forth to srec

[Josh Stewart]

Bit off topic, but may be you guys have had this problem before.
We have some forth scripts as text files that are test harnesses that
run on some legacy dy4 VME card (144).

At the moment we are using hyperterminal/terraterm to fire up GPM on
the 144, and starting the forth interpretter up (f 60000). We can then
load in the forth text across the serial line.

We have some issues with this process as the legacy card doesnt seem
to support serial handshaking and randomly drops characters during
transfers.

The documentation for the forth test harnesses says that the forth can
be converted to an srecord (somehow, this is unspecified) and then
transfered to the 144 using target download commands (which are well
documented). The only problem is I am unsure how to convert the forth
scripts to an srecord file. I am not sure if the forth needs to be
compiled first and then I can use the bin2mot utility
(forth->bin->srec), or if I can just convert forth->srec ?

Someone suggested perhaps if i can get the forth scripts onto the 144,
I might be able to suck the srec off the 144 to a host for safe
keeping, although I am not sure how to do this.

Thanks for your help, any suggestions are welcome.

Josh
aek.m...@gmail.com

[Krishna Myneni]

Before you resort to using binary downloads, you might
try setting the LINE DELAY and CHARACTER DELAY parameters
in your terminal program. This will slow down your transfer,
but by adding the appropriate delays after each line of text,
or after each character (typically a few ms), you may
allow the attached device to keep up.

Krishna Myneni

[Josh Stewart]

Krishna Myneni <krishn...@compuserve.com> wrote in message news:<chkbdc$gc5$1...@ngspool-d02.news.aol.com>...
> Josh Stewart wrote:
<snip>

> > Josh
> > aek.m...@gmail.com
>
> Before you resort to using binary downloads, you might
> try setting the LINE DELAY and CHARACTER DELAY parameters
> in your terminal program. This will slow down your transfer,
> but by adding the appropriate delays after each line of text,
> or after each character (typically a few ms), you may
> allow the attached device to keep up.
>
> Krishna Myneni

I have tried this and have had some success with a 70ms delay sending
each character :)
Now I just need to be able to store the forth test code on the target
after it is entered this way.
After typing for following into the GPM prompt
f 60000 (copies forth kernel to specified area of memory and
starts forth interpreter)
I can paste the forth across the serial line (with the delay). Once it
is programed in, I should be able to type 'bye' and exit back to the
GPM prompt. Then I should be able to warm-start forth using
myf 60000
to get back to where I was, to call the main test function.

I know where the forth kernel and code resides, but im not sure about
the length, is there anyway to determine how much space forth and the
test code is taking up after it has been entered?
Im hoping that I can save a slice of memory from ram into an eeprom,
so that later on I can simply copy it out of the eeprom, back into ram
and 'myf 60000' to get back to the forth and run the tests.

Thanks for your help so far,

_Josh