and take
the appropriate action to prevent a future crash from calling nonexistent
software.
BAUD Command has optional /Q switch
Adding -Q or /Q to the BAUD
command now inhibits the message and query to allow better automated use,
especially with batch files.
XMODEM et al
See After 1.40 notes. No longer installs its
own serial interrupt handlers if the UART is already running from
interrupts.
BOOT "P..." or "T..."
The boot command now only looks at the first
character of the first argument. P followed by anything boots PicoDOS, and T
followed by anything boots the TOM8 monitor.
Changed picodosver() function
This call now returns a string
defining the PicoDOS target, serial number, and version number in the form
"TTT#SSSS-V.RR", where TTT is the Persistor type (CF8), SSSS is the serial
number, V is the PicoDOS version, and RR is the current release. Note that beta
releases of PicoDOS may have a single character appended to the release number.
This current version of PicoDOS for Persistor CF8 serial number 124 would be:
"CF8#0124-1.33".
Pre 5.2C Aztec fixes
Earlier versions of Aztec C didn't like the //
comments we had in PICODCF8.H and the updated version of TT8LIB.H. We changed
all of these to /* ... */ pairs. There may be other problems with older
versions, and you should update to the most recent as we only test our software
releases with the most current versions of the Aztec software (5.2C).
Fixed time stamps for CF8 files
Programs compiled with Aztec C were
not showing the correct times in directory listings due to a base time_t
difference between the Aztec and Metrowerks (which builds PicoDOS) compilers.
The latest version conforms to the Aztec 1/1/1970 as do the new libraries for
the MotoCross/Metrowerks release 11. Aztec users need do nothing, and MotoCross
users need be concerned only if they do non-standard operations on time_t
types.
Fixed execstr() not executing intrinsic PicoDOS commands
Somewhere
along the way (probably 1.30), PicoDOS lost the ability to execute intrinsic
commands like "DIR" and "ERA" from the execstr() function. They're back to
working now.
New picodosver() function
This new call returns a string defining
the PicoDOS target and version number in the form "TTT-V.RR". This current
version of PicoDOS for the Persistor CF8 is "CF8-1.32".
DUMP command now accepts offset range parameters
This little known
dump command now lets you specify a starting offset (hexadecimal) into the file
and an optional end offset (,end) or range (:range), and the filename
specification.
PicoDOS Pro support
PicoDOS now has hooks to allow support of an
optional future PicoDOS Pro library that will expand card access capabilities to
include much faster read/write speeds through the use of cache buffers, power
tailoring, and sequential only file access, as well as convenience features like
direct access to xmodem transfers, formatting, directory information, and low
level sector operations. Contact us if you're interested in beta testing.
Installation
We changed the filenames and directory structure to
simplify installation both from diskette and the online ZIP files. A complete
PicoDOS installation from diskette to a standard C:\TT8 and C:\Aztec hard disk
installation can now be performed with a single XCOPY command and the various
update files end up in the proper directories.The PicoDOS kernel installer,
which was called PD8Rnnnr.HEX now has the extension .RHX for consistency with
other Model 8 RAM applications and the Tattletale documentation.
COM Files
There were several problems getting .RUN files loaded
from the PC to run under PicoDOS and a number of users questioned the wisdom of
providing what appear to DOS and Windows as executables, but are in fact 68000
programs. For that reason, PicoDOS no longer recognizes .COM for executables,
and instead expects the extension .RUN, which is what we get from the standard
TT8 make utilities. Users with earlier versions of PicoDOS will need to rename
their .COM files to .RUN.
We fixed the problem with XMODEM loaded.RUN files not running and also made it easier to get .RUN executables onto the CF card. From the PicoDOS prompt, use CrossCut's Load S Records command just as you would to run a RAM application. Instead on typing "G" on completion, type "SAVE FILENAME.RUN" (FILENAME being whatever is appropriate) and PicoDOS takes care of moving the image from RAM to card. FILENAME is now ready to run any time you type FILENAME at the PicoDOS prompt.
Dungeon Example in Aztec C
(See the updated information in the
After 1.40 section) Works fine when compiled and run from the Metrowerks system,
but crashes with an illegal instruction error after running for a while, or if
you ask for help or info. It is repeatable, so we'll find it and post an update,
but it is fairly low on the priority list.
Low Power Idle
The PicoDOS monitor drops into a power saving mode
while waiting for commands. Though it can't get to the lowest power since it
can't make any assumptions about floating TPU and port lines, it should be about
one tenth the normal power drain.
Libraries
There's a new 3.1 release that corrects several problems,
see <tt8lib.h> for details.
PicoDOS
Lets you continue to operate with reduced functionality
even without a CF8 installed.
MD
Was not allowing repeat commands with just return.
CCC
Is a little more intelligent in dealing with card changes.
XMODEM
Fixed a bug in all the send routines that prepended a 512
byte block to the beginning of the file.
fopen("name", "r+")
Fixed a bug that wasn't allowing read access to
files opened with this mode.
XMODEM
The XMODEM functions are working properly and now support
options to change the default protocol and offer quiet mode for calls from
within programs. XS and XR default to XMODEM 1k, but can be forced to first try
original XMODEM with the -X or /X option, or XMODEM 128CRC with the -C or /C
option. YS and YR default to normal YMODEM batch, but can be forced to YMODEMG
(no error checking/recovery) with the -G or /G option. -Q inhibits the routines
from emitting messages.
XS [-Q] [-X] [-C] filename.ext XS [-Q] [-X] [-C] [filename.ext] YS [-Q] [-G] filename.ext [,filename.ext...] YR [-Q] [-G]
ResetToPDOS
There's a new ResetToPDOS() inline function defined in
pDOS8.h that allows a running program to exit directly to pDOS.
execstr()
This now supports calls into pDOS intrinsic commands such
as XS, XR, DIR, REN. There are probably many bugs in this arrangement so please
report any problems or anomalies.
BOOT
Now accepts PDOS as well as the longer PDOS8.