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DR-DRAW and DR-GRAPH - Are there any copies of this for z80/8080 CP/M?

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cj7hawk

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Just wondering if there are copies of these anywhere that someone could point me to.

Due to them most common being referenced to in CP/M-86 I can't find z80/8080 versions of this software or anything that uses GSX under the z80.

Any pointers appreciated - :)
 
winworldpc.com

DR Draw 1.x

DR Draw is a shape-based drawing program that uses Digital Research's
winworldpc.com

DR Graph 1.x

DR Graph is a business graphics creation program. It can create line, bar, pie, and scatter graphs and print them on a graphics printer. DR Graph is implemented using Digital Research's GSX graphics library, and can run on many different platforms.
winworldpc.com

CP/M 80 available but it requires CP/M plus(3) i believe.
 
krebizfan said:
Yes. The CPC versions are floating around.
Click to expand...

It’d be interesting to know how many 8-bit machines with GSX drivers actually exist. The CPC seems to be the only remotely common one, at least in English speaking countries. The only graphics terminal listed in the DRI GSX programming manual is a graphics add-on board for a VT-100 terminal, and it looks like someone recently hacked together an at least partial implementation for the Commodore 128.
 
I haven't found an ad showing what systems DRI was selling GSX-80 for prior to the introduction of the Amstrad. It is possible that some of the academic papers that turn up when I searched for GSX might list the bespoke system used for GKS software ported to micros. So many hoops to get access with no guarantee of a favorable result.
 
Eudimorphodon said:
It’d be interesting to know how many 8-bit machines with GSX drivers actually exist. The CPC seems to be the only remotely common one, at least in English speaking countries. The only graphics terminal listed in the DRI GSX programming manual is a graphics add-on board for a VT-100 terminal, and it looks like someone recently hacked together an at least partial implementation for the Commodore 128.
Click to expand...
There's the PCW. That also had a vector drawing program (DRAWMON) that I've never seen a copy of.

The third Amstrad CP/M implementation, for the Spectrum +3, didn't have a GSX driver. I didn't find it hard to build a mono driver based on a disassembly of the PCW one; colour would be trickier because if the Spectrum's colour/attribute model.

I think the CP/M for the BBC Micro second processor may have included GSX? Not sure, but the manual included GSX documentation as I recall.

The emulators I've written for CP/M systems tend to include built-in GSX drivers based on the GPL release of GEM, which tend to test the assumptions of those who wrote the original programs.
 
Last edited:
You might also want to search this forum for "GSX".

For example this thread discussed a few drivers.

There were quite a few drivers from DR for most relevant graphics terminals of the time. Similarly many printer and plotter drivers.

On the other hand not much software actually used GSX, probably due to its memory requirements. Here, CP/M-3 helped.
Also, with the advent of the IBM PC and when directly writing to screen memory became a "standard", speed was a real issue.
On the other hand, for vector graphics GSX is still o.k. and programs are portable (same procedure outputs to screen, printer, plotter).

Now, that the source code of GSX-80 and GSX-86 is available it s relatively easy to write new drivers (see bitsavers archive).

Martin
 
I have an Epson QX-10 that has DrDraw, DrGraph and a GSX Basic. Those all run under MML CPM+ and require a DDQX10.PRL GSX driver.
I think I got all these disks from Frank Kraan's site or Don Maslin archive. Here GRAPH.COM loads the GSX-80 driver. What is your target platform ? You will need a driver for it.

Larry G
 

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retrogear said:
What is your target platform ? You will need a driver for it.

Larry G
Click to expand...

My own build so I'll need to write GSW drivers for it, and I'm also looking to do some of it in hardware.

JohnElliott said:
which tend to test the assumptions of those who wrote the original programs.
Click to expand...

Was there ever any application that was a "benchmark" to assist in this? ie, produce a known output to compare against what the driver thinks is correct?
 
There are some test programs, though I'm away from my computer right now so can't go into details. But some examples: a program may assume that the text and graphics screens use the same display mode and so not bother to call v_clswk() when shutting down. Or not bother to set the count of intin in the control array for a function like vsl_style that always takes one integer parameter. Or assume that vst_height(0) sets text height to the default rather than actually zero.
 
CBASIC came with a BASIC program that tested/demonstrated a few GSX capabilities.

BTW: the bitsavers files mentioned above have sources for these GSX-80 drivers:

Code: 
sskeldd    skeleton device driver for testing

dd100v    ID 100V terminal
dd2647    HP2647
dd4012    TEK 40xx
dd4025    VT100 with Retrographics
dd4662    Tektronix 4662 plotter
dd512     AED 512 terminal
dd6211    Ramtek 6211 terminal
ddadvn    Northstar Advantage
ddaret    ADM 3A with Retro-Graphics
ddbtur    Bascom-Turner 1100 plotter
ddcsa1    Control Systems Artist I (NEC 7220)
ddfcg     Florida Computer Graphics terminal
ddgn2a    ADM 5 GEN II Digital Engineering Device Driver
ddgn2a    LSI ADM5 GEN.II Retro-Graphics
ddgn2b    ADDS Viewpoint GEN.II Retro-Graphics
ddgn2c    Televideo 910 GEN.II Retro-Graphics
ddgn2d    Datamedia Colorscan 10 terminal with
ddgn2e    Televideo 910 GEN.II Retro-Graphics
ddtr24at  Transiac TR1024
ddtr24    VT125 terminal
ddv185at  VT185 terminal
ddvret    VT100 with Retrographics
ddotrn    Otrona Attache

dd7220    Hewlett Packard 7220 pen plotter
dd7470    Hewlett Packard 7470 pen plotter
ddhi3m    Houston Instruments HI PLOT DMP-3
ddhi3m    Houston Instruments DMP3
ddhi7m    Houston Instruments HI PLOT DMP-7
ddw636    Watanabe WX 4636 Plotter
ddw675    Watanabe WX4675 six pen plotter
ddstrb    Strobe pen plotter

ddids     IDS printer
ddidsc    IDS color printer
ddmx80    Diablo 630 Daisy Wheel printer
ddmx80    Epson MX-80 Printer
ddokid    Okidata Microline 92 Printer
ddprtx    Printronix P300 and P600 printers
 
JohnElliott said:
There are some test programs, though I'm away from my computer right now so can't go into details. But some examples: a program may assume that the text and graphics screens use the same display mode and so not bother to call v_clswk() when shutting down. Or not bother to set the count of intin in the control array for a function like vsl_style that always takes one integer parameter. Or assume that vst_height(0) sets text height to the default rather than actually zero.
Click to expand...
Now I'm back: DEMOGRAF.COM is the GSX tester I was thinking of, which makes at least two of those assumptions.
 
JohnElliott said:
The source is DEMOGRAF.BAS in http://www.cpm.z80.de/download/cb80v20.zip . I don't remember where I got the compiled version from, or whether I built it myself.
Click to expand...

If the BASIC uses it, then that somewhat simplifies matters - though I need to figure out how to find the right compiler first. At least it is a good representation from that era that I can use. :)

Thank you for the link -
 
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