Re: ROM Dump of Amiga Keyboard controller

In case it's relevant and anyone is interested, the R-S CGP115 
RS232/Centronics version of this Alps plotter uses an HD6805V1 (96 Bytes 
RAM, 3848 Bytes ROM).

m

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks@gmail.com>
To: <cbm-hackers@musoftware.de>
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2014 1:54 PM
Subject: Re: ROM Dump of Amiga Keyboard controller


> On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 1:39 PM, Jim Brain <brain@jbrain.com> wrote:
>> Is this a problem?  In the US, at least, people can't seem to give 
>> working
>> 1520 units away.  I pawned a few off a few years ago, but it was not 
>> without
>> difficulty.
>
> Let me start by saying, well done for all the work!  I was always
> curious about how the 1520 did its job but like everyone else before
> you, had no way to inspect the code.  I've glanced over what's come
> out of this effort and enjoyed reading the source.
>
>> If there is a need for the 1520, it's for that funky gear that
>> always breaks.
>
> Indeed!  The motor gears break, the pens dry out, the paper is more
> difficult to source than it was 30 years ago...
>
>> Academically, it's possible, but there's little demand or
>> challenge.  That's why I asked for new features, as that might make it a
>> challenge.
>>
>>> But I'm not sure if additional commands would be useful. Even if someone
>>> is still using a 1520 in a production environment, the software would 
>>> only
>>> know about the original command set and font.
>
> Sure.  Any new functionality would demand new code to exploit it.
>
>> They were a toy in the 1980's, so I seriously doubt anyone used one in 
>> prod.
>> I thought adding a few more commands might entice people to dig the unit 
>> out
>> and play with it.
>
> The fanciest thing I ever did with mine was adapt some code from BYTE
> to draw distorted rubber sheet equations and to list out the copy
> protection codes for Infocom's "Starcross" below a plot of a "black
> hole".
>
> With such tiny paper, it's hard to get into something like plotting
> schematic diagrams or "serious" business charts - the sorts of things
> people used plotters for back in the day, relegating it to "toy"
> status.
>
> Here's a suggestion... come up with a new command that tells the
> plotter to enter a mode where it draws N characters then changes the
> pen color, or to increment the pen color at each 0x20 so each word is
> in a new color.  You could do this with computer-side code, of course,
> but your host code is simpler if the device knows when to shift.
>
> -ethan
>
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