Deja IIx: AppleWorks Classic on Mac OS X

Reading 5.25" disks on Mac OS X

2010-06-20T23:59:00.000-07:00

I ran across this thread that I thought was worthwhile. It talks about options for reading old Apple II 5.25" floppies.

http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/archivalissues/index.html

Of interest was this new control that lets you connect an old Apple // Disk Drive to your Mac via USB.

http://www.deviceside.com/fc5025.html

Not sure how well it works, but I thought it was worth a mention.

UltraMacros Primer

2009-05-25T19:46:00.001-07:00

I've scanned a copy of the UltraMacros Primer to PDF.

You can download it at:

http://www.unmarked.com/labs/deja2/files/um_primer.zip

I've checked with Warren Williams and Cathy Merritt at NAUG and got the OK to scan and distribute the PDF to the Apple II folks.

Feel free to upload the PDF to any appropriate A2 archives.

UltraMacros, meet AppleScript

2009-05-12T12:22:00.001-07:00

Starting in build 109, I've added a new external command:

.ExtCall "applescript","script name"

Will run the AppleScript named "script name" located in the folder:

~/Library/Applications Support/Deja IIx/AppleScripts/

For fun, I wrote some scripts to play various songs in iTunes and then wrote a set of macros that would call them.

There are more productive uses for it and I hope to demonstrate at least one of those shortly.

Display, Speed, Bonuses

2009-05-11T11:16:00.001-07:00

Spent several hours this weekend working on some new stuff for D2.

1. Display

I've been experimenting with OpenGL as the display engine. Unfortunately, that didn't pan out (worked for 1x & 2x magnification, but 1.5x looked horrible).

However, I did manage to eek out some more improvements to the existing display code. It should be about 2x as fast at the larger magnifications.

When testing scroll speed, use a macro loop like this:


start
j:<all: oa-1:
	.ExtCall "timer","start":
	x=1 : ba-j: 
	$2=.ExtStr "timer","stop":
	msg "Scroll down took: " + $2>!
<ba-j>:

2. More Speed

There is a new preference called "Speed". Your options are Normal and Faster. Faster simply performs more 65c02 operations per cycle. What does that mean? It means if you have cpu intense operations, they'll go much faster.

Why provide an option at all? One of the side-effects of this change is that operations can happen so fast that the screen never updates. For example, if you have a small to medium-sized word processor document and your press oa-S to save it. Under the Faster option, the save is so fast that the screen doesn't change on you at all. That can be disconcerting.

3. External Commands

Many moons ago, when Randy & I were working on the dot-commands for UltraMacros related to Deja ][ 1.0, we added three commands:


    .ExtCall $, $
$ = .ExtStr  $, $
# = .ExtNum  $, $

In the course of doing Deja IIx (ie 2.0), these commands were disabled. Well, they're back. While I haven't setup the plugin architecture yet, the new mechanism is in place to make it easy (for me) to add commands to UltraMacros.

The first string is the command name, the second string contains any parameters. If the command has a result, you can use either .ExtStr or .ExtNum to get a string or numeric result as appropriate for the command. Commands are set up to be case-insensitive. If you call .ExtStr or .ExtNum on a command that doesn't have any results, you'll get an empty string or zero respectively.

So, here is a simple example of a new command:

.ExtCall "http","www.dejaIIx.com"

This command goes to the given URL in your default browser.

.ExtCall "timer","start"

This command starts a timer for a timed event.

$ = .ExtStr "timer","mark"

$ = .ExtStr "timer","stop"

This command marks the end of a timer event and returns the # of minutes or seconds since the last .ExtCall "timer", "start" was called.

You can use "timer","mark" as an intermediate timer calculation.

Future command ideas:

"applescript" - run an AppleScript

Post your ideas for other possible commands.

Shaking off the Winter Blues

2009-03-08T14:48:00.001-07:00

OK, so a few changes since the end of last year:

1. Deja IIx has changed homes. Formerly under the Puppy Dog Software banner, it is now part of unmarkedLabs.

2. The version numbering has changed. Rather than "b" this and "b" that, I'm using build numbers.

3. You can now print to RTF and specify the monospaced font and size to use.

4. Fixed a bug in reading directories where an entry could be left out, causing all sorts of havock.

5. Finally, Deja IIx compensates for some file typing issues that can occur when moving files between Apple II / Mac environment. Specifically, sometimes files are not given the correct auxtype.

This can be a huge problem in the case of TimeOut apps and AW Inits. Starting with build 106, Deja IIx now sets the auxtype (if not already set) if the name starts with a "TO." or "I." to insure they are recognized.

