Kowalski Simulator Updates

[8BIT]

Mark H wrote:

Hi,

Thanks for posting this update.

I am getting to grips with how to us the Kowalski Simulator. A question:

What is the difference between the File, Save Code output options of:
a) Binary Image .65b and
b) Binary Program .65p

Assembling one of the examples the output looks identical?
(at least when input to my Eprom Programmer TL866A USB Universal Minipro Programmer Kit (Mino Pro v6.60 interface))

Thanks in advance.

Mark

ps, If anyone would be generous enough to post (or point me to) some extended example code to help me get a feel for how the various Kowalski simulator/assembler directives are used in practice that would be helpful, the documentation and examples I have found from http://exifpro.com/utils.html are somewhat limited.
pps, Or is there a 'Manual' out there?

Hello Mark,

Sorry, I missed this earlier. The .65p file is supposed to provide some header data where the .65b is a raw binary. In my test, I too had no header data. There may be some assembler directives to provide header data, but I have not researched that or how to get the header included.

For code examples with directives, look within this forum, as I think some have been posted over the years. I don't use much more than the "*=" ORG statement and the .include for managing multiple source files. I also use .byte and .word for data. use .byte with text surrounded by quotes for text string storage. There is a Polish manual out there, but not much in English that I have heard of.

Best of luck!

Daryl

[CurtisP]

It doesn'y look like this has been mentioned. Windows 10 doesn't natively support .hlp files. It would be nice to have the docs recompiled to a .chm file.

[8BIT]

If anyone has experience in converting these files, please let me know. I can most likely fix the code to open the right file, but have not done any help file conversions. My time is limited these days, but will keep this on my list of requested updates.

thanks!

Daryl

[greghol]

Druzyek wrote:

8BIT, you were right. The listing output was pointing to a folder I had moved. It stopped crashing when I changed it. Thanks for the help.

It would be nice if this was fixed. I ran into this issue about a month ago after renaming the directory that the simulator was located in. Assembling EhBasic completed but the window would freeze and then the whole sim would just crash. It was about a day of scratching my head before noticing the setting and I corrected the path. After that the assembly was successful without a crash.

Greg

[8BIT]

I will note this request as well.

Thanks!

Daryl

[8BIT]

CurtisP wrote:

It doesn'y look like this has been mentioned. Windows 10 doesn't natively support .hlp files. It would be nice to have the docs recompiled to a .chm file.

I have created the 6502.chm file using Microsoft's winhlp conversion tool. As many already know, the original Help was in Polish. The new chm file is also in Polish. I am including it here for anyone interested. I do not have time to do the translations.

I am still working on the code conversion to switch the application from the old HLP help file to the new CHM HTML help file. When That is done, I'll post the updates.

Daryl

[8BIT]

greghol wrote:

Druzyek wrote:

8BIT, you were right. The listing output was pointing to a folder I had moved. It stopped crashing when I changed it. Thanks for the help.

It would be nice if this was fixed. I ran into this issue about a month ago after renaming the directory that the simulator was located in. Assembling EhBasic completed but the window would freeze and then the whole sim would just crash. It was about a day of scratching my head before noticing the setting and I corrected the path. After that the assembly was successful without a crash.

Greg

So I'll just say I hate C++ and hate even more Windows programming. I have not given up on this yet but it will talk a long time to gain the understanding I need to solve this. In the mean time, here is my recommendation. Do not include a file path in the Listing file select box. Just use a filename. You can even go one more and use a generic listing file name such as "listing.lst" that does not need to be changed between multiple projects. The file will be generated in the same directory that the source was pulled from. That should stop the crashes.

Daryl

[8BIT]

hi all,

Here's an update on two recent requests:

Output listing - bad path crashes the program
I have corrected the behavior so that a bad file path will not open any listing file and the assembly will complete without crashing. There is no warning generated - you should notice no listing was generated and hopefully it will be obvious when you check the settings. If I can figure out a warning method, I'll add that.

Convert .hlp to .chm
I have migrated the existing help to the new format. It has 150+ html files that need to be converted to English. For now, its compiled using the existing Polish language. Updating the program to call the new format is proving to be more difficult that I figured. There are essentially 4 different help calling conventions being used and many calls spread throughout the source files. I'm still research a method that works to at lease open the new help with F1. C++ is not a fun language to use in my opinion. I was once told C++ was developed to give programmers job security - I'm starting to agree with that statement.

Once both of these are resolved, I will release version 2.15 - no completion date targeted yet.

be well!

Daryl

[BigDumbDinosaur]

8BIT wrote:

It has 150+ html files that need to be converted to English.

I can try to assist with that. I, of course, don't know Polish, but from using the simulator for some 17 years, I know how it works and can probably write narratives will be helpful to others. The only thing for me is, being blind in one eye, catching typos has gotten to be a bit of a challenge, and my general keyboard productivity has slowed down quite a bit. However, I'll do my best to make sense of it all.

[8BIT]

BigDumbDinosaur wrote:

I can try to assist with that. I, of course, don't know Polish, but from using the simulator for some 17 years, I know how it works and can probably write narratives will be helpful to others. The only thing for me is, being blind in one eye, catching typos has gotten to be a bit of a challenge, and my general keyboard productivity has slowed down quite a bit. However, I'll do my best to make sense of it all.

Thank you for your support, BDD! I have attached a ZIP file with the html files. I have already used Goggle Translate to convert "dyre0001" and "pomo0001".

There is no rush to get these done - I'm still getting my head around C++ and looking for coding examples.

Best wishes!

Daryl

[8BIT]

Hey BDD,

You might want to hold off on translating any more of these files. I found a tool to translate the source rtf files in the old help files. There are only about 5 or 6 of those. I can work on getting an English version of the old WinHelp functioning pretty quickly.

Then I can convert the English WinHelp to HtmlHelp, which creates those 150 files.

I've also make some progress with the application changes to support HtmlHelp. I have F1 and the Help Tab working and am getting a better understanding of the context sensitive Help features. I still need to iron out a few things but hope that won't take too long.

Daryl

[8BIT]

Edited: Removed this version of the file. See further down this thread for the replacement file.

After many hours of trial and error programming

I am pleased to announce Version 1.2.15 of the Kowalski Simulator.

This version fixes the lockup if the assembly listing file path does not exist. I was able to create a pop-up message stating the path is bad and where to fix it; and allow the assembly to continue without the listing file being generated.

I have also managed to convert the original Polish Help to English and converted the help system to the newer HTML Help, which works in Windows XP and above, including Windows 10.

I have tried to break the context sensitive help but so far everything seems to be working. Please report any problems here and I'll try to correct them.

So, without further ado, here it is!

[barrym95838]

Thank you, sir! I have been playing on and off with one of the previous versions for awhile, but I will definitely give your improved version some detailed attention, because it sounds like you've just made it much more accessible and friendly for me.

[8BIT]

I've had a report of the program not working correctly in Windows XP. I have XP in a VM and can confirm there is an an issue with the editor and reading settings from the registry. I will need to troubleshoot this issue.

If you have tried this version and find issues, please contact me with details on the OS and specific trouble.

Thanks!

Daryl

[8BIT]

I have found the reason the registry settings were not being read and have now corrected it. I did not encounter the editor issue reported, and cannot duplicated it, so will need more details if there is in fact an editor problem.

The updated Kowalski Simulator, version 1.2.15 - is attached here.

Thank you all for your feedback.

Daryl