When I get a chance I’ll switch that to a ‘\r’ like it is in the mainline code and see if that helps. If so, I can add it into my repo and do an updated build.
Someone else had mentioned an issue with the keyboard input in my build but didn’t mention anything specific of the error they said they received, so I won’t know what to go on for that until I hear back. But maybe I can get this input issue fixed too.
I wasn’t sure why some of the code changes were made in the PicoCalc patch, but just to be safe I tried to carefully port everything over in my build. Figured bug fixes could follow later, and my main goal was to get something as close to the original PicoCalc version as possible.
Yes, I wondered (without building / testing myself) if this change meant that the line-feed was no longer being echoed to the “console” after an INPUT ?
I wasn’t sure why some of the code changes were made int he PicoCalc patch
I’m not sure either. It’s easy for me criticise when I’m not doing the work myself, but it looked like some of the changes may have been “ways that worked” rather than necessarily the “best way”, leading to strangeness such as MM.VRES == 480 rather than 320 … which someone who knows better than me suggested was because the driver being used for the 320x320 display was actually a driver for a 320x480 display.
But I’m not an expert on the hardware level of the PicoMite, I prefer to sit several levels removed from the electrons.
I hear you on that! I’ve worked at an embedded development company in the past, but I’ve only ever done application level stuff, and while I have a healthy respect for what hardware folks and device driver folks do, and the dark magic they perform, I’m kind of allergic, or at least fearful to that level of coding.
I’m not sure where they actually sourced this 320x320 display, as pretty much all information online about the same hardware lists it as a 320x480 display and is physically larger to match. The theory with this seems to be that the display buffer can be larger, even if it’s only displaying the “top” 320x320 pixels at any time, which I guess could make scrolling smoother since the pixels not shown are still in memory. But that also means more memory is being consumed, and on the lowest spec’d modules like the pico, that might end up being a hindrance. I’m not going to dig into this stuff though because I feel like I only know enough about this sort of thing to ask dumb questions or potentially shoot myself in the foot if I try to change anything. Sometimes the “weird” way is the efficient way, though I don’t understand this well enough to make any kind of reasonable guess here.
Where did you see that F1 was supposed to list files on teh SD card? In the manual, it looks like F1 is not assigned to anything. If you’re in the editor via a serial connection F1 will save the file you’re editing. But on the device itself, I don’t think it’s supposed to do anything by default, unless you map it to an OPTION yourself?
I made the suggested code change and rebuilt the firmware. I’ve only tested on the Pico2(W) build, but it’s the only change so the Pico build should (hopefully) still be working as well.
i got one a week ago, but i have no clue where to start, there is the hardware it works, i can run basic commands, all i get is out of memory message when i try to start any thing … and there are zero how to get started instructions … the hardware is nice, but the product is incomplete …
They make great hardware, but it takes time for the software to appear (months to years) and it’s usually developed by the community. Many people get their devices with the intention of developing something custom that they plan to build and use on the device.
It’s possible to use their devices with the software that ships.on them, but they’re more tools to be used as a platform, and not usually plug and play applications with a specific purpose. The uConsole and Devterm are handheld Linux computers. The Gameshell is a handheld gaming device platform (which arguably works out of the box, but to get any kind of performance and extra functionality you’d need to research and use community builds and potentially port apps over yourself.)
What you’ve got with PicoCalc out of the box is PicoMite – a platform that will allow you to write your own BASIC applications. But you’ll need to read the PicoMite manual and then figure out what you want to build. You could also install the uLisp firmware or one of the others, and build your own stuff with those.
It could definitely benefit from good tutorial information or guides on the software side, but Clockwork doesn’t really do that. They just make cool hardware. The best way to learn about how to use it is to research and read the forums, ask questions, and share the things you’ve built or are interested in building.
hey, many thanks for your reply, again, the hardware is amazing, i would have expected a starting point in the various more popular directions, e.g. python (as currently one of the most popular) and clearly nes and the other … i love the hardware and i do have a goal to program something (but i know python and javascript and i really don’t want to start c/c++ again or even basic again, many thanks for your response, and you are right, the community is full of committed people, love it! i will dig deeper
Might be helpful to point to what you got running on it (and any modificaitons needed to support the display, keyboard, etc.), in case others are interested in Forth.
I found a few projects on github that were various ports to the pico, going back many years, but it would be interesting to know what you got working.
“Thanks for the reply and for confirming your experience of this.
“Files” works for me also.
Weird that F1 doesn’t do anything though as that is the default for the Files command.”
F1 on the Colour Maximite 2 brings up the file browser on the SD card…just checked on mine.
There you can move a cursor up and down the list of files and folders, explore folders and sub folders and select .bas files (and run them). I was just surprised not to see this running on PicoMite.
Thought it would be the same on PicoMite, hence my previous posts of stupidity!
Sorry for the slow reply but I wanted to check this!
All the commands are there do to so. Someone just has to write it.
I create a simple menu program that just gets a list of files, lets you scroll through the names and select the one you want to run.
It wouldn’t be a heavy lift to add more features like deleting the file by hitting the Del button.
Or entering a subdirectory by pressing enter.
Or renaming by hitting something like F2.
I have Zeptoforth running on the PicoCalc with LCD drivers I wrote for other boards and portred to PicoCalc. It is very nice! I posted a demo i created in Forth on the Forth2020 Forth programming language group yesterday.
