Table of Contents
Plans for Extensions for lDebug
2023-09-15
(I wrote this up on Friday before the 2023-09-17 Sunday that I didn't have time to prepare a blog post. More on the ELD interface in the subsequent post prepared today (2023-09-24).)
Debugger relocation: Newer switches explained
As described in yesterday's blog post, I added the /T switch to lDebug's init to relocate the application mode debugger. However, one bit I forgot to include was the consideration of adding multiple different strategies to try in order. I wasn't sure how I would expose these as switches to the debugger, so I didn't include them until today.
INSTALL TOGGLE: Toggle debugger settings
In yesterday's blog post I forgot to mention the INSTALL TOGGLE command added to the debugger now. I had considered this for a while already, but finally got around to adding it. Instead of using up another "global" command, I opted for a keyword that follows an INSTALL command to turn it into an INSTALL TOGGLE command. Other than that decision there are no surprises here. It did turn up another bug or two of them during development.
Live patching the debugger itself
As mentioned a while ago I'd prepared a patch in the form of a Script for lDebug file that patches out a mean error in the debugger's release 6 executables. However, this script has some limits:
- It can only be applied to an uncompressed executable
- It can only be used if the entire executable fits in the Low Memory Area, precluding use if arbitrary data is appended to the executable
- It has to make some assumptions about where to patch and the minimum auxiliary buffer size
- It has to patch in the minimum size for the auxiliary buffer, disallowing the DIL command from using the full buffer if it is larger
Early September work - MSDebug, toclip, lDebug
2023-09-10
The first thing of note is that the HP 95LX had been refusing to repeat keypresses when a key was held pressed down. This had been true for at least a week. The setup does not appear to have a setting for this. Rebooting with Ctrl-Alt-Del, then restarting the system software with a $sysmgr command, actually seems to have fixed this.
After the release 6, some work on lDebug happened this week. One change was made simultaneously in lDebug and MSDebug. On the suggestion of stsp, I worked a bit on toclip, a tool for accessing the WinOldAp clipboard. I didn't get to test this yet, however, because dosemu2 for now only supports the clipboard when running in an SDL window. (On the server, I can only run dosemu2 in -dumb or -t mode.)
