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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : GFXterm - new test version
| Author | Message | ||||
| robert.rozee Guru  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2454 |
have just uploaded an updated TEST version of GFXterm for 64-bit Linux: https://github.com/robert-rozee/GFXterm/blob/test/binaries/GFXterm%20Linux-64 (clicking View Raw should start downloading the binary) the main changes are: (a) it should run ok if ALSA sound support is not available, (b) serial port detection is fixed for kernel 6.8 and later (no longer lists a large number of 'phantom' ttySxx ports), (c) there is now an 'about' entry in the drop-down menu and associated 'about popup, from which you can click a button to save the .PDF manual to the Desktop (manual is embedded in the binary), (d) the manual has been updated and expanded. a fair bit of other code has also been 'tinkered with' over the last 18 months. i'm hopeful i've not inadvertently broken anything! if nothing is found wrong, i'll post Linux-32 and Win-32 versions along with updates source code to GitHub. would some of you who are running Linux (64-bit only for the moment) please download and test the binary? should work with the pico version of MMbasic provided you set the screen size to 100 x something (for VGA). cheers, rob :-) Edited 2025-02-18 01:08 by robert.rozee Footnote added 2025-10-13 14:56 by robert.rozee September 2025 test binaries are here: https://github.com/robert-rozee/GFXterm/tree/test/binaries |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2454 |
an anyone tested this? cheers, rob :-) |
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thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4325 |
Travelling without toys at the moment. Memory permitting I will at least start it up when I return. Tom MMBasic for Linux, Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4096 |
It runs & with just whatever the laptop has and a mouse says no serial ports - probably correct. With an interface creating /dev/ttyUSB0 it found it OK and worked fine. John |
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| Amnesie Guru Joined: 30/06/2020 Location: GermanyPosts: 706 |
I use a raspberry pi 5 as main PC ... is it for ARM, too? Greetings Daniel |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4096 |
I don't see a current binary but I do see here RASPBIAN So, be hopeful. Maybe ask Rob for which of 32-bit / 64-bit ARM you want. John Edited 2025-02-20 07:44 by JohnS |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2454 |
once i've established there are no problems with the Linux-64 (x86_64) version, i'll generate binaries for Linux-32 (i386) and Win32 and upload them. at the same time i'll also upload the new set of source code. i'm just holding back at the moment as i need some additional confidence that there are no obvious bugs that i've missed. folks have compiled the earlier (2023) version for RPi, and there is nothing stopping someone from doing that with the new one - if provided with the binary (or binaries) i am more than happy to add it to the Github repository. and i am also happy to help make any tweaks that may be needed to make it compile ok, although with a bit of luck it should just compile without issue. i'd also be keen to see someone try and get it working for MACOS (the operating system formerly known as OS X), although anything involving Macs is entirely a black-art to me! cheers, rob :-) |
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homa Guru Joined: 05/11/2021 Location: GermanyPosts: 481 |
Hi Rob, what an ingenious program! Especially for Linux I always had problems to find something suitable for my hobby laptop and Tera Term is unfortunately only for Windows. Unfortunately, as I get older, I always have to make the fonts a bit bigger, can you also adjust the status line? So far it stays in "micro" font :-( I will use it on my laptop in the future. More feedback later. As I said, thank you! Best regards Matthias |
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| Amnesie Guru Joined: 30/06/2020 Location: GermanyPosts: 706 |
Hello, so if I understand it right, to this point there isn't a version for Raspberry Pi OS (ARM)? I have only the Raspberry Pi 5 as a computer right now... Greetings Daniel |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2454 |
GFXterm is written in Pascal, using the Lazarus IDE and GUI library (LCL) which in turn uses the Free Pascal Compiler (FPC). both Lazarus and FPC are free open-source software. Lazarus (and FPC) support numerous targets, including Win32, Linux x86 -32 and -64, Macintosh (both Intel and ARM), RPi (ARM), and several others. what this means is that once i'm confident that the Linux-64 binary is bug-free i can put the source code up on GitHub and folks will be able to rebuild from source to whatever target OS they wish - with the proviso that some small level of source modification may be required. i have personally tested Linux x86-32 and -64, as well as Win32, verifying that all three work. as such, i will be i will be providing pre-built binaries for these three targets. with the previous release (2023) of GFXterm i believe that folks successfully built binaries for RPi without needing to make any source-code changes. once someone has done this and verified that everything works, i'll be able to add their RPi binaries to the GitHub repository. hopefully this helps? cheers, rob :-) |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2454 |
