Character Definition Utility Program

[Wmaalouli]

Hi.
I have developed a utility to help programmers create graphic characters on the Coleco Adam under CP/M. It was entirely programmed on the Adam itself using Turbo Pascal 3 with the bitmap graphic extensions and the Adamed 40 column text editor.

https://youtu.be/PeTVPwA8m7g

UPDATE 11/8/20
I have added file I/O error detection to the program so that it would not crash with a file error. Also you can now enter a full valid CP/M filename with extension and drive prefix when loading and saving. Finally I added captions for the Save and Load functions.
UPDATE 11/11/20
Just a minor tweak (should be the last one!). CHARDEF will now save all defined characters up to the first undefined one. This should make the save file much shorter as long as you don't leave undefined character between defined ones.

[joltguy]

Nice work!

Looking forward to trying this out.

[joltguy]

I just gave it a try for the first time on my ADAM and noticed the enhancements you made (vs what I saw in the video). Great updates!

The update to I/O is especially useful (being able to specify a drive prefix) and I am hoping you will add a similar enhancement to AdamEd. Currently AdamEd always tries to load/save files to the A: drive regardless of what I specify at the prompt. I typically like to work on the M: drive because its so fast and then copy to actual disk when I have a chunk of work completed.

It'd also be cool if there was a simple demo program included showing how to use your character sets.

[Wmaalouli]

I just gave it a try for the first time on my ADAM and noticed the enhancements you made (vs what I saw in the video). Great updates!

The update to I/O is especially useful (being able to specify a drive prefix) and I am hoping you will add a similar enhancement to AdamEd. Currently AdamEd always tries to load/save files to the A: drive regardless of what I specify at the prompt. I typically like to work on the M: drive because its so fast and then copy to actual disk when I have a chunk of work completed.

It'd also be cool if there was a simple demo program included showing how to use your character sets.

Adamed loads and saves to any valid drive. I actually developed the CHARDEF program entirely with Adamed running on the A drive and my development files located on the B drive. Not sure why you are having issues here... I wonder if you have a bad image. Try the one attached here which I just verified.
Incidentally, I made a minor tweak to the CHARDEF program so that it will save all defined characters up to the first undefined one. This should make the save file much shorter as long as you don't leave undefined characters in between defined ones.

[joltguy]

Thanks for your help!

Sorry I don't want to de-rail the CharDef thread with AdamEd stuff but I think I found my issue. You are correct that I can properly address the A: and B: drives from AdamEd. The problem happens if I try to read/write to the M: drive. Can you try saving a file to your M: drive from AdamEd and see where it ends up? For me it goes on the A: drive.

[Wmaalouli]

Ah looks like you are right! I don't know how the M: drive is set up on the Adam since ramdrives are not exactly standard in the CP/M world. Drives A to D all work fine, and I use the standard CP/M calls for drive access. Sorry but I have no idea how to fix that...

[joltguy]

Sorry but I have no idea how to fix that...

No problem at least now I know.

Now back to CharDef!

[Wmaalouli]

Sorry but I have no idea how to fix that...

No problem at least now I know.

Now back to CharDef!

Interestingly, Chardef will actually save just fine to the M drive, so I'm not too clear why it wouldn't work with Adamed.
I wonder if Milli has any thoughts on this.