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Serial Port BASIC?

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Tom Lake

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Jun 2, 2008, 2:13:56 AM6/2/08
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I have over a hundred different versions of BASIC but
I'm still looking for a DOS or Windows version that can be
operated totally from the serial port of a PC. I know
the command line

GWBASIC <com1: >com1:

*should* work but you can't see the line you're typing
until you hit return, INPUT stops at the first character
typed and there are other quirks as well. I'm looking
for a BASIC (or a DOS-based emulator of an earlier
system with BASIC) that only uses BIOS or DOS I/O calls.
That way, I can use the CTTY command to run the
computer from a real teletype and have BASIC, too.

Thanks for any leads you may have!

Tom Lake

winston...@yahoo.com

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Jun 2, 2008, 2:56:34 AM6/2/08
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May not help much, but didn't earlier versions of DOS use the MODE
command to redirect I/O?

This might work better (or maybe not) than the command line you have
above.

What I really miss is MODE C080 or BW80 to reset the graphics adapter.
I have an emulator that, when I exit, has strange colors and flashing
text and besides loading an ANSI driver and trying that, I can't see a
way to fix it (it works fine in DosBox, but at the speed of the
original computer, too!)...

And was there not a ctrl key (ctrl-prtscreen?) to have dos redirect
output to a printer?

Tom Lake

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Jun 2, 2008, 4:13:37 AM6/2/08
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<winston...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4b2073db-062d-4e40...@r66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...


> On Jun 2, 2:13 am, "Tom Lake" <tl...@twcny.rr.com> wrote:
>> I have over a hundred different versions of BASIC but
>> I'm still looking for a DOS or Windows version that can be
>> operated totally from the serial port of a PC. I know
>> the command line
>>
>> GWBASIC <com1: >com1:
>>
>> *should* work but you can't see the line you're typing
>> until you hit return, INPUT stops at the first character
>> typed and there are other quirks as well. I'm looking
>> for a BASIC (or a DOS-based emulator of an earlier
>> system with BASIC) that only uses BIOS or DOS I/O calls.
>> That way, I can use the CTTY command to run the
>> computer from a real teletype and have BASIC, too.
>>
>> Thanks for any leads you may have!
>>
>
> May not help much, but didn't earlier versions of DOS use the MODE
> command to redirect I/O?
>
> This might work better (or maybe not) than the command line you have
> above.

The MODE command can redirect standard I/O. Unfortunately, BASICA and
GW-BASIC
don't use standard I/O. 8^(

Tom Lake

Happy Trails

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Jun 2, 2008, 11:25:01 AM6/2/08
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On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 02:13:56 -0400, "Tom Lake" <tl...@twcny.rr.com>
wrote:

>GWBASIC <com1: >com1:
>
>*should* work but you can't see the line you're typing
>until you hit return,


Isn't that a function of the terminal you are using on the serial port
for input/output?

Most old tty terminals - at least the "newer" -hahaha- ones, were
programmable for local echo for systems that did not do a remote echo,
or to avoid this particular problem.

What are you using for a terminal - another pc? running what sw?

Steve Foley

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Jun 2, 2008, 11:02:20 AM6/2/08
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"Tom Lake" <tl...@twcny.rr.com> wrote in message
news:48438f9e$0$31749$4c36...@roadrunner.com...

Can you find (or write) something that will connect a serial port to a
telnet session?

Open com1 for input-output as #1.
open "telnet localhost" for input-output as #2.

When data-available(1) do:
get byte #1.
put byte #2.
end.

when data-available(2) do:
get byte #2.
put byte #1.
end.
wait for events.

Tom Lake

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Jun 2, 2008, 11:45:03 AM6/2/08
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"Happy Trails" <nom...@myplace.com> wrote in message
news:kt38449n61bvtsh4s...@4ax.com...

I'm using an ASR-33 Teletype. They were almost always set to 110 Baud,
Even Parity, 7 data, 2 stop bits and what used to be called "Full Duplex"
(no local echo)

This works fine with CTTY for DOS commands and it also works with BASICA
except for the glitches I mentioned (plus, if you get any error in your program,
you're dumped back to DOS). With GW-BASIC, the line doesn't show up
on the terminal until you press return. If I turn on local echo on the ASR-33,
then CTTY will show two characters for every one I type and GW-BASIC will
display the line twice. Once as I type it then again after I hit return. I have an
Altair replica on order which will solve my problems since the Altair software
was meant to be used with a Teletype. Until that gets delivered, though, I'd
like to find a BASIC I can use from the PC.

Tom Lake

Tom Lake

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Jun 2, 2008, 8:42:58 PM6/2/08
to

"Tom Lake" <tl...@twcny.rr.com> wrote in message
news:48438f9e$0$31749$4c36...@roadrunner.com...

> I have over a hundred different versions of BASIC but
> I'm still looking for a DOS or Windows version that can be operated
> totally from the serial port of a PC. I know
> the command line

Well I finally got around to trying Bywater BASIC. It's a bit buggy
in version 2.10 but it responds better to redirected I/O than any
of the other BASICs I've tried.

Tom Lake

Doug Miller

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Jun 7, 2008, 9:01:01 PM6/7/08
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In article <g214cg$l03$1...@aioe.org>, tl...@twcny.rr.com says...

> I'm using an ASR-33 Teletype. They were almost always set to 110 Baud,
> Even Parity, 7 data, 2 stop bits and what used to be called "Full Duplex"
> (no local echo)
>
> This works fine with CTTY for DOS commands and it also works with BASICA
> except for the glitches I mentioned (plus, if you get any error in your program,
> you're dumped back to DOS). With GW-BASIC, the line doesn't show up
> on the terminal until you press return. If I turn on local echo on the ASR-33,
> then CTTY will show two characters for every one I type and GW-BASIC will
> display the line twice. Once as I type it then again after I hit return.

Try setting it to half duplex with local echo.

ep...@juno.com

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Jun 11, 2008, 2:29:02 PM6/11/08
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On Jun 2, 2:13 am, "Tom Lake" <tl...@twcny.rr.com> wrote:

Look for a version of Microsoft Basic 5.x for DOS. Usually named
MBASIC or MSBASIC. It's the port of Microsoft Basic 5 from CP/M to MS-
DOS. No fancy screen handling at all. IIRC it also uses the same line
editing facilities as those in CP/M. I think the version number was
5.28. This is interpreted Basic just like ver 4.x and 5.x on CP/M.

- elliot
- e-mail: epc8 at juno dot com

Thomas Lutz

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Jun 19, 2008, 2:04:03 PM6/19/08
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One other thing that you might try is running everything inside a
Windows workstation and then using the "SerialKeys" tool in the
Accessibility options. Serialkeys basically converts serial data to
keyboard input in Windows.

On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 02:13:56 -0400, "Tom Lake" <tl...@twcny.rr.com>
wrote:

>I have over a hundred different versions of BASIC but

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