Re: SweetAda 0.1e released

[Roger Mc <rogermcm2@gmail.com>]

On Monday, July 27, 2020 at 8:51:55 PM UTC+10, gabriele.g...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Sunday, July 26, 2020 at 3:51:41 AM UTC+2, Roger Mc wrote: 
> > I reinstalled 0.1e and now it works, at least to the extent that 0.1d works. 
> > Quite strange as I had the same problem on both my computers. 
> > The only thing that I can think of is that on the previous 01e install I just used 
> > ./menu.sh ( without target selection) 
> > which was the method I used for 0.1d. Perhaps this messed something up? 
> > When that didn't work, I inspected 0.1e menu.sh and discovered the need to use target selection; 
> > however, on using target selection, in the order stated in your advice (perhaps eventually), I had the reported problem. 
> > It seems, somehow I messed something up; somehow on both computers! 
> > Thanks for your much appreciated advice. 
> > 
> > I still haven't tracked down the Catalina problem. Inspiration comes slowly. 
> > Certainly, the Ada code is working correctly but, somehow the assembly coded outb instructions in x86_64-io don't seem to be having any effect. 
> > Possibly being blocked by Catalina security features? 
> > I currently don't know how to track outb functionality. 
> > I'll keep trying (slooowly)
> Hi Roger. 
> 
> Fine, the most important thing is that we have verified that tools run correctly. Maybe it could be useful to delete everything (after a backup) and repeat a fresh installation, so you could check that you have a perfectly aligned layout, without previous mistakes. 
>
I just received your message recommending awaiting the next release. 

> Correct me if I'm wrong, I understood that IOEMU window is working and shows I/O widgets cycling, but not in Catalina, is that correct? 
Thats correct. I had the  IOEMU window working and showing I/O widgets cycling under High Sierra but still not under Catalina.
> 
> In this case maybe there is either a problem in the GUI code or in Catalina handling of windows. 
> 
> But you can assume safely that Ada code is working since you should see some output in serial terminal. 
Yes I'm very confident that the  Ada code is working and certainly see output in the serial terminal and the QEMU window.
> 
> About the outb instruction, please explain me (even writing down your code) what you are trying to do. outb instructions should behave fine, otherwise you should see a totally dead system. 
The outb instructions that I was referring to are those in X86_64-io.adb which are invoked by pc.PIC procedures which I have been trying to understand.
My current understanding is that it is PIC procedures in pc.adb that should drive the  I/O widgets cycling in the IOEMU window via the  in X86_64-io outb instructions?
> 
> By the way, apologies if I repeat myself, but try to isolate your code in an application file like the standard one, I'm changing some with/use and simplify units, so expect some minor changes in future release. This way you can change very little in your code. For example, unit x86_64.IO is likely to change in CPU.IO. Ask me if you have difficulties recompiling your code. 

Understood. But, at the moment I'm nowhere near producing my own code and am essentially trying to "reverse engineer" your code in order to understand how things work.

I have spent today coming to grips with MPLAB via various MPLAB tutorials, which also included tutorials on PIC hardware and interfacing.  This, eventually has been quite rewarding but I still have some way to go to reach adequate knowledge.

I've not tried sending files via Google Groups before so I don't know if this works!
If it does this shows my current understanding of the system
/System/Volumes/Data/QEMU/sweetada_run.pdf.zip