Toots for thelastpsion@oldbytes.space account

Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-31 at 23:52

I've just been reading a 12 page thread on the Lazarus forum about #FreePascal's implementation of with.

Let me tell you, people have ✨opinions✨.

[#]Pascal

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-30 at 14:50

Text adventure enthusiasts! I have a question.

Other than Infocom/Inform, what was your favourite adventure engine/authoring system for 8-bit machines?

I'm interested in both people who played games using these engines, and people who created games with them (even if you never released them).

[#]interactivefiction #textadventure #textadventures #thequill #gac #adventuregame #adventuregames #retrocomputing #retrogaming

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-25 at 10:03

Well, it was surprisingly easy. Here, I'm re-declaring a strict protected method as private:

TPsionOOParserWrap = class(TPsionOOParser)

    private

        procedure _AddToken(toktype: TTokenType; tokliteral: String);

end;

{ snip }

procedure TPsionOOParserWrap._AddToken(toktype: TTokenType; tokliteral: String);

begin

Inherited;

end;

If someone with more knowledge of #ObjectPascal than me thinks that this is unnecessary, or there's a better way to do it, then please let me know!

[#]Pascal #FreePascal

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-24 at 13:28

Next thing I need to look up - inheritance. Specifically, creating a wrapper class to test private methods in a parent class.

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-24 at 13:02

Finally - FINALLY - unit tests in #FreePascal make sense. As usual, it was a few tiny details that I couldn't quite grasp. Someone (@jbmorley) very kindly took the time to walk me though, and now I'm all set to test and refactor #CTRAN!

FYI: I'm using FPTest, which has a much nicer CLI output that FPCUnit.

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-19 at 10:56

I'm slowly chipping away at the #CTRAN write-up, but it feels like a hard slog. The words are not coming easily.

The intro is pretty much there, but there's so much more to write about.

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-19 at 10:40

Don't mind me, just updating my blocked words filter...

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-16 at 10:29

Question for 80s and 90s software developers that released games and apps through publishing houses:

Did you retain the copyright for your code?

A few people have very kindly offered me the code for their old Psion software, which is amazing. However, some of them have commercial releases through software houses, and they're worried that releasing their code as open source would cause them legal issues.

AFAIK (and, of course, IANAL) publishing works similarly to the music industry. A record label might own the recording, but they don't own the song.

I'm not going to go into the whole "no one's going to care anymore" argument. That might be the case, but it also might not. It only takes one vindictive copyright troll to mess up someone's life.

(P.S.: Boosts welcome!)

[#]retrocomputing #retrodev #retrogaming

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-15 at 19:46

I missed CTRAN's birthday! The first commit was 2024-01-10.

I am craving to work on some of that sweet sweet Pascal code. But other things are going on and my brain is oh-so-tired.

Soon, though. Soon. I'm determined to get this SDK rewritten.

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-15 at 15:02

Is there a guide to Ryzen processors for people who are used to Intel Core? I've been an Intel user for almost two decades - the last AMD processor I had was an Athlon XP.

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-14 at 21:35

I really want to go back to working on retrocomputing projects.

All this modern stuff just stresses me out.

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-12 at 14:01

I've switched back to the #Vaio SVP13 ultrabook. The battery issues with the #ThinkPad T480 kept coming back and now the internal battery is refusing to charge.

To be honest, the T480 never felt "right" to me. I'd rather use my flimsy, significantly slower Vaio with less RAM, a dodgy battery, and a keyboard that's falling apart, but significantly better screen and speakers.

The T480 is still under warranty, so I'm going to contact the seller and take it from there.

Happily. the WiFi 6E card I bought for the T480 works in the Vaio, so at least I've got a bit of an upgrade.

Where I go next I don't know. For what I do, If I can't get a refund on the T480, I might consider spending a bit more and getting an X1 Carbon gen 9, or maybe even investing in a Framework 13.

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-10 at 13:30

It takes about 3 hours to compile #MAME on my dedicated #HaikuOS build box, a Xeon-upgraded Lenovo M93p Tiny. It's always a tense three hours.

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-10 at 13:22

Success! #MAME #HaikuOS #Psion

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-10 at 09:17

Finally got around to fixing the patch for #MAME on #HaikuOS. Took about 2 minutes. 🤦

So, to refresh everyone's memory, this is:

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-09 at 22:06

I've been wondering which games might work well ported to EPOC16 or EPOC32.

I have now got it in my head to go through every copy of Your Sinclair, Sinclair User and Amstrad Action, find suitable games, find their authors, ask if they still have the source, and finally convert the Z80 code to 8086 and the SIBO C SDK.

This is obviously a ridiculous and probably terrible idea. But I'm still tempted.

[#]Psion #RetroComputing #Z80

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-08 at 14:12

It's time I shut down my Instagram account for The Last Psion. I've barely used it in the past couple of years, and given the state of Meta it feels like the right time to walk away.

The question is, would it be worth my while getting a Pixelfed account?

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-04 at 22:46

Update on the ST:

The external floppy drive that came with the #Atari 520ST (a Cumana unit) isn't broken, but its power supply is! Powering it from an ATX PSU works, and I was able to format an HD floppy as DD.

There's a power light on the switch. The internal fuse is fine. But there's no power going to the regulators (a 7805CT and a 7812CT).

My gut feeling is that I should just replace the power supply, especially if the transformer is dead. But if anyone has any other suggestions then feel free!

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-04 at 14:42

[#]RetroComputing UK peeps: Where's the best place to get a #GoTek that I can use with an #Atari 520ST?

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Written by The Last Psion | Alex on 2025-01-03 at 23:19

An infodump on #PsiDrive, #PlatformIO, and the #RP2040 and #RP2350.

Testing libsibo (the basis of the PsiDrive firmware) on the Pico2 has reminded me that I was planning on revisiting the tooling I'm using for libsibo.

I'm currently using PlatformIO with VS Code. The main pros are usability and portability. It's very easy for me to target multiple platforms - in my case Arduino Uno, ESP32, RP2040 and RP2350 - and switch between them using a single, simple menu. Plus it means I don't have to use cmake with the Pico SDK.

But there are cons. The main issue is that PlatformIO stopped accepting pull requests on their Pico support. Basically, PlatformIO asked Raspberry Pi Trading for a recurring fee to maintain the support, and RPi said no.

Now, there is a very popular Arduino-Pico core maintained by Earle Philhower, with a PlatformIO plugin for it by Max Gerhardt. This is what I've been using so far and it's been very reliable. I can write Arduino C code that runs on any compatible board, and then tailor the code for specific boards (i.e. directly calling the Pico SDK for a speed boost). But that might not last forever.

I've been considering making libsibo RP2040 and RP2350 for some time. ESP32 support was a temporary stop-gap before landing on the RP2040, and I didn't feel like it was the right microcontroller for the job. The Uno was where it all started, but it's far too slow for use in the eventual PsiDrive device. I think I'd be better off maintaining a separate sketch that I bundle with sibodump for people who just want to dump Psion SSDs using an Uno.

This would mean I could switch completely to the pure Pico SDK - I wouldn't be reliant on any other intermediary packages. I could focus libsibo on a single platform, a single toolchain. I could also use the Pico Probe properly.

But there are downsides. I'd no longer have the safety net of the Arduino core, plus I'd probably have to rewrite some of the code to port it to the pure Pico SDK. I'd lose the nice interface, but I'd probably swap to NeoVim anyway. Plus there's cmake, but I'm going to have to learn to use it at some point anyway.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Feel free to reply with yours, or not.

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