Deja IIx 2.0 (106)

End of Year Cleanup

2008-12-19T20:09:00.001-08:00

As mentioned on the mailing list, I'm doing some cleanup at the end of the year. The files are moving to a place on the unmarked.com server.

Along with that change, I'm moving Deja IIx from Puppy Dog Software to unmarked labs. Someone else has been pushing the PDS name and since it doesn't bring me any real income, I'm giving it up.

Instead, unmarked labs (the experimental department of unmarked software) will adopt it. There is one significant change that comes with this.

Your Preferences (~/Library/Preferences) with the older version were located in the file:

com.puppydogsoftware.dejaIIx.plist

Starting with b10, the file will be:

com.unmarkedlabs.dejaIIx.plist

To keep your old preferences, just make sure you quit D2, then rename the older file to the newer file.

You can use the check for updates feature or download the new version:

Deja IIx b10

New Google Group: Deja IIx

2008-11-30T15:08:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to figure out how to improve the communication between folks. The blog seems very waited towards one-way communication. Comments help, but there is no real open discussion.

To help in this area, I'm trying a new experiment. I've created a Google Group for a more interactive discussion on Deja IIx. The group allows for both a web-based experience (if that is your thing), or email-based.

Join up and lets open up the discussion.

http://groups.google.com/group/dejaiix/

CONTROL-APPLE-RESET

2008-10-19T22:15:00.000-07:00

TextSoap 6 is finally out the door and with the exception of a few ancillary issues, things are starting to settle down.

I'm working on a couple site changes for Deja IIx and hope to get the builds started again just in time for the holidays.

Stay tuned.

Still not done

2008-07-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted any progress on Deja IIx.

The reason is that all my time has been focused on getting TextSoap 6 finished. It has seen a number of major changes based on feedback from testers and users. That's good for the product, but it has also contributed to that delay.

Unfortunately, that has left Deja IIx sitting on the back burner for some time. And it's likely to continue for a while longer.

TextSoap 6 hits beta

2008-05-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

What does this have to do with Deja IIx?

Well, TextSoap 6 has been one of the key projects that has prevented me from spending much time on Deja IIx to finish it off. TextSoap 6 entering beta push me one step closer.

Pause in Action

2008-03-08T09:08:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I last posted. Most of my current attention is focused on getting the next version of TextSoap out in the next few months. As many of you already know, Deja IIx is more a labor of love, but it doesn't pay the bills.

However, once TextSoap goes out the door, I hope to have some time to finish up the remaining pieces of Deja IIx and bring it out of beta. If you come across bugs, please let me know by either leaving comments or emailing me.

And no, I am not looking to bring Deja IIx to the iPhone. I will, however, make the source available if someone wants to actually try it. :-)

Another step down the path

2008-01-26T17:05:00.000-08:00

This release is a fairly minor one, but addresses a couple issues. Support for minimizing the Deja IIx window has been added, as well as the ability to automatically pause/resume Deja IIx when it is miniaturized.

There was an additional tweak that will help some folks with older video cards. For some reason, it the older cards did not display the window correctly. The new Display preference allows you to overcome this issue, although full support for transparency suffers as a result.

The one big outstanding issue is the printing. I'm still working on getting printing to match as closely as possible, the behavior on an Apple II. I sort of broke some of the printing in the process of making changes, but hope to get it back up and running again in the near future.

Latest Release: Deja IIx 2.0b7

Inching closer to a real release

2008-01-20T19:13:00.000-08:00

Deja IIx continues to inch ever closer to a final release. Beta 6 addresses some file issues, namely the disappearance of file 13.

As a bonus (and we all like bonuses), Deja IIx now handles aliases in the ProDOS Volumes folder. This means you can (once again) store your files wherever you want. Just create an alias to the folder (or volume) and place it in the ProDOS Volumes folder (inside the Deja IIx folder). Presto - AppleWorks will see it.

The only major outstanding issues are related to printing. Printing (to a Mac printer) is still in a state of flux, so please try not to count on the functionality just yet. I'm working on getting the Mac printer pagination to match AppleWorks' pagination.

Latest release: Deja IIx 2.0b6

One more thing for 2007

2007-12-31T11:09:00.000-08:00

It's the end of the year. After many a dry spell in progress, Deja IIx is finally in a beta state.

Occasionally I need to startup Mac OS 9 (under Classic) to see how Deja ][ would handle a particular issue. It's interesting to compare the two:

Deja ][ was very CPU intensive. It basically took 100% of the CPU. Deja IIx only takes about 8-9%.

