[NTLK] PCMCIA for the brave...

[Ionos: robowerk.de]

On 2/15/2021 11:07 AM, Sylvain Pilet wrote:
>>
>> [Settings > PC Cards > [+] > Create Image from Snapshot…]
> 
> Ok I understand. It works perfectly with all memory cards, but it doesn't work with "software" type cards like Fodor, Fortune500, and other ColomboMystery...

Yes, that is true. I mentioned in an earlier mail, that ROM cards do not 
work. I have no clue yet, why.

> It might be necessary to indicate that you should choose in order:
> - first the file containing the image from the memory card
> - and secondly the .CIS file (containing the identification of this memory card).
> And that this will create another .pccard file.

Yes, it says so in the top line of the file choosers. It's bad practice 
to have a list of four popup dialogs, but for a beta version, it was 
less work. The next version will have a much more obvious dialog box 
that will give details about the CIS.

>> So, yes, with my current knowledge (and implementation) I can safely write 2MB Intel Flash cards, but none else ;-)
> 
> So it's the same with Hammer, you can't write anything else than 2Mb cards?
> We agree that we write only from 98000000, and especially not from 90000000-90001000 which contains only the information of the card, or also from its "catalog" ?

No, worse. Just writing to a Flash address does nothing. You have to 
write specific command in a given order to set a chunk of memory cells 
(bits) to all 1's. Followed by another command sequence to enable 
writing, followed by a fixed number of bits, but only 0s are actaully 
written (you can never write an individual 1). All that has to follow 
some timing conditions to truly work.

If all that is really essential to a bunch of users, it may be possible 
to write a Newton App that does these things, but there should be easier 
ways to write Flash cards.