Feature suggestion/discussion

[Tom Wilson]

In playing with my Altair again, after a while, I've been considering a couple of features that would make using it simpler, especially when connecting via a remote terminal connection from the other side of the house.

I have a couple of things that I'm considering adding to my personal build, and if you are all interested, I'll shoot them over to David. 

While I have considered some other Quality Of Life issues, I don't want to rush to do them all at once. Here are the first two things that I've been considering:

Profile auto-load without the Deposit switch 

This would load a system profile without the need to press the Deposit switch. Set the front panel switches to the profile you want to load, and turn on the power switch. The emulator will automatically load that profile. This will only happen if "auto load profile" is enabled in settings. 

Use case: I like to use the Altair from my PC when doing programming work, but I also like using the terminal when I'm just playing around or doing something else on the PC.

Auto start default action

When the system is turned on, the action assigned to Aux 1 Up would automatically be executed. So if you have a favorite ROM program or want to boot to disk, you could have that happen automatically. 

This would be a configurable option, and it would have to be enabled from the main menu.

Use case: I could remotely power cycle my Altair using a smart plug and then access the system remotely via a RS-232 terminal server (aka "WiFi modem")

What do you guys think? Are either of these things you'd use? 

[udo....@freenet.de]

These features are implemented in the IMSAI 8080esp clone, makes sense. You setup a profile with the switches and that is used, until changed again. Part of the profile is which or no ROM to load, with power on jump to the ROM. Entering it with the switches gets old after a while.

[Chris Davis]

Sounds like some good ideas.  When I have time I'll try them out.

[Tom Wilson]

Thanks for the feedback. I got myself into a PC build project this week, so I probably won't have time until the weekend. I'll update you guys when I have something you can test.

Tom Wilson
wils...@gmail.com
+1(619)940-6311 

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[Tom Wilson]

Ok, so I found the code where the system uses the DEPOSIT switch to load a profile, and my initial profile select test code works as expected. (It's just a 2 line change that calls the existing profile selection code.).

However, as I started to think about how to add the auto-profile setting to the menu, I realized that I can't just save it as part of the configuration, because this is setting the configuration. 

So I have a couple of ideas. Let me know what you guys think:

Option 1: Use SW7 to enable profile load. SW0-6 will choose the profile to load. This limits you to 128 profiles, but that doesn't seem like a huge problem. =)

Option 2: Create a new, global configuration file, that can be used to enable this feature or lock it out. This could be editable from the main menu (or maybe a sub-menu of global options), or maybe just be hand edited.

I had originally thought to use SW15 to enable the profile select feature, but I realized that would get in the way of using the Sense switches for ROM software that uses them. So SW0-7 are the only switches I can reliably use for profile selection.

Thoughts?

[Tom Wilson]

Good news! A preview version of the profile load/autostart feature is ready.

https://github.com/tomxp411/Altair8800/tree/dev-Autostart

You'll need to download the source code and compile it using the Arduino IDE. Be sure to check the Readme for instructions on using the Profile Select and Auto Start feature.

I'm still looking for input on how best to disable the profile load feature for those people who might find it annoying (leaving SW7 up turns on Profile Load.) 

Please leave feedback here or via an Issue on Github. I'll open a PR and run this by David in a few days.

[Chris Davis]

Awesome!  I will try that when I'm home on Monday. I'm really excited to try it.