REVISION RECORD for AS4/8 Coms Software
****** Initial Versions for the DigiGraphic Com4/Com8 boards *************
0.xx development versions
1.00 17 October 84
initial release : Alpha and Beta Test
1.01 30 January 85
addition of printer/no time-out mode
1.02 12 February 85
clarification of interrupt system
addition of key lock-out to Comkey, correction of port number bug
1.02a 03 March 85
20 port version for Citibank
1.03 09 August 85
cure for missed interrupt problem
************** Code revised for UK made card release ***********************
2.00 27 August 85
started coding for new fully interrupt driven system
2.01 04 October 85
in house test and COMSET dev.
2.02 29 October 86
production release
2.02a 15 December 86
clear minor bug in initialisation
2.02b 12 February 86
improve modem status interrupt handler
2.03 12 March 86
add new interrupt priorities and basic support
2.03a 01 July 86
bugfix in pc mode to correct error reporting
2.04 20 September 86
add status call to unjam after init (needed for Harris UART)
pic and vector repaint bugfix
enlarged ddt/unjam on status call/extended find routines
2.04a 10 December 86
correct permitted interrupts to disallow required PC hardware
remote version numbering and 'make'
2.04b 15 December 86
fix bug in int 14h mode 0 for baud rates above 4800
2.05 22 December 86
additions of datascope and terminal modes to comset
2.05a 08 January 87
time-outs based on system clock rather than loops
2.05b 17 January 87
variable Xon/Xoff thresholds
2.06 23 January 87
production release of 2.05b
2.06a 01 February 87
resident code support added for CDos
2.06b 08 April 87
correct duplicated chars on rx, fix for Bass on DOS interface
2.06c 15 May 87
fix to RX.ASM
2.06d 26 June 87
make find() in comset work via svc 0x35 (DOS 3.3 compatibility)
2.06e 25 August 87
add Com1/Out1 time indicator,
multiple stacks for CDos support and error reporting.
correct interrupt grab to svc 35h (this was a mistake !!)
2.07 04 Sept. 87 <<<<<< HAS A BUG >>>>>
addition of hex mode on F9 terminal,
PIC code mods to ensure only we interrupt interrupt ourselves
production release
<<< THIS RELEASE IS WITHDRAWN >>>
2.07a 14 October 87
remove unjam from "normal" mode ports
cure non-interrupting bug from 2.07
2.07b 12 November 87 - 31 January 88 (internal dev version only)
Fix to data scope for buffer sizes >32K
Help file search also via "path=" environment string.
F10 problems on monochrome screens removed.
Slight mod to Sprint "\nok" -> "sprint: ok" single line text.
Added clear screen option to Comset F9 terminal on END key.
Cure F4 [ PC ] selection overlapping screen box edge.
Duplicate copies of resident prevented (only via int 14 service int)
Allow keys 5-8 to select bits on menus.
Fix to prevent COMSET jamming when no ports are found.
Modifications to RS232.EXE for XENIX ansi terminal use.
Also mods to RX.EXE to insert a \n optionally before receiving.
Mod to COMS_SUB.ASM to return ddt address even if port not fitted.
Correct all COMSET cursor movements to wrap round.
Add "aid-memoir" screen to Comset file system.
Fit (as yet not fully tested) Error Logging system.
Amend status call system to allow pc/smart/error_log mode switching
Comset mods to take advantage of this (toggle pc mode and errlog mode)
Comset mods to show interrupt enables on F7 page
Comset.hlp / read.me mods to reflect all of this
2.07c 1 February 88 update for internal release for testing
force set RTS on initialisation (as advertised)
correct RS232.EXE scroll up on line 25 addressing
COMSET in environment string causes back and white only.
2.08 19 Feb 88 new release
bios data area update
2.08a 17 March 88
Addition of AH=5 mode to re-initialise the port
NB. the baud rate divider is saved in the ddt but as yet
the bits ar'nt....
2.08b 11 April 88
Addition of IRQ 9 (AT irq 2 pin) support.
2.08c 20 April 88
Internal dev version lost without trace in a machine error.