well, GFXterm has been around since 2017, when i wrote it using Delphi 5 for Windows. around 2020 i moved development to Lazarus/FPC and for a year or so it was Linux-only, after which i managed to get it going again (under Lazarus/FPC) for Windows too. throughout it has been available to forum members, and from 2023 onwards downloadable from GitHub. the status line has always been a problem to get 'just right', hence why it is of fixed size. suffice to say that the terminal screen consists of a number of elements and keeping them all tied together successfully is simplified by the status line not changing size (width or height) while GFXterm is running. if at all possible, i would rather avoid delving into that can-of-worms again! btw, i have the same age-related sight problem. i make things bigger on screen by buying progressively larger monitors. the current one is 27" and 1080p, and i've been keeping an eye out for a 32" 1080p monitor at a reasonable price for a while now. cheers, rob :-) Edited 2025-02-22 00:43 by robert.rozee |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 10493 |
Not sure if the market is the same in NZ but I highly recommend 30" 2560x1600 monitors. Just bought a Iiyama for GBP64 in the UK. VGA, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort and a 3W amp/speakers  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/156623671037 |
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palcal Guru Joined: 12/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2004 |
I am trying this version of GFXTerm but have trouble with the scrolling, as with all other versions of GFXTerm I have tried. I connect OK but when I edit the code shows but it starts half way down although it says line 1. I cant scroll to the top and when I scroll down it won't go past the bottom of the page. "It is better to be ignorant and ask a stupid question than to be plain Stupid and not ask at all" |
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| palcal Guru Joined: 12/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2004 |
Fixed. I had OPTION DISPLAY set to 43,80 reset to 33,80. Edited 2025-06-11 11:11 by palcal "It is better to be ignorant and ask a stupid question than to be plain Stupid and not ask at all" |
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| Frank N. Furter Guru Joined: 28/05/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 958 |
Robert, Is there a way to use GFXterm under Linux to transfer a file (for example, a log file from drive A:) to the PC via XMODEM? Thanks! Frank |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2454 |
XMODEM transfers on GFXterm are only implemented via pressing f11 (load) or f12 (save) while sitting at the command prompt; there is currently no ability to work with a 'named' file. if you really wanted to transfer named files, one way would be if you could convince Peter to modify the PICO versions of the firmware so that you could set a string variable called MM.XMODEM$ to the path/name of the file you wanted to transfer, and then have the XMODEM SEND and XMODEM RECEIVE commands make use of that string if it is not empty. i feel this is the 'cleanest' solution. would it achieve what you are after? i guess an alternative approach would be to modify GFXterm such that: pressing (say) alt-f11 (load) or alt-f12 (save) within GFXterm caused GFXterm itself to prompt for the path/filename in a popup window, and then added that path/filename (enclosed in quotes) to the end of the XMODEM command. currently, what GFXterm does when f11 or f12 is pressed by the user is (1) watch for the micromite to respond with the exact text "XMODEM SEND" or "XMODEM RECEIVE" (followed by CR/LF), and (2) if the response is seen (within 250ms) then drop into code that manages the transfer invisibly. cheers, rob :-) Edited 2025-10-11 02:14 by robert.rozee |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2454 |
Frank: it occurred to me overnight that the following short BASIC program may in fact suffice for what you want to do: Const f12=Chr$(200) ' use whatever value f12 is translated to by the PICO Print "enter name of file to send" Input A$ Print "now press the f12 key" Do Loop Until Inkey$=f12 Print "XMODEM SEND" Pause 100 XModem SEND A$ End the above code is UNTESTED, but it should give you an idea of what is required. if the PICO does not translate the f12 escape sequence to a single character, you will need a slightly more complicated Do...Loop construct. the true escape sequence for f12 is: ESC followed by "[24~". just checking for the "~" at the end of it would suffice, provided the user does NOT press any other function key. please let me know if this works! cheers, rob :-) Edited 2025-10-11 13:33 by robert.rozee Footnote added 2025-10-13 15:02 by robert.rozee September 2025 test binaries (win32, linux 32 and 64) are here: https://github.com/robert-rozee/GFXterm/tree/test/binaries |
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| Frank N. Furter Guru Joined: 28/05/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 958 |
Hi Rob, thank you very much! I will try it... UPDATE: I had to change Chr$(200) to Chr$(156), then it worked perfectly. Thank you very much for your help!!! Frank Edited 2025-10-13 19:13 by Frank N. Furter |
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9713 |
As I am playing with Linux again now, I was able to easily download the .deb package, tick "Allow running as executable" in the properties, then just double-click and it ran no problems. Found a WS Zero module loaded with MMBASIC as the common /dev/ttyACM0 via the drop-down list in CONNECT. Easy peazy.   Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9713 |
Also just tried the latest test binary(SEP 2025, r.2025.38), and it loads and runs fine so far. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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