Deja ][ screen handling was pokey at best. Deja IIx actually presents a true Apple II screen. In fact, Deja IIx no longer patches the screen writing code in AppleWorks. Instead, it emulates the Apple IIe (hopefully the reason for this will be more apparent in 2008).

Of course, there are other goodies Deja IIx like transparency, window scaling (for those with bad eyes and big monitors). Most of the goodies stem from the changes in the Mac OS in the past ten years. It is amazing how much code was thrown out between Deja ][ and Deja IIx (OK, so I actually didn't do a direct port -- but the point remains the same). There was so much code just to bring up a dialog with gray buttons. It boggles the mind how far we've come.

Well, with the changing times comes one more thing before the year ends. There has always been a custom icon available for your AppleWorks folder, to let you know it was for Deja ][. Well, with Leopard and the new app icon, it was time it was updated as well. Deja IIx includes an install option (under the AppleWorks preference section) to make it easy to get (it installs in your Deja IIx folder).

Here's a peek. And Happy New Year!

Latest Release: Deja IIx 2.0b5

My, what big Icon(s) you have

2007-12-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

Before the new year starts, I thought I'd squeeze in one quick release. Beta 2 has lots of goodies:

There is now a UI for adding your own keystrokes. You could do this manually before, but this UI is way easier. The new UI also allows you to reorder the keystrokes via drag-n-drop.

There is now also a UI for working with the new ProDOS Volumes. You can easily hide volumes from AppleWorks (to avoid clutter).

There's also a number of bug fixes. A paused Deja IIx is now clearly indicated (the title bar tells you and the screen is dimmed).

Finally -- Deja IIx has a new icon. It may require a tweak or two, but I think it is much more representative of what the App does than the previous icon. And in the Leopard tradition, the new icon comes in a high-resolution version. Click the icon thumbnails to see them full size.

OLD:

NEW:

Latest Release: Deja IIx 2.0b2

Deja IIx goes beta!

2007-12-22T17:36:00.000-08:00

Santa -- all I want for Christmas is a beta release.

All the features are in and most things now work, so I'm officially changing the designation from alpha to beta.

This release adds the big missing feature -- printing. I wrote a TimeOut Mac Print Setup app to configure your printer. There are three different results you can get from printing.

Mac Printer - this prints through the Mac print architecture. The result is printed paper or PDF (if you so choose).

RTF Clipboard - this takes the print results and copies it to the clipboard.

Save to RTF - this takes the print results and allows you to save them to an RTF file.

The new Deja IIx Printer supports Bold, Underline, Superscript, Subscript, Italic (SC1/SC2) and Strikethrough (SC3/SC4). There is a mechanism for mapping characters per inch to actual Mac fonts and size. And you can specify different font/size mappings depending on the final results -- so you can have one set of font mapping for printing and another when copying the results to the clipboard and even another when saving it to a file.

You can look at Deja IIx-PrinterCodes.plist in the Deja IIx support folder. I'm still working on an interface to allow you to edit these more easily -- but that's definitely a beta thing.

Latest Release: Deja IIx 2.0b1

Here comes Santa Claus

2007-12-14T20:15:00.000-08:00

It's like Christmas in December!

After many months, I finally had a chance to do some work on Deja IIx. Check out the release notes for all the details.

The biggy: Transcendental functions work again. Yes, you get transcendental functions again and you don't have to give up the TimeOut Calculator for it. I've made some changes so that inverse uppercase displays correctly in the WP (when you use ctrl-T).

Other goodies, PageUp/PageDown/Home/End are all mapped to the AW equivalents. Home/End follow the PC metaphor of beginning/end of line (rather than the Mac's beginning/end of document).

A bunch of User Interface changes to simplify things.

Drawing of the text display is handled a little differently than before. This results in a small increase in the percent of the processor that gets used (tops off around 14% or less when idle), but still a lot less than the 99% that the Deja ][ 1.2 uses when idle.

Most (non-graphics) TimeOut apps should work.

I've tested it under 10.3.9, 10.4.11, and 10.5.1.

Soon, I might even call this a beta!

Latest Release: Deja IIx 2.0a24

Happy Holidays!

Finally?

2007-06-07T23:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, I think I have finally conquered the bank-switching issues that were causing lots and lots of problems. Previous attempts accomplished about 90% of what I needed, but getting that last 10% to work definitely took another 90% of the time.

