Brian, Having done this myself with the SARDOS ROM, I can tell you it is not easy. I managed to merged two OPTROM images together to make one. The only reason I had success is because Traveling Software just happened to build their TS-DOS ROM in a location of the 32K OPTROM space that allowed it to sit just above the T-Word/Sardine code after removing the internal dictionary. I did have to cut some code from the end of Sardine and relocate it but not more than a couple strings of data. In theory, any CO file can be converted to an OPTROM. But whenever you make a call to the main ROM, you have to switch over to it and then come back. I don't know all the details of this process but it isn't a trivial matter. There are some nice utilities that I would love to add to SARDOS for the NEC such as the LINE command in BASIC, which is only about 750 bytes, and the bank transfer code. The space is there at the top of the 32k image but when I started looking at converting a CO file into OPTROM code, I was quickly lost. Kurt
On Tue, Sep 11, 2018, at 4:59 AM, Brian White wrote: > You know... thinking about that problem of needing a way to get a dos > back if you wipe ram, why can't we have multiple roms? Would it be > theoretically possible, assuming some new hardware, to break up the > 32k rom address space into smaller seperate chunks, so instead of > having to choose ts-dos rom as your only rom, or some other whole > rom... what would it take to have a 1k or 5k chunk that is just teeny > or ts-dos that stays there all the time like a normal rom, except it's > only 1k, while the remainder can be some other rom of your choosing as > long as it fits?> > For that matter, assuming the magic fictional hardware for the moment, > why not assignable chucks through out the whole 32k? Basically so you > could have whatever combination of apps you wanted. Like a bunch of > virtual 2k chip sockets.>
