Denial

I am thinking to get a Wimodem (https://www.cbmstuff.com/products.php?cat=19&pg=2) so I can finally surf the Internet from the friendly computer! I was also thinking of a few little software projects using the modem.

My question is, if I write software for VIC-20 plus 32K expansion, plus user port modem (Wimodem or other type - they all work like Hayes modems as far as I am aware), is there anyone out there that can run it? Or is it strictly for an audience of one?

I'd use it! I sometimes connect to BBSes using my VIC 20 and a term program I wrote in basic (unexpanded). Works well at 1200 baud. You can download it off Centronian BBS ( centronian.servebeer.com 6400 ). Would be nice to have some more term programs for VIC, especially a 32K one! I've been meaning to start up a VIC 20 specific BBS with 22 column PETSCII screens. If I knew people would use it, I'd have more incentive!

I am thinking to write a news 'app' for the VIC that can slurp data from an RSS feed and display it.
Would give my VIC a job to do during the day while I am working.
Would be easy to do a stock ticker or something too.

Well if you create such a thing, I'll be sure to bring a VIC 20 into my office to keep myself up to date with an RSS! I have a Schema WiFi modem that I've used many times with my VIC. Also, a null modem cable to a PC with tcpser might also do the trick.

Development is underway!! I can do a lot of the testing in Vice, before my Wimodem arrives in the mail
I believe a general purpose RSS reader is feasible for VIC-20 +32K.
I have all the parsing code working. Just need to do the RS232 stuff and the display code.

Just to whet your appetite, here is a screen of (yesterday's) news that I extracted with my RSS code and displayed on the VIC-20 using Mightyterm. Right now the RSS decoding is being done on the PC, but the code written with the VIC in mind and I don't anticipate any issues running it there. Limiting factor is download time at 1200baud. The file I am playing with is typical at ~30KB. Will take three or four minutes to download the XML file.

Hmmm, I wonder how many VIC-20 programs use XML?!

I got the XML parsing running on the VIC.

The XML data comes from a disk file right now. I guess I will finally order my Wimodem this weekend!
For some reason the news articles all look like Scott Adams adventures to me right now. Maybe it's the colours.

Amazing will order one myself. Great achievement Bobbi

Thank you! I will put my Wimodem order in today too!

I a trying to think of some other cool things I could do with it ...

I have a 80 column display adapter for the VIC-20.

If you can limit your software to use a 24k Expansion then I could use the 80 column display. The Data-20/Protecto80 uses the BLK 5 area for itself.

I am jealous of your 80 column adaptor! I remember wanting the Stack 40 (and 80?) column card when I was a kid. I guess there is not too much software support though?

The RSS reader does not really need much memory. The app is coded in cc65 and is a 5KB or so binary - aside from coding it with 6502 in mind in general, I have not done much in the way of optimization. If I discard stdio for my own routines I can shave another KB out of it (printf in particular is pretty big.) It does not load the whole RSS file into memory but basically parses it a byte at a time creating a per-article display buffer. At present I am using a 20K buffer, but that is way excessive. It would be pretty easy to build this keeping BLK5 clear.

As a test I am currently running with this file: https://www.theguardian.com/world/rss which is 263KB of XML. Works quite nicely (if slowly) - makes for a nice long news slideshow!

One thing I am thinking about is whether it is worth storing as much of the formatted output as possible to allow some scrollback. If I decide to do that, I may want the extra 8K! It could probably be a build-time configuration option.

I need to do some cleanup but I may release a version that runs from files on the SD card so people can play with it. It may take me a little while to integrate the modem support because I need to wait for my modem to arrive, and I have some work travel coming up (need to deliver some software for my day job ... sigh...)

Just sent in the order for a Wimodem. My VIC-20 is very excited!

Bobbi wrote:I am jealous of your 80 column adaptor! I remember wanting the Stack 40 (and 80?) column card when I was a kid. I guess there is not too much software support though?

I have 3 or 4 software that were designed for this display adapter. The "Quick Brown Fox" word processor supports it too.

This board is really a 6545 CRTC chip surrounded by a bunch of 74 series logic chips and all the information to make clones of it is available. It's just an incredibly long and tedious job.

Sounds like another project to add to my ever-expanding list!

eslapion wrote:I have a 80 column display adapter for the VIC-20.

You do? Which one? How many different models existed?

I think I'm envious.