I've also disabled to Native patching of the SANE math code used in AppleWorks. Apparently there is a format that is not currently supported and thus returns incorrect results (particularly for TimeOut Measurements). I hope to either support the unknown format (assuming I can find documentation) or allow users to toggle the native code on and off.

Again, you can use the auto-update feature or download using the link on the right.

Latest Release: Deja IIx 2.0a20

HIRES Root beer for all

2007-06-04T14:44:00.000-07:00

I was almost ready to give up. After hours and hours of walking through code, I just could not find what I knew to be a very subtle change that was causing Deja IIx to fail (when the original Deja ][ did not).

I decided to spend a few more hours on it. In the course of things to come, I ended up more accurately emulating the Language card bank switching (which turns out wasn't the problem). I also managed to find some PDF's that include the original Apple II reference manuals (boy I could have used those a while back).

So, what was this elusive bug? It turns out that TimeOut (and possibly AW) were expecting the Hi-Res pages to get switched in/out correctly, not for graphics, but for data management. I had forgotten to process the Hi-Res bank-switching correctly.

Time working on this bug : several days
Lines need to be added : about 10
Knowing this bug is squashed : Priceless

Latest version is available with link on upper right of blog. If you have 2.0a17, you can use the check for updates to automatically update your software.

Latest version: 2.0a18

Come Scale Away..

2007-06-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

Another release is here and scaling is back (at least for the time being). In fact, you can scale from 1.0 -> 2.0x in virtually any increment.

Added Sparkle for easy, auto-updating.
You can now toggle the DebugMode on/off w/o restarting.
Selecting the AppleWorks is done under its own tab in preferences.
And fixed some resizing issues for a future OS release. :-)

Known issues:

There are a couple very strange bugs lurking. If Deja IIx crashes, you've likely found the bug.

Trying to use TimeOut Utilities for anything but Configuring can cause Deja IIx to crash.
Removing changed files from a desktop with many files may cause a crash as well.

You can download the latest release with the new permanent link on the right column.

Latest version: 2.0a17

Show me the Open-Apple!

2007-05-28T01:45:00.000-07:00

Yes, there is a new release -- finally. The new code includes a completely redone display engine. The new display should give the same or better performance in display and scrolling. More importantly, the new display should work correctly on Leopard (the previous release did not) and should handle resolution independence.

What else has changed?

1. The interface has gone minimal. The Action Palette is gone in favor of an Action drawer which you can toggle on when you need it.

2. Scaling is no longer an option. Scaling can really slow things down in a major way, so it's gone for now (but I'm still researching how I can increase the display size w/o too much of a performance hit).

3. Color preferences changed to be a bit more WYSIWYG.

4. Under Preferences > ProDOS paths, Deja IIx now looks for AppleWorks folders and provides a complete list (great if you've got multiple). No more typing in paths to change which AppleWorks folder you want.

The newest download can be had at Version 2.0 (A16).

RSS feed reminder

2007-04-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons for using a blog is that you can subscribe to the RSS feed.

If you use an RSS feed reader, you can either use the link at the bottom of the right column, or if you're using Safari, by clicking on the RSS button in address bar.

Rebel Teenager?

2007-04-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

Deja IIx has reached that rebel teenager stage (although it probably started earlier and I just wasn't paying attention).

This quick fix resolves a crash on setting up the debugger window at launch, especially under 10.3.9.

The newest download can be had at Version 2.0 (A15).

IMPORTANT: I am *considering* bumping the OS requirements to 10.4 to take advantage of some newer APIs and reduce testing requirements. Your feedback is appreciated. Are you still using 10.3.9? Planning to move to either 10.4/10.5 or not? Let me know.

Warming up!

2007-04-14T02:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's been a while since I've posted anything new. I decided I needed some warm up exercises before I tried to do any heavy lifting.

This release features some modest changes, undoing some of the last changes made (which I ended up no liking very much). The debugger window explosion has been tamed, consolidating back to a single debugger window + memory windows.

I am also starting some experimentation on improving the display.

The newest download can be had at Version 2.0 (A14).

New Domain!

2007-02-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am slowly getting things back on track for Deja IIx, starting with a new domain!

DejaIIx.com is the new home for the Deja IIx project.
The main URL takes you to the blog for now, will probably change that over time.

The latest download can be had at Version 2.0 (A13).
Note: This is still very alpha.

A new location for files

2007-01-06T17:05:00.000-08:00

Deja IIx hasn't seen much action lately, as I'm finishing up the last bits in preparation for Macworld next week.

I moved some domains around and that caused the links to no longer work.

I moved the files to a new location and updated the blog to reflect those changes. In the process, I also removed some of the links to older releases.

