"Oliver Schmidt"
wrote in message
news:d8a0tr$k53$1@online.de...
> Hi,
>
> I'm pleased to announce the availablity of Contiki 1.2 for the Apple2.
> General informations on Contiki - a modern, Internet-enabled operating
> system and desktop environment - can be found on:
> http://www.sics.se/~adam/contiki/
>
> Contiki for the Apple2 needs an Apple2 Ethernet card for TCP/IP
> connectivity. These two cards are supported:
> - Uther (http://www.a2retrosystems.com/products.htm)
> - LANceGS (http://lancegs.a2central.com/)
>
> Contiki for the Apple2 can be downloaded from:
> http://www.a2retrosystems.com/downloads.htm
>
> Oliver
Ok. time for the post game show:
Last night I downloaded Contiki and transferred to my GS.
The process for this was:
Download via Safari on a OS X 10.3.9 box, then write to an HFS formatted
floppy via a external USB floppy (1.4mb; the externals won't play with 800k
ones). Next I sneakernet the floppy to a superdrive (1.4 Sony mech. from a
gutted Mac inside a 800k 3.5 case hooked to a superdrive card on the GS in
slot 6).
Unshrink the 80col version ( grabbed the 40 as well but have not played with
it yet) to a Slinky in slot 1. This machine has a LANceGS in slot 7
Run Contiki and I see a interesting menu. uh, now what do I do....Oh Yeah
RTFM!!
Quick look at the section on the Lance and OK, there is a config file. I go
to it and specify The LANceGS driver (question: Is this using Joachim's
specifications for the hardware level, or is this "roll your own", and if
the later, ...you figured out which chip?) instead of the Uther, Set the
slot to 7, then set the IP, Subnet, Gateway and DNS to my particular network
(I am NOT DHCP and even have all my MAC addresses specified and locked down;
the Network from Heck has grown paranoid ;)
After a save, I am back at the menu and launch the IRC client to see if it
works. Server and Nick options are there so I plug in a known efnet server
and my usually IRC nick (pilgrim` and usually on #politics if anyone is
ever lookin for me) and I am IN! IRC works great. One comment: buffer
size; if you are on a busy channel with a lot of activity, it runs into an
out of memory error quickly. I am not complaining....."It is not how well
the horse can sing, it is that it can sing at all"
I toyed with the Web browser and it works. The text only view of my own
page was nice to see... did an ftp shuffle: that works too. Is there a
TELNET app? I could not find one.
In conclusion:
This Contiki thing is in two words WAY COOL!
I in particular like the flaming screen saver. Nice touch ;)
This is a welcome addition to the Apple II. We now have (I think?) at last
count 3 TCP capabilities on our old beast. This one is very very capable
and seems quite useable.\
Well Done!
-Bart
Keeper of the Network from Heck
BluPhoenyx wrote:
> Glenn Jones wrote:
>
>> Hi Bart, Glad you like Contiki. Adam did a wonderful job creating it
>> and Oliver has been putting a polish on and making it shine!
>>
>> Telnet is there on the first disk image. You can start it from the
>> directory app or from the run menu ... enter telnet.prg
>
>
> I wonder how hard it would be for Contiki to take advantage of the GS'
> capabilities. Perhaps making use of color text or a graphics mode.
> Unfortunately, my GS development skills are very limited so I may be day
> dreaming here.
>
> Cheers,
> Mike T.
Hi Mike,
I can't see any reason why someone with the skills could not develop
another Contiki target that takes advantage of some of the IIgs's
advanced capabilites.
Colour text would be doable I think - graphics would be a lot of work.
Things are pretty tight in the 6502 version now so I am not sure how
viable doing HGR would be in the current code base.
One other thing to consider is that the C compiler (cc65) used to
compile Contiki for the Apple II platform doesn't support 65816.
Since Contiki has been ported to other targets using other C compilers,
one could conceiveably use Orca/C to build a IIgs (65816) version of
Contiki.
How much work would be involved in that remains to be explored :)
Glenn
You should be able to hook Contiki
up through Uther, using internet connection
sharing on a PC. Uther Ethernet connected
to PC ethernet, modem on the PC connected
to the ethernet. PC running internet connection
sharing.
Rich
Three cheers for Glenn Jones and Oliver Schmidt
for the work they've done on this (and to all
the beta testers).
Glenn Jones put Uther together, and Oliver Schmidt
ported Contiki to the Apple II.
With Uther + Contiki you can "surf" web (http, www,)
sites, IRC chat, email, and FTP!
Uther is very easy to install and setup, requiring
no jumper or switch settings. Just "plug and play".
Contiki is easy to use as well, although it takes
some getting familiar with (keyboard only for input, and
the interface is a bit strange after using Windos
or Macintrash OS) Once you figure it out (it took
me about 10 minutes), you can operate the
OS and applications very easily and quickly
using the keyboard.
Thanks again to everyone who helped make
this product possible!
Rich
I forgot to mention:
Contiki also does Telnet, and has an awesome
feature: OS update. When an update to
Contiki becomes available, you open the
"Web Downloader" application, tell it the
URL of where the new OS is available, and
tell it "Download to Disk".
It will download the DSK image of the OS +
applications, and store the image directly
to (bootable, useable) 5.25 disk!
ProDOS, multi-tasking OS, web browser,
IRC, telnet, email, screen saver, etc,
all in ONE 143k download.
AMAZING and super cool!
Rich
Uther will work with Contiki (IIe, IIgs, etc)
LANceGS will work with Contiki (IIe, IIgs, etc)
LANceGS will work with Marinetti in a IIgs
The software to make Uther work with
Marinetti/GS isn't done yet.
Rich