2.08d 28 April 88
Interrupt grab via direct page 0 addressing only (TMS)
AH=5 mode excluded if no port.
Detail corrections to 32 bit maths to speed it up a fraction.
^C allowed on terminal screen.
F3 on F3 screen now has null effect rather than LEFT.
Problem with errorlogging on buffer wrap-round cured.
2.08e 23 May 88
Sweep for possible problems at TMS - none found.
Convert port adjustments from dx to dl.
2.08f 28 May 88
Possible problem at TMS may be hardware fade so add extra ddt
entry to contain the modem control register to avoid data loss
in the read-modify-write system. This is activated by the conditional
flag TMS.
Conditional flags moved to version.h file.
Transmitter cycled when Xon is queued for sending.
NB. all baud rate, line control and modem control bits are saved in
ddt structure. Ammending them there and then making a status call will
set then in the TMS conditional code version.
IRQ 9 (AT) not yet finished.
This version sent to TMS 31/5/88
2.08g 6 June 88
Ammendments to address TMS problem.
Fix to PC mode "wait" loop to use the RTC at 18Hz ticks.
Display of TX and RX timeouts in file update mode corrected.
2.08h 8 July 88
Addition of COMS_T.SYS to provide TMS fix.
Mods to COMS makefile and SELL.BAT to reflect this.
2.09 11 July 88
Production release of 2.08h
IRQ 9 not implemented yet.
2.09a Dev version lost on Apricot disk crash.
2.09b 12 Dec 88
Fix to switches display (saved from crash).
Removal of PIC mask adjustment pending fix.
Change from MicroSoft MAKE utility to Borlands UNIX like product.
2.10 11 Sept 89
Production version for Rev 2 card.
Rev 2 switch displays added to COMSET.
PS.EXE and SP.EXE utilities added to provide for the
switched mode operation.
Remove extranious STI that causes possible jam in the first few
milliseconds of start up. (ICI problem.)
2.10a 20 March 90
Allow port addresses up to 4 hex digits to cover MCA cards.
Move address_all flag to version.h
2.11 22 June 90
Addition of example program to provide user calls
Hence renaming of publics in COMS_SUB.ASM to all be coms_????
Some rework on the makefile to cover all includes.
Correct the switch set numbers to match manual.
MASM replaced with TASM and all the warnings cleared
2.11a 5 October 90
Fix to Sprint to make it address the bios vectors directly
rather than referencing via DOS int 21H. This brings it into line
with COMS.SYS and COMSET.
23 October 90
Add 000H as a legal port address in getfile.c to permit you to
disallow a port keeping the address.
2.11b 11 April 91
RESIDENT locks when data comes while it installs bug fixed. This
was already fixed in COMS.SYS (egg on face time)
2.11c 29 July 91
Increase the max DDT number to 50
Correct inline comset problems with parity which was case sensitive
and had 0 and 1 reversed.
2.11d 19 August 91
RTS and DTR mode were not as advertised. The line was set but
not all the following adjustments were masked off. Now if the
options are set OFF I only set the line at initialisation time
and am totally hands off thereafter.
2.11e 9 December 91
A fault in COMSET.EXE when the number of sessions is above 16
that on the baud rate screen the baud rate affects the next
page and the screen entries for the other fields are misplaced.
2.11f 26th Febuary 92
Request from IMS to have a version of RESIDENT.COM that will echo
all received characters from the transmit port. I have implemented
and extra flag (m_echo) in .mode to do this.
2.11g 7th April 92
If none of the options that use the modem status interupt are
active it is turned off. This is to clear a noise problem at
Telecom Red.
3.00 10th August 1992
New release for 16550 (fifo) uarts
Include extra DDT flag.
Show flag with `+' on address in comset
Activate fifos if available to handle data at 1 byte level.
Mod diags.c for Turboc 3.0 and to show FIFO flag
Translate COMSET etc. into Borland Turbo C compatable code.
3.00a 28th August 1992
Addition of e_mode in the spare byte of DDT structure. The 0x01
bit becomes m_tms and causes a port to emit an ACK character if
it receives an ENQ.