After Macworld is done (and I've had a chance to recover), I'll get a chance to do some additional clean up work. Stay tuned.

If today() <= Jan 2007, then yieldToMainThread()

2006-11-05T07:03:00.000-08:00

I'm in the midst of preparations for Macworld 2007, a huge deal in terms of exposure, product development, and most importantly money spent.

All my energies are currently being applied to preparation for the show. I've got two development projects I'm trying to finish up so that they are ready come Macworld.

As such, Deja IIx development is on hold until after Macworld is complete so that all my time and energies can be spent in making it a successful show. Once the pressure of the show is gone, I can begin to look at the project again.

Thanks for your continued support.

Note: I have the previous release on the server, so if you do have issues with a13, you can drop back to a12.

Lucky Thirteen

2006-10-19T12:08:00.000-07:00

I realized that I've been sitting on the clipboard conversion code for some time. I apparently put the code in right after I posted a12 and then thought that it was actually part of a12. So here is a new version that includes clipboard conversion support.

What's New:

manual clipboard conversion support for Mac <-> AppleWorks
(sorry no auto conversions yet)

a new actions palette

improved save screen handling (Ultra Debugger)

support for an illegal Prodos (but legal Mac) name in path for /*/

additional cleanup on the Mac specific dot commands

New Version: Version 2.0a13

Get Ready, Set, QA

2006-10-18T22:22:00.000-07:00

I've been busy with other ongoing projects, so Deja IIx hasn't received as much attention as I would like, but the effort does continue.

That said, I'd like you to start building a list of issues you've run into with Release 2.0a12.

With this information, I can start tracking the remaining issues. I'd also like to get a sense of the importance of some of the missing functionality.

If You Would Prefer

2006-09-24T13:07:00.000-07:00

Deja IIx now has a revamped set of preferences. They are categorized into four main groups (General, Display, ProDOS Paths, and Debug).

General is the "other" bucket for preference options that don't fit into a specific category.

Display is for preferences related to the colors, sizing and opacity of the Apple II "screen".

ProDOS Paths allows you to specify where your AppleWorks files should reside as well as defining ProDOS Labels, a cool feature that allows you to use the Mac file system's deep file hierarchy within ProDOS.

Finally, Debug provides the options for debugging the emulator.

All of these are subject to change as we move along. Some of the features, such as Scale Factor, may come out differently as I pursue different approaches to handling the Apple II display.

Even Dozen

2006-09-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

A few more changes made with this release:

General Preference Section added

New Preference: Set AppleWorks Beep Sound

.Sound, .SoundCnt, and .SoundList dot commands now work correctly

Path label improvements. Labels can now be used as to specify partial directory paths (See Notes)

Path labels now support moving up and down directory tree

Disk Volume support is better (still issues with long volume names though)

Added improvements to AWP doc scrolling

Download: Deja IIx (Version 2.0a12)

The Eleventh Hour

2006-09-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

Several changes have been made to Deja IIx (2.0a11).

New Preference Window - UI for preferences revamped

New Preference - AppleWorks location allows you to specify where APLWORKS.SYSTEM resides

New Preference - ProDOS Path Labels allow you to use #labels to specify starting point for ProDOS paths

Debugger - added screen dump option

Disk Volume support - should now work better in specifying disk volumes

Scrolling - display should work, although still slower than I would like

Performance - performance should be much better. I would like to get feedback if it is not the case.

Focus - AppleWorks window now grays itself out when it is not active

Launch - AppleWorks window changes when Application launches

Download: Deja IIx (Version 2.0a11)

The changes should make Deja IIx much more usable. There are plenty of features still not there (printing support, clipboard support, snapshots), but most of the main AppleWorks features should now be working. If you encounter bugs, please let me know so that they can be tracked.

Number Nine, Number Nine

2006-09-03T14:24:00.001-07:00

Somehow the versions have zipped by: a7, a8, and a9. The good news is that this release (a9) seems to address many weird behaviors (read crashes) previously reported. The issue was tied to the Apple II's bank switching and UltraMacros (which was using bank-switching). Once the bank-switching issue was found and fixed, things worked more better.

Deja IIx (Version 2.0a9)

In addition to that, I changed Trace History to avoid a continual degradation of performance as the program runs. While the program runs slower, the performance .

For fun, I've added a couple more preset colors (in preferences) as well:

The Six Million Dollar Screen

2006-09-01T23:46:00.000-07:00

See, we're not done yet. We can rebuild it. We have the technology.

