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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : MicroMite feature request
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| Chris Roper Senior Member  Joined: 19/05/2015 Location: South AfricaPosts: 280 |
Greetings all, I realise that my first post being a feature request is a little rude and presumptuous of me, but I thought I had better get it in whist Geoff is busy working on a 4.7 release. Would it be feasible to extend the current XMODEM command to send/receive the block of memory allocated for Variable Storage? I don't mean the 2K block of FLASH allocated to Saved Variables but rather the RAM allocated to current Variables. My reasoning is that it would allow the current status of a running program to be saved and restored, by the user program. It could have many applications, similar in concept and use the the Cassette Tape interfaces of the 80's BASIC computers. Whilst I realise this can be achieved by adding a MMC or SD Card to the target board, that would complicate hardware / software design, use up extra I/O pins and add to the cost, whereas, in applications that are using the Console as an I/O device anyway, it would be convenient to have that same Console port double as data Backup. I had hoped that my first post would be of my current project but, alas, that is taking longer than I had anticipated, but this feature request is related to it. An Intelligent Training, Development and Test platform based on the MicroMite MkII and the ASCII Terminal controller, integrated into a keyboard. More details to follow..... http://caroper.blogspot.com/ |
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Geoffg Guru  Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3165 |
Interesting feature. I will have to think about it but at first glance it may not be as easy as it seems. Saving ordinary integer and floating point variables is easy, they sit in a table and it would be easy to copy/restore the whole table. But with string variables and arrays the memory space for these is allocated from a common pool of memory so the data could be anywhere in RAM. To get around this the solution might be to save/restore the whole of RAM including the allocation table. The problem with this is that other parts of RAM will be allocated for other uses (serial port buffers, etc) and if restored these will just use up memory and never be released. A better way would be to send/receive the variables using some sort of special coded sequence (eg, first the name, then size, then the type, then the data, etc). This is getting quite complicated and will take up a lot of the chip's limited resources. As I said, it needs some thought. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| Chris Roper Senior Member Joined: 19/05/2015 Location: South AfricaPosts: 280 |
Thanks for considering it Geoff, I had assumed that all variables would be in a common block, but having Strings and Arrays dynamically allocated as part of the Heap makes sense. Just a thought, rather than dumping all variables, it may actually be better for the user and for yourself if the Variables to be sent were specified in advance. Would that then allow you to leverage the VAR SAVE code, possibly as VAR SEND and the corresponding VAR RESTORE as VAR RECEIVE? I note that the VAR command does not handle Arrays, I assume that is because of the 2K Block size, but it would be beneficial if Arrays were able to be sent as well even though not saved. Cheers Chris http://caroper.blogspot.com/ |
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CircuitGizmos Guru Joined: 08/09/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 1421 |
I would think that an XMODEM implementation in CFunction that could tx/rx an array would be good. It would be up to the user to stuff (and unstuff) that array with variables and other arrays. That would be a CFunction to send/receive an array. - - - Or perhaps if it gets implemented into the language: XMODEM SEND (send program) XMODEM SEND RAM (send variable table block) XMODEM SEND ray() (send array - user stuffed) ...and all the receives to go with that. Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite |
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Lou Senior Member Joined: 01/02/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 229 |
Geoff, Speaking of feature request, VAR SAVE and VAR RESTORE is it possible/feasible to put in VAR SAVE (and RESTORE) 2,3,4 ?? I have used all 50 of the possible VAR SAVE values and could use many more to store more setups and user controlled values. The values I'm saving are six digit numeric variables for setups and only use up 496 bytes of the 2k memory space allowed for the variables. Maybe VAR SAVE 2,3,4 could be a subset of VAR SAVE and not use more of the possible command handles. If not possible/feasible for more VAR's directly is there a way to get more VAR's like maybe packing numbers into string$'s or something ?? Thanks for all your hard work, Lou Microcontrollers - the other white meat |
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| Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3165 |
Wow, that is a lot of variables. I will put it onto my todo list for investigation. There must be a clean and extensible way to add more variables to the list. Perhaps allowing arrays to be saved would be the answer. Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| Lou Senior Member Joined: 01/02/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 229 |
Great, thanks Geoff That would be a big help to me. Lou Microcontrollers - the other white meat |
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