3.01 3rd September 1992
Inport mouse driver greedily causes the local1 (int14) stack to
overflow by 7 words so it gets increased from 50 words to 100.
3.01a Special to test a stack overflow problem.
3.01b Fix the upper case character problem on hex inputs.
Fix the prototype situation for current C compiler
3.01c Add the 32 session version to the standard SELL.BAT system
3.01d 18th November 1993
Interim debug for following fault.
************************** NADA versions *********************************
Accent Computers went into liqidation on 11th November 1993.
NADA purchased the residual work in progress and other materials from
the buyer of the residue (Mr. J. Mackin) to continue the product line.
3.01e 19th November 1993
Fix the "can't find all the 16550's on soft reboot when data is
being streamed in" fault. I just did not read all the new data
sheet correctly and masked too many bits in IIR as always zero.
To increase sensitivity I have added tests to the 0 bits of MCR
so we are testing for 5 forced zeros.
3.01f 31st December 1993
I discovered that if you did a "change defaults" and then went
straight to the "terminal" the screens were multi-coloured. This
was caused by an overwrite by the file name being a full pathname
and I had only allowed 13 bytes for a name.exe only. Now fixed.
4.00 12th January 1994
Correct all internal text to read "NADA" not "Accent Computers"
Add the preliminary Windows driver.
4.00a 29th January 1994
Correct the text in the Windows panel after it confused people from
"Set Default" to "Set values". Also on Set number of ports.
Fix screen clear in windows COMSTEST.CPP, add autowrap and autoscroll
options. Also a Row/Col tag on the caption line and save the current
variables to an INI file.
4.00b 21st Febuary 1994
Limit COMSET's read and write of the file to just the bytes required
and not round it up to a full disk block. Limit the F6 file menu
to only COM and SYS files.
4.01 22nd March 1994
Traced and fixed the "Divide Overflow" error in RESIDENT to a lack
of cache clear in self modifying code.
Added push/pops on di when calling int 0x10 as GMOUSE corrupts it
and blew Farum D&D up badly.
4.01a 16th April 1994
Fix windows display for SETUP "NADA" logo.
4.01b 28th April 1994
Move the DDTs onto a word boundry
4.02 2nd August 1994 ****** BUG BUG BUG ******
Trying to make the IRQ 9 work (ok for windows) I combined both
COMS.ASM and RESIDENT.ASM with a conditional assember flag to
make the two parts. I took this opertunity to rewrite a lot of the
comments in COMS.ASM to make it clearer what is going on and to
clean up the conditional assembler work.
This version gained a horendous "system locks up" bug
4.03 27th September 1994
Would you believe a RET for an IRET ?
But I was convinced I worked it over totally ??
Also a bug in COMSET that prevented typed numbers setting
data bit numbers in file mode.
*************************** Combro versions *********************************
We decided to move from the NADA name to "Computer Brothers" and registered
it as a trade mark. Hence the code is modified to reflect this with the new
4.04 version number to also cover the improved DOS and Windows software and
the new manual. (the old Accent ones having run out).
4.04 4th November 1995
Fix text names and convert some code from C to C++
4.05 Internal version
4.06 23rd December 1996
Provisional Async8n modifications.
Subaddresses for ports in COMSET.EXE, COMS.SYS and RESIDENT.COM
4.06a 11th January 1997
Fixes to Comset F7 screen for multi-page display
SubPort re-enterancy fixed
Initialise the AFR register on dual UART chips
4.06b 13th January 1997
Addition of looped up port detector (clears IRQ)
4.06c 29th January 1997
Some sites found a machine dependent lock up when loading 4.06b which
appears to be somehing to do with DOS memory allocation. Hence we have added
a 256 byte margin on COMS.SYS which seems to cure it.
4.06d 11th February 1997
Further to the previous fix to COMS.SYS and varients. The cause of
the problem is now fixed. The installation code is currently
7500 bytes plus buffers plus the enviroment size.
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Combro Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 5891939.
Do not use the Registered office for mail
Registered office 20-21 Clinton Place, Seaford, East Sussex BN25 1NP.
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