I've just uploaded a new version:

Version 2.0a6

I found a case where the CPU could still get ramped up, even when nothing was happening (around 20% of the CPU being used). That's fixed now. Anyone using Monitor (in your Utilities folder) will find that Deja IIx quickly spins down when not in use or when waiting for you.

Screen Scrolling is improved. In a5, any part of the screen that needed to be scrolled was essentially redrawn. It now actually scrolls the screen and only draws the new content.

Prodos calls can now be logged. Not all parameters are shown yet, but that'll be next. It does show the command and whether an error was returned.

The emulator should now stop everything if it encounters a BRK or unknown opcode.

A Gentle Reminder

2006-08-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

While the visual progress seems tremendous, this is in a very, very alpha state. Sometimes the visual progress can be deceptive. Folks that are joining on need to realize this fact.

Lots of things are bound not to work. I'm using someone else's 65c02 emulator, which seems to be doing a good job, there are are definitely bugs in it. I found a major one already that caused AW to crash. One of the tasks it to set up a way to log and track the issues that do come up to insure they aren't dropped.

Also a reminder. This is a (non-commercial) side project for me -- the time spent from this point forward will be just a few hours a week, maximum. As fun as it might be to focus all my time on it, it won't pay the bills. So progress will definitely slow from what you've seen recently, as my focus returns to "my day job", as it were.

Still, I do appreciate all the encouragement and I hope that progress will continue at a more slow, but steady pace.

This project allows me to experiment in coding areas as well as development techniques and ideas that I don't get a chance to explore with my existing projects -- which is one of the reasons I'm drawn to it.

Again, I do appreciate the support.

And if you want to tell more of your friends about TextSoap, I won't stop you.

Fab Five

2006-08-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

I've made a few more changes. See if you can spot the difference.

Deja IIx (Version 2.0a5)

Here's a hint:

Alpha x 4

2006-08-22T19:37:00.000-07:00

I've posted an update that should address a bad display problem under Panther (the text was all garbled). This should no longer happen. I also added Debug preference to determine if Prodos OPEN is tracked. This can be useful when debugging the initial load sequence.

Deja IIx (Version 2.0a4)

Moonbase Alpha

2006-08-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

Well, here is your first chance to see Deja IIx for yourself. You can download the Alpha version at this link:

Deja IIx (version 2.0a1)

Be sure the read the notes that come with it. There are definitely issues that aren't addressed, but it does generally run and is completely OS X native.

My goal was to spend this week giving Deja IIx enough attention so that folks could start playing with it and most things worked.

While it won't get as much attention after this week, the issues left can be addressed in smaller chunks of time. So progress will slow down from the pace of this week, but it will continue.

WE HAVE LIFTOFF!

2006-08-19T20:22:00.000-07:00

After an attack of the most subtle bugs in the JMP (Addr,x) command, which AppleWorks happens to use, we have success. The emulator was calculating the address incorrectly and so the program kept crashing. This is more than just launching. It is running.

But it's not quite ready for prime time. There are a couple outstanding issues that I want to address before I let it out into the wild (even as an alpha).

Uppercase Inverse text issue. This is related to the MouseText issue. The result is inverted uppercases in menus, etc.

Cursor. The cursor is not blinking at all right now.

Performance. I need to make some adjustments to make the program more usable and responsive to the user. Also, I want to reduce the CPU load when possible. This is especially true while waiting for the user to input text. The emulator is going full bore waiting for you to hit a key.

Keys, Keys everywhere and not a Key to press!

2006-08-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

Keyboard handling is one of the last main pieces of code that I would like to get working this week. Unfortunately, it is not a straightforward process.

I'm hoping that some of the bits I've learned on that series of tubes known as the internet (thank goodness it didn't get clogged up) will help in most of cases. I definitely don't want to have to write m own USB keyboard driver! Regardless, the keyboard handling will have to be all new code.

I would also like to be able to put some throttling on the emulator so that it doesn't run at full speed (cpu cycles) while it waits for you to type something. Deja ][ could suck up 95% of the CPU cycles waiting for you to press a key. Even though the non-debug emulation will eventually be in a thread, it will still need to hang out in a less intense way when waiting for user input.

Some other key items of note:

If anyone ever wrote a Mac plug-in, be warned that it will not work with Deja IIx. I am working on a more modern replacement of the plug-in design.

MouseText isn't working quite right yet. Still tracking down the specifics on when it is supposed to be used when dealing with Assembly programs. I found the tech note when using BASIC though.

Serial Port native commands will simply be ignored.

