CFOG's PIP, May 1989, Volume 8 No. 2, Whole No. 70, page 18

More on Geneva ROM Choices

[Taken from a message on the Antelope Freeway Remote Access System, a service of CFOG. This is a followup of sorts on the article in the preceding issue, by your editor, setting forth my choices of programs to put in ROM chips for the Epson PX-8 Geneva CP/M laptop computer. Andy Shapiro is about to complete graduate studies at the University of Chicago and head off to Rochester U. (if memory serves me correctly) where he and his wife will be sharing a faculty appointment in Political Science and tending a newborn daughter. Andy totes his PX-8 to the library and uploads his files to a Kaypro CP/M computer with a 256K SWP Co-Power board that he uses mostly as RAM disk for CP/M. Andy uses the EZCPR replacement for CP/M on his Kaypro.]

[The "multi unit" referred to is a two pound add-on to the Geneva that contains 64K of RAM disk, a 300 baud modem, and a slot for a third program ROM called drive I:, there being two such slots in the basic Geneva called drives B: and C:. The RAM disk is drive A:, and the Geneva's microcassette drive is H: -- bhc]

Msg #1468

    by Andy Shapiro
About: GENEVA ROMS

Ben -- here are my selections for a 32K ROM for my Geneva:

BATTERY .COM  1k  CONFIG  .COM  8k
D       .COM  1k  HP      .COM  2k
COMM    .COM  5k  CP      .COM  1k
E       .COM 11k  WC      .COM  1k

BATTERY is the program that came with my DAK machine -- graphics fuel gauge.

COMM is the DAKCOMM program. It's fast (19.2 KBD) and supports XMODEM, albeit the CHECKSUM version.

CONFIG is the version for CP/M 2.2B, as issued from Epson.

CP.COM is PIPE17.COM, small and fast for backing up to drive H:.

D.COM is a simple 1K directory with ordered and sized files.

E.COM is VDE 2.4, set up the way I like it. 2.4 is a very good editor, and seems to me to be the best compromise between size and performance. I don't like WS well enough to go with one of the later, larger versions.

HP is Eric Meyer's BIN/HEX/DEC/CHAR integer RPN calculator. The reason that I want this is that the other ROM will be BASIC, in case I need to do something that I'm not immediately equipped for.

WC is a small, fast and simple word count program. Sometimes it helps to know!

I couldn't think of anything else I wanted, and I still have 2K left! If it weren't for the fact that I'm dumping my multi unit in order to make a slimmer, trimmer PX8 (which also limits me to a 24K RAMdisk), I might include Portable Calc, which is very nice to have -- or maybe even SC2, which would fit in a 64K chip. [My information is that you can only put a 64K chip in the multi unit. I'm told the basic ROM slots only take 32K ROMS. And Geneva users with multi units should know before they purchase a ROM for the I: drive in the multi unit that if their system reads CP/M 2.2 rather than CP/M 2.2B they won't be able to access the ROM in the multi unit. Hit the reset button on the side of the machine to get a reading of the system version. -- bhc]

As it is, I've decided that the PX8 serves me best as a short-haul machine, for taking notes at the library and so forth. The only reason I'm including COMM is for getting things to my Kaypro, where they'll really get used. Of course, I'll keep the multi unit for trips of a few days, where I won't have access to the Kaypro, and where I need the modem.

Had an interesting idea, by the way -- since the ROM drives aren't write protected at the software level (writing to ROM just doesn't get writ, no R/O error), why doesn't somebody write a formatting program and plug in some SRAM chips in place of the PROMS? You could have an additional 64K RAMdrive (if you replaced ROM I with a 64*8 SRAM chip). I wonder if this would work, or if anyone has thought about it. The question would be whether or not (1) the SRAM is pin-compatible with the ROM and (2) whether or not a formatting program for the SRAM could be written...