BasDT with RO5

Would the !Patch system work with RO5 if 32bitted?

It would probably be easier to write something new.

Apart from the application itself, for which the sources may not be available, it uses Unsqueeze and Squeeze. Do they exist for RO5? For the Rom it uses ROMPatch, which I think worked by paging in a 4k copy of the part of the Rom containing the patch and then patching the copy. I suspect that this would not be possible in RO5. Jeffrey?

There were only a couple of official patch files, I think, and it was probably very rarely used otherwise.

it uses Unsqueeze and Squeeze. Do they exist for RO5?

Yes.

For the Rom it uses ROMPatch, which I think worked by paging in a 4k copy of the part of the Rom containing the patch and then patching the copy. I suspect that this would not be possible in RO5. Jeffrey?

You suspect wrong.

You suspect wrong.

There you go – beyond my pay-grade. ;-)

Is the Iyonix ROM compressed

If you are talking about the standalone one from PlingSystem, then yes it is.
Indicated by the Init entry having bit 31 set.
Mind you, the uncompressed bit at the start has BASIC in it – twice!
If you have the DDE, then !UnModSqz will expand it.

Mmm – BASIC from RO5.25 – ie the Iyonix download is a different version 1.75 from the RiscPC version – but the BasDT module (based on the RiscPC BASIC) seems to work ok -(on the Iyonix) – from a short test.

How many versions of BASIC 1.75 are there?

So now have a version of BasDT – that seems to work ok with VRPC-DL RO4.02/RO5.25 & the Aug 2018 RO 5.25 Iyonix.

How many versions of BASIC 1.75 are there?

As I said before …

All the ROM versions are tailored to the specific machine that the ROM is for – and I am not sure they include the messages. The softload versions for any machine can be found in the System Resources PlingSystem/zip download, in !System.310.Modules.BASIC & BASIC64. They do include the Messages.

I believe they all behave the same (although hardware differences may affect thing like floating point and VFP). The binary differences may include slight variations due to differences in instruction set, 26/32 bit, etc. Some of the ROM modules may well be identical.

BASIC in System – seems to be 26bit only – prob built with the Arc A310 etc in mind.

With patching in mind (how to tell them apart) – it would be handy – if the modules came as a series ie:-

1.75 for A310
2.75 for RPC/A7000
3.75 for Iyonix
4.75 for later ones
etc

[edit 1]
If the lack of version number is thought a problem.
How about ver 2.7500

[edit 2]
It’s interesting that with the BASIC messages file there is VFPData file – included in the RiscPC 5.25 ROM.

BASIC in System – seems to be 26bit only

Of course. There’s no need, if it can run 32 bit BASIC, it can run RO5.

if the modules came as a series ie:-

Why? They are ostensibly the same thing from the same source with minor variations due to architecture.

Why not throw the entire module at OS_CRC and use that as a fingerprint to tell them apart?

BASIC in System – seems to be 26bit only – prob built with the Arc A310 etc in mind.

Apologies for suggesting otherwise – it is indeed 26-bit only as it has no 32bit header. It is intended for any of the non-RISC OS 5 machines – which will all be running 26-bit only.

Remember that anything in a RISC OS 5 ROM may be a version built for that specific machine – not just BASIC. And they all have the same version number.

With ref to BasDT author ‘Dick Alstein’ has anyone had any luck finding him – I see there is a snail address in the Prog BasDT.