Finally, work on Deja IIx will slow down after this week. My focus returns to several ongoing projects that are designed to pay the bills. That's not to say it won't get attention. I'm hoping that it won't necessarily need as much attention.

AppleWorks Forever!

2006-08-18T01:04:00.000-07:00

Deja IIx was choking on me right at the loading of AW.INITS. That seems extremely strange. I ran the original Deja ][, worked like a charm. OK, so it must be something in the creation of the prodos directory (the code is all new to use modern OS X routines). After looking at the same code over and over again (and walking the same piece of Apple II code that scans the directory) I finally spot the problem. The storage type of the entry is looked at. What was 0x10 originally was changed to 0x1 (very subtle indeed). Bingo!!

OK, the emulator was no longer choking, but it wasn't loading AW.INITs either (It was loading TimeOut code though). Hmm, very strange indeed. More coffee!! I need more coffee!! So I thought -- hey, I haven't run this on a PPC in a while (and theoretically it should just work). So I run it on the PPC machine and guess what, AW.INITs load up. The light bulb goes off!! There is a endian issue here (PPC stores words and longs in Big-Endian, Intel, and Apple IIs use Little-Endian). After more digging, I managed to find two very different byte swap issues dealing with the filetypes and auxtypes.

So I present to you, your first trip to the Main Menu:

Yes, inverse uppercase isn't drawing correctly (and keyboard input doesn't work yet), but we're going from launch to the Main Menu on Intel AND PPC. That's a lot of code that has to execute.

Speaking of execution. The emulation is running in debug mode, which basically checks various conditions with each instruction and uses a timer to execute on a regular basis. It does have internal loop that allows it to process a variable number of instructions with each "timer hit". I cranked this puppy up (from 50 to 5000) and BAM!, not even 0.5 seconds from launch to Main Menu. It was literally so fast that some of the startup screens (AW.INITS, TimeOut) weren't drawn before they were overwritten with the Main Menu. That was cool!!

Hey, I recognize you!

2006-08-16T22:46:00.000-07:00

With the debugger generally working (in read-only mode, no writing), progress has continued. In fact, the pace has moved considerably. The debugger helped me track down some subtle changes in the emulation that affected native calls.

Reading a directory does not currently work. Keyboard events aren't handled. There are some performance issues with the screen display and the emulation. Lots of little things. Most of the bugs are now falling into the subtle category. Subtle changes with the emulation, native code handling, etc.

This screen shot is a sign of progress, not a declaration of success. There is plenty more left to do.

Da bug is in da house!

2006-08-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

After a week at WWDC, I wasn't quite ready to dive into the latest and greatest technologies (my brain is still processing all that information), so I decided to spend a little time on Deja IIx. You can click to see the full-sized images.

For fun, I thought I would show off some pics of the Debugger, which is pretty much complete. The console shows disassembled code, memory dumps and such.

Breakpoints can be set on when the program counter, when a memory address is read or written to.

Trace History allows you to actually watch every change made while the CPU is running, each execution of an OPCODE includes the current registers, CPU status. You can literally watch as loops unfold and data is accessed.

With the completion of the Debugger, the next step is adding the 65c02 opcodes needed to continue emulation.

Finally, note the subtle change in name (you did catch it in the first paragraph, right?). Due to the pathname issue, I decided to go with Deja IIx instead of Deja //x.

ProDOS Prefixes

2006-08-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

One of the changes that I think needs to be introduced with Deja IIx is some additional prefix specifiers.

Currently, the APLWORKS.SYSTEM is set to most likely live at somethng like:
/Volumes/Users//Library/Application Support/Deja IIx/

As you can tell, that is a very, very log pathname -- and that's just the starting point. Obviously , we have already have a special specifier for this location "*/".

What this points out, however, is that files are likely to sit fairly deep in the hierarchical file structure on your Mac drive. This gets more complicated when you take into account that ProDOS name limitations are a fraction of the Mac's.

So what to do. Well, I'm looking at adding additional special prefixes which can be set in the Mac environment. On the Mac side, these are always expanded out to their specified location, so matter where it sits on the hard drive.

So, you'll be able to specify a path with something like "#01/filename.awp" and it will read the "filename.awp" from the location specified for "#01/" which will reduce a 60-70 character path down to 4 characters. Not all the details are worked out, but it should help mitigate some of the Mac HFS+ <-> ProDOS path issues.

Our own Time Machine?

2006-08-11T07:32:00.000-07:00

This week there was a lot of talk about Time Machine. Of course, we're doing our own variation of "time machine" with Deja IIx.

