Hello All,
I continue my work on the smartloader for the smartdisk II, the current version uses prodos and before starting smartloader it fully loads prodos.
My goal is to optimize the loading process, my new approach is to use a custom bootloader and to use DOS3.3 RWTS.
My initial tests are good and it is working I should be able to have evevrything on track 0.
DOS3.3 RWTS is not optimized and not fast.
Searching on the net, I found proRWTS2 from Qumba, and I am looking for support to implement it.
My understanding is :
- proRWTS2 can replace DOSRWTS & PRODOS R/W routine,
- no need to load prodos
I tried to init proRWTS but within the init function it call $BF00... that is prodos.
Is there someone that has already used proRWTS or qboot (I will need also write block function)
Thanks
Vincent
I've never used that, but a possible option might be to use the DOS 3.3-like RWTS from one of the faster DOS 3.3 replacements/patches like ProntoDOS, David DOS, Diversi DOS, etc. There were a whole bunch of these back in the day and one of them might work for you.. They were designed to be compatible with DOS 3.3 but much faster.
Yes that could be a solution, but since the source code is not available and I only need rwts and do not want to load the full dis how do you determine the entry point of rwts ? Thanks vincent
I believe those alternate DOS 3.3 compatible need to use the same entry point for RWTS as DOS 3.3 to be compatible? You should be able to disassemble them to reverse engineer source code I think.
Hello,
You are right but RWTS entry point is a zero page $3D9,
I do not want to have the alternate dos fully load to define the zero page shortcut.
I have reverse engineered and
regular dos RWTS (before relocation is 3D00) Diversidos is BD00 (same as dos after relocation)
and it is working with extracting diversidos rwts (sector 2 to 9) to a custom image and having a custom iob and triggering diversi RWTS ;)
thanks
Vincent
The same with ProntoDos.
I have contacted Qkumba regarding proRWTS because, I would be willing to use prodos routine like read / write block, but the approach of extracting RWTS seems not to work with prodos.
I hope that proRWTS might be the option, and it is only 7 sectors to support both rwts and prodos.
Vincent
IIRC, there is a RWTS for 18 sectors / track out there, possibly on github, and it's in source code form.
Has been a few years since I grabbed it, so I'm not sure.
The point is that this RWTS can be downgraded back to 16 sectors / track.
- Uncle Bernie
With the help of Qkumba, I was able to use proRWTS without prodos.
There is a trick to be set at $BD00:
pla tax inx inx inx txa pha
Now I have what I need to finalize the new release of the smartloader.