AD/CPM/MBasic Quick Reference Card

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Thomas Niccum

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Sep 5, 2021, 5:42:51 PM9/5/21
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I've been playing around with the AltairDuino now for a few weeks and started a quick-reference card for switch settings, CP/M commands and BASIC language commands and functions.  

It's sort of personalized to what I'm doing (booting up to CP/M and writing code in MBASIC) but feel free to modify it to your needs.

As I've been switching between my PiDP8i, PiDP11 and the Altair, I was getting a bit lost with the dialects of basic and OS commands, so this card saves me from digging in the manuals.

PDF and MS-Word Doc attached.

Any comments, corrections or other thoughts encouraged!


Altair Reference CARD.docx
Altair Reference CARD.pdf

Richard Deane

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Sep 6, 2021, 7:00:33 AM9/6/21
to Thomas Niccum, Altair-Duino
Very useful piece of doc. Thanks.
Given that you have a little free space before the MBASIC info it would be useful to push that down a little and add in a small section on the front page about the console commands that can be used when running in standalone mode (no switches).

e.g. (a fragment) 
m H 0 0 <cr> to show hard disk list
m F 0 0<cr> to show floppy disk list

m H 0 3 <cr> to mount disk 3 (for cp/m boot)
also e.g.  to mount other disks with cp/m: m H 1  3 


then to boot cp/m:

check sw settings (the m h 03 <cr> etc seems to set some switches so clear down e.g. 

/0
/cd123
u  

u (same as AUX| 1 down)

should then boot

There may be more, that's notes from my previous session running on a plain DUE (with SD card add-on)


Richard

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Thomas Niccum

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Sep 6, 2021, 11:50:37 AM9/6/21
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Cool, thanks.

Hadn't really played with the standalone mode.  

I'll add that (looks like Enable Serial Input (i), Enable Serial Debug (d) need to by "Yes"

Looking at the documentation for the debugger (page 27 of Hansel's guide) it is noted that some functions are only enabled during stand-alone mode which, to use:
"(those marked as STANDALONE only work if stand-alone mode is enabled in setup.h)"

In my code set there is no 'setup.h', but I found the STANDALONE setting in config.h
Also... s, l and m work on my setup, but STANDALONE setting is 0, so maybe the documentation is off.
0-9,a-f and / do not work.  I'll have to try to reflash with STANDALONE set to 1

// If enabled, Address switch state will be set by issuing the '/'
// serial command.  Actual switches will be ignored.
// Useful when operating while not connected to the front panel hardware.
#define STANDALONE 0
 
Full list of commands for the serial debugger:

0-9,a-f  STANDALONE only: Toggle SW0-15
/           STANDALONE only: Prompt for value to set SW0-15
r           Run
o          Stop
t           Step
R          Reset
!           Hard reset (STOP+RESET)
X/x      Examine/examine next
P/p      Deposit/deposit next
U          AUX1 up
u          AUX1 down
s          STANDALONE only: Capture serial data (AUX2 up)
l           STANDALONE only: Play back captured serial data or BASIC example (AUX2 down)
m         STANDALONE only: Mount (hard) disk image (AUX2 down)
Q          Protect
q          Unprotect
>          Run from address
B          Add breakpoint (only if breakpoints enabled in setup.h)
V          Delete last breakpoint
D          Disassemble (will prompt for start address, space bar continues, any other key exits) M Dump memory (will prompt for start address, space bar continues, any other key exits) n change number system (hexadecimal/octal/decimal)
C          Enter configuration menu
L           Load a program or data through serial input into simulated memory

I'll work on adding this info to the card.



Walt Perko

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Sep 6, 2021, 12:54:03 PM9/6/21
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Hi, 

I've been doing something similar posting my notes (not in any particular order, but searchable) on my website;  

and I'm also adding programs not found online, or modified for the Altair 8800 here;  

I'm thinking that modifying your "card" into specific pages for the .PDF file, then posting it on my site for people to use.  

Move the MBASIC onto its own pages and make the fonts slightly larger?  I can do it if you don't care and I can have the original card available for download too.  

My idea is that people don't want to print stuff out so much as have it handy.  

IF anybody has a suggestion or finds something on my webpage that looks good to add to your document don't hesitate to grab it.  My intention is to help, not hinder.  

Richard Deane

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Sep 6, 2021, 2:01:17 PM9/6/21
to Thomas Niccum, Altair-Duino
Thanks , much better to have it central and published, in my own copy I added this in the first column:

Standalone/Serial Debug commands

 

0-9,a-f Toggle SW0-15 (only if stand-alone mode enabled in setup.h)

/  Prompt for value to set SW0-15 (only if stand-alone mode enabled in setup.h)

r Run

o Stop

t Step

R Reset

! Hard reset (STOP+RESET)

X/x Examine/examine next

P/p Deposit/deposit next

U AUX1 up

u AUX1 down

s AUX2 up

l AUX2 down

Q Protect

q Unprotect

> Run from address

B Add breakpoint (only if breakpoints enabled in setup.h)

V Delete last breakpoint

D Disassemble (prompts for start addr, space bar continues, any other key exits)

M Dump memory (prompts for start addr, space bar continues, any other key exits)

n change number system (hexadecimal/octal/decimal)

C Enter configuration menu

L Load a program or data through serial input into simulated memory

First value is start address, second value is length, followed by data bytes (all values separated by spaces).

H Load a program in Intel HEX format through serial input.

Useful to deposit programs and/or data directly into the simulated memory

 Useful commands:

m H 0 0 <cr> to show hard disk list

m F 0 0<cr> to show floppy disk list

m H 0 3 <cr> to mount disk 3 (for cp/m boot)

also e.g.  to mount other disks with cp/m:

m H 1  3 

 To boot cp/m: check sw settings (the m h 03 <cr> etc seems to set some switches so clear down e.g. 

/0

/cd123

u  


Cheers
Richard


 



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Thomas Niccum

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Sep 6, 2021, 2:03:04 PM9/6/21
to Walt Perko, Altair-Duino
Cool!

I worked on it this am and will re-post.

I moved all the BASIC stuff to its own page.
I added a page for the Instruction set.
I added the suggested serial debugger stuff.
Adding a section for CP/M ED editor.

I kinda like the idea of the printed card sitting next to my terminal (I print these out on heavier stock) as it reminds me of the good-old-days where every processor/program had such a cheat sheet.
But having the same info on the web is good too.

Feel free to deconstruct/reconstruct whatever I post - most of it is just reformatted straight out of the various manuals.





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Thomas Niccum

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Sep 6, 2021, 6:21:53 PM9/6/21
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Updated card...

Page 1 updated with suggestions, and a few items added and reorganized.

There are 2 versions of Page 2... 
1. BASIC
2. 8080 Instruction set

With the reorg, there's a bit more room on page 1, so let me know what references you use a lot.
Altair Reference CARD.docx
Altair Reference CARD.pdf

Tom Wilson

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Sep 6, 2021, 6:23:49 PM9/6/21
to Thomas Niccum, Altair-Duino
Wow. That’s really nice. Gonna get Chris to include that with new systems?

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Chris Davis

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Sep 7, 2021, 9:15:35 AM9/7/21
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Very nice!
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