Unfortunately, while at WWDC, I had a hard drive mishap which wiped out my drive. I didn't lose any critical data (it is all sitting backuped up at home), but it left me without code to play with during the week. Such is life. As they say in the world of physics when talking about theoretical time machines, you can only travel back as far in time as when the time machine was created.

Before all my data was wiped, I did manage to find the compiler problem that kept causing weirdnesses with the endianness (are there enoungh ness's now?) with the emulator. And I managed to retain that info (it is a one line fix).

And theoretically, if all we saw at the Keynote is true, not only could Deja IIx due some fancy, very unnecessary graphical animations, but it could be a 64-bit app. Imagine your AppleWorks desktop reading 40GB of free space. Of course, I'm kidding - there is no benefit to the Deja IIx project to use 64-bit, but it is a big step for OS X (it is one of those things that requires a huge amount of engineering, is perfect for a relatively small group of people, but the majority won't notice any difference).

JMP $48B4

2006-07-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

I have managed to load APLWORKS.SYSTEM into memory and execute the first instruction (again). There are still some pieces not fleshed out in the ProDOS handling, but you got start somewhere.

More importantly, I'm finishing up the work on a new debugger which will allow me to step through the Apple II instructions, set breakpoints, view memory and disassemble the code. The Apple II debugger code is about 80% complete. The Apple II debugger is a necessary part to validate that everything is working (and track down the code if it is not).

Also, I was having some inconsistencies with the 65c02 emulator code I found, so I reverted back to the more stable 6502 emulator (I'll add the needed 65c02 instructions myself).

Two steps forward, one step back.

Product-name

2006-07-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

Even though the code-name is "Phoenix, the Rebirth", there is still a need to come up with name/version for the final product.

Would it be?

"Deja ][ 2.0"
"Deja ][ vX"
"Deja ][ 10.0"
"Deja ][ X"

No, no, no, no. After much contemplation, the name I went with is:

"Deja //x"

Much like Apple ][ became Apple //e, Deja ][ becomes Deja //x. The "//" hints at the more modern variation and the "x" suggests Mac OS X support.

ProDOS

2006-07-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

Progress continues on Phoenix 2, but it is a much bigger project than I originally envisioned.

Obviously the file system is an important piece as AppleWorks cannot even load itself without it. Deja ][ relied on a native ProDOS emulation which actually reads the files via the Mac OS in response to the ProDOS commands. This allows files to simply reside on the Mac OS hard drive (no funky disk images to deal with). This will continue.

Unfortunately, the ProDOS support code needed a major overhaul. Most of the Mac OS system routines used by Phoenix are now deprecated. I'm now in the process of revamping all the Prodos file handling code to use the more modern OS X APIs.

This brings us one step closer to the first AppleWorks Classic launch under Phoenix 2.

A Brand New CPU

2006-07-11T07:32:00.000-07:00

One of the changes in "the Rebirth" is a brand new CPU emulator. This emulator was originally written by Marat Fayzullin and Alex Krasivsky. Marat has written several CPU emulators and his design shows. The design already incorporates the issue of Big vs. Little Endian Host vs. Emulated CPU.

Unfortunately, their CPU is only a 6502 emulator. I figured that I would have to make up the difference (As I recall, AppleWorks 5 requires a 65c02). Luckily Steve Nickolas and Holger Picker took the M6502 emulator and added the 65c02 opcode changes.

Will this result in improved performance? It is hard to tell at this stage.

It also adds some additional work. The tight coupling to the CPU in the native routines has to be changed to use accessors (so it doesn't have to directly know what the CPU or memory looks like).

Renovation

2006-07-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

Much like in the world of construction, renovation is a lot trickier than the initial construction. All the plumbing and electrical is already in place and you have to work around that.

Phoenix 1 was essentially "grown". Each piece was built and tested little by little. Contrast this with "the Rebirth", where everything is already inter-connected and it all has to converted at the same time, before even the first line of code can be truly tested.

One of the changes is to more loosely couple the code pieces where possible, so the pieces are more often connected through an intermediary. It doesn't have a performance penalty, but does more easily allow pieces to be swapped in.

Introduction

2006-07-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

Phoenix was the code-name for Deja ][, a specialized emulator designed to run AppleWorks (Classic) on a Macintosh.

Deja ][ was originally published in 1995 and later, the source code was made available.

Feeling a bit nostalgic, I decided to update Deja ][ for the new millennium. Plus, Howard was egging me on.

And so comes Phoenix, the Rebirth.

Join me on this journey and let the nostalgia begin!