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In my younger years, I had to pull a dBase 2 database off a CP/M desktop into an MS-DOS portable. I ended up configuring a serial cable, and running PROCOMM on
by chasil 2y ago
In my younger years, I had to pull a dBase 2 database off a CP/M desktop into an MS-DOS portable.
I ended up configuring a serial cable, and running PROCOMM on the PC, set 9600/n/8/1 on both ports, then printed from dBase 2 and set PROCOMM to record the session to a file.
It would lose characters if I let it run too long without a pause to write to a floppy, so I would ctrl-s/q on the CP/M side.
I guess nobody else had ever figured out how to do this.
- ruslan 2y agoI think in this particular (macbook) case the problem was lack of proper software. Yet, I recall if there was modem installed, a terminal software had to be present as well.
- chasil 2y agoThe CP/M side didn't have any terminal software. Both sides had methods to set 9600/n/8/1 on the printer device. On the PC side, without PROCOMM, it would be possible to "COPY COM1: FOO.TXT" but I don't know how 9600/n/8/1 could be set in advance (IIRC setting it as a printer to force the baud rate altered the device so it could not be read). Generally speaking, all of the pre-PC microcomputers implemented serial ports, which is the first choice in pulling data off of them (including binary data with XMODEM and its variants).
- ruslan 2y agoYes, you can transfer files via COM port in MS-DOS using COPY command, but errors may occur. :) Also you have to switch port to 8-bit binary mode and turn off flow control. Don't remember how to do that exactly. Default was 7 bit XON/XOFF, AFAIR.
- Symbiote 2y agoLooks like it's the MODE command: https://home.csulb.edu/~murdock/mode.html https://home.csulb.edu/~murdock/mode.html
- qwerty456127 2y agoIs it so hard to write your own program which would just read a file stream and send it to a port? Maybe also split it into smaller frames with CRC hashes attached.
- chasil 2y agoCP/M was an OS for the 8080/Z80, which was limited to 64k of RAM. None of the tools that you know today would work in something that small. There was a C compiler for a dialect of C that met these constraints; I didn't have it, and I didn't know C at the time.
- zbentley 2y agoDepends: I wonder what programming tools/languages were present on the old PowerBook. Otherwise, getting any handwritten program or its associated tools/runtimes (if necessary) onto the laptop might be just as much of a challenge as getting audio data off.
- jeffhuys 2y agoJust program directly on the macbook! :D would be fun to experience imo
- jeffhuys 2y ago`cat file > /dev/com1`, or something like that.
- rusk 2y agoIsn’t this a pre unix mac?