Martin Hepperle
Experienced Member
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2014
- Messages
- 135
During the last days I tried to run Wordstar on my HP 150.
A disk image of Wordstar 3.3B, adapted for the HP 150 is available on the HP Museum web site.
They also show a screenshot of the installer, which looks as it should. Unfortuantely they don't show a screenshot of the main program.
The Teledisk image file includes the 2 spare tracks at the end and one bogus sector #17 of 128 bytes on each track. The actual data part comprises 33 nominal tracks for 2 head(s) and therefore exactly 270336 bytes.
I had no problem writing the Teledisk image to an actual disk or make a proper disk image (removing the bogus sectors)). All fine, and the files are perfectly readable from the MS-DOS FAT system.
The WS.COM program starts and runs fine, text is readable - the image is technically fine.
However, there is a problem with the Wordstar display - the screen lines are shifted horizontally and in some places attribute bytes are visible as text characters '@', indicating another offset.
Obviously, something is wrong with this disk image, resp. the adapted portion of the .COM file.
The installer program WINSTALL.COM does not offer any options for terminal escape sequences - it is hardwired for the HP 150 and allows only for printer configuration.
When exiting it says that the Terminal is indeed "HP 150".
The adaptation of the code (performed by HP and/or WordPro) is more than adding a few simple escape sequences.
Looking into a disassembly, I see that the adaptation handles the more complex direct access to the alpha RAM.
The alpha screen memory of the HP 150 is organized similarly to many other HP terminals. It is not just a simple, linear block of memory with character/attribute pairs, like on IBM-PC compatibles, but controlled by a list of pointers. Each pointer addresses one line of character/attribute pairs.
This is typical for terminals because manipulation of lines (inserting, deleting, scrolling) only requires manipulating the pointer list and not the whole memory block. It makes these operations fast, even with slow processor. In its heart, the HP 150 has always been a terminal.
As the whole is more complex than I hoped, it would be great, if someone else could create a new image from another original diskette.
This should be Wordstar for the HP 150, Version 3.3 or later (a version for the HP 150II should also work as both are compatible).
The executable WS.COM contains these strings:
"8086/8088 WordStar ID # WS9999XX-001 release 3.3B"
"Hewlett Packard 150 Computer"
Any IBM-PC or other versions would not be helpful.
Do you have an original floppy disk and could create another image with Teledisk or Imagedisk?
If you lend me the disk, I could also make an image, but I am located in Germany.
Martin
The installer WSINSTALL is a simple console program. It shows that the program is configured for the HP 150:
The main screem is garbled:
The screenshot from HPMuseum.net looks o.k. Not sure why...
A disk image of Wordstar 3.3B, adapted for the HP 150 is available on the HP Museum web site.
They also show a screenshot of the installer, which looks as it should. Unfortuantely they don't show a screenshot of the main program.
The Teledisk image file includes the 2 spare tracks at the end and one bogus sector #17 of 128 bytes on each track. The actual data part comprises 33 nominal tracks for 2 head(s) and therefore exactly 270336 bytes.
I had no problem writing the Teledisk image to an actual disk or make a proper disk image (removing the bogus sectors)). All fine, and the files are perfectly readable from the MS-DOS FAT system.
The WS.COM program starts and runs fine, text is readable - the image is technically fine.
However, there is a problem with the Wordstar display - the screen lines are shifted horizontally and in some places attribute bytes are visible as text characters '@', indicating another offset.
Obviously, something is wrong with this disk image, resp. the adapted portion of the .COM file.
The installer program WINSTALL.COM does not offer any options for terminal escape sequences - it is hardwired for the HP 150 and allows only for printer configuration.
When exiting it says that the Terminal is indeed "HP 150".
The adaptation of the code (performed by HP and/or WordPro) is more than adding a few simple escape sequences.
Looking into a disassembly, I see that the adaptation handles the more complex direct access to the alpha RAM.
The alpha screen memory of the HP 150 is organized similarly to many other HP terminals. It is not just a simple, linear block of memory with character/attribute pairs, like on IBM-PC compatibles, but controlled by a list of pointers. Each pointer addresses one line of character/attribute pairs.
This is typical for terminals because manipulation of lines (inserting, deleting, scrolling) only requires manipulating the pointer list and not the whole memory block. It makes these operations fast, even with slow processor. In its heart, the HP 150 has always been a terminal.
As the whole is more complex than I hoped, it would be great, if someone else could create a new image from another original diskette.
This should be Wordstar for the HP 150, Version 3.3 or later (a version for the HP 150II should also work as both are compatible).
The executable WS.COM contains these strings:
"8086/8088 WordStar ID # WS9999XX-001 release 3.3B"
"Hewlett Packard 150 Computer"
Any IBM-PC or other versions would not be helpful.
Do you have an original floppy disk and could create another image with Teledisk or Imagedisk?
If you lend me the disk, I could also make an image, but I am located in Germany.
Martin
The installer WSINSTALL is a simple console program. It shows that the program is configured for the HP 150:
The main screem is garbled:
The screenshot from HPMuseum.net looks o.k. Not sure why...
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