My point exactly Brian ! How did they come up with that idea ? It makes no
sense. It really prevents you from using the option rom socket. The docs does
not talk about removing it. And even if you could remove it ; the installation
procedure of that ROM is not easy at all, requires to type two "calls" with the
freaking keyboard inverted. OK - us nerds 40 years later can do it easily, just
type "CQLL", but imagine explaining that to a random journalist in 1984 ?!
Especially as the french doc (which I happen to have) says to type "CALL" not
CQLL. I also wonder if other markets are affected by this plague, If anyone
here lives in germany and owns a qwertz (or other keyboard variant) of the M200
: do you have a "stock option ROM" as well ? I also wish to thank Stephen
publicly for the time he invested into helping me, as indeed, you can't use an
option ROM (and even less a REX#) in those non-qwerty M200s, and I think this
research might help some other people at some stage (this hobby is booming
right ? :) ) We're (and I am) in the process of replacing the main rom + 8KB
rom with a 27C512 flashed with a custom "native Azerty" firmware Which should
free up to option socket, for a REX# I also plan to make other modifications to
that custom ROM, but we'll see if I get there. I've also been experimenting in
the past with custom firmware for the my M102 for different reasons. I'm a
"modem" nerd and I have all the equipment (PABX, etc) to make voice calls
between my vintage laptops - so it's important for me to have my modems work.
This required a custom firmware to make my M102 work, with modem, with a REX#.
( OK I think this kind of stuff is only relevant to me this time :) :) Le
2022-11-13 14:53, Brian White <b.kenyo...@gmail.com> a écrit : > > > Nice. > >
> > So the point would be to make the main rom natively azerty to match the
hardware, free up the option rom slot for normal use, without otherwise
changing the main rom so that it becomes incompatible with application
software? I guess you might even be able to make a dvorak version and move the
keycaps around? > > > > I'm just trying to imagine the sales pitch for that
azerty 200 that needs the option rom, thus preventing the use of any other
option rom (or at least making it pretty inconvenient by having to swap them on
every reset I guess?) > > > > "Here's your new model 200. It's only half as
useful as others with no modem and no option rom but you can still pay full
price please." > > > > -- > > bkw > > > > > > On Sun, Nov 13, 2022, 8:28 AM
Stephen Adolph <twospru...@gmail.com (mailto:twospru...@gmail.com)> wrote: > >
> > > > > > hi folks, > > > > > > > > Thought I would share this work. It is a
spreadsheet for computing the keyboard table in the T200 so you can make native
custom keyboards for T200. > > > > > > > > Why? > > > > The AZERTY keyboard in
Europe was accommodated using an option ROM that kinda hacked the keyboard.
Keystrokes get intercepted and corrected to be AZERTY even though the main ROM
is set up for QWERTY. > > > > > > > > An alternative is to have the main rom
directly support AZERTY. > > > > To do this, there are 6 keyboard mapping
tables that start at 9763h. Each table are 44 bytes long. > > > > > > > > This
spreadsheet lets you assign the ascii codes for each of the 44 affected keys,
for all 6 tables. (unshifted, shifted, GRAPH, shift GRAPH, CODE, Shift CODE). >
> > > > > > > It is an excel spreadsheet that included the analysis add it so
that certain needed functions are present. > > > > > > > > Once you make the
correct keyboard mapping, the spreadsheet provides the 6x44 bytes in assembly
compatible form, so you can compile and patch the tables with a hex editor. > >
> > > > > > This approach could be used for other machines also. > > > > Note -
the AZERTY keyboard did NOT modify the actual character set, so that is out of
scope. Of course it is possible to patch the main ROM to change the bitmaps as
well. Not handled by this spreadsheet. > > > > > > > > Comments welcome. > > >
> Steve > > > > > > > > > > >
