Legacy from the Plus/4

[Andrew Wiskow]

And the US C128 charset looks like the Plus/4 ones (exept the "m")? - Not really nice! (much to fat on the VDC screen)
I love the slim german/european charset!

WTE

That's just it...  The US C128 charset DOESN'T look like the Plus/4.  My C128's all look like the ones you displayed.  Perhaps that's a special kind of charachter chip on Bo Zimmerman's website?  I don't know...

I've never seen that second charset you displayed though...  How do you activate it?

-Andrew

[wte]

Pardon, but I didn't understand your posting in all parts.

That's just it... 

What is that refered to?

The US C128 charset DOESN'T look like the Plus/4. My C128's all look like the ones you displayed.

Which one? The first or second? There should be two different charsets! And the first one should be the same as of the C64.

I've never seen that second charset you displayed though...  How do you activate it?

May be the answer to my last question.
But now I didn't understand the whole thread.

You say: The C128 has the same charset as the C64 (in europe it has!)
But the puzzle says it has the Plus/4 charset exept the "m"!
That's weird!

How to activate the second charset: Pressing "ASC/DIN" key that's all. That switches the CharROM select in $01. The key is named "Caps Lock" on a US C128 (right from the "ALT" key). I don't know what it does on an US C128 (may be nomen est omen). OK, and now I remember. There isn't a second charset on an US C128.

The "ASC/DIN" key is connected to the relevant switch bit of the processor in $01. It is bit#6.
You can set bit 6 in the DDR of the processor ($00) to make bit 6 of $01 a "write" port and send "1" to Bit 6 of $01 to activate the second charset and "0" to deactivate.

The SupeCPU128 has a bug. CMD forgot to implement the ability to change bit 6 of $00. It is always "read only". They didn't read the specs of the "international" version of the C128. That is bad. This bit was often used to "fix" the position of the "ASC/DIN" key by software because if you accidentally press the key the charset switsches automaticly - also on the VDC (!!!) and destroys any individual upload charset

And yes of course you can use this "second font" feature in the C64 mode too!

WTE

[Andrew Wiskow]

You say: The C128 has the same charset as the C64 (in europe it has!)
But the puzzle says it has the Plus/4 charset exept the "m"!
That's weird!'

I think you answered all of your questions in this statement. 

And yes, it is weird...

How to activate the second charset: Pressing "ASC/DIN" key that's all. That switches the CharROM select in $01. The key is named "Caps Lock" on a US C128 (right from the "ALT" key). I don't know what it does on an US C128 (may be nomen est omen). OK, and now I remember. There isn't a second charset on an US C128.

The "Caps Lock" key on a C128 from English-speaking countries (let's not forget Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.K. by referring to it as a "US C128"...  That's something I'd expect from other Americans...) is slightly different from the "Shift Lock" key.  When you press "Shift Lock", then anything you press will be shifted, so an A will be capitalized, and a 1 will be an exlamation point.  But if you press "Caps Lock", then the A will still be capitalized, but the 1 will be a 1.  So while "Shift Lock" affects ALL keys pressed, "Caps Lock" only affects letters.

The "ASC/DIN" key is connected to the relevant switch bit of the processor in $01. It is bit#6.
You can set bit 6 in the DDR of the processor ($00) to make bit 6 of $01 a "write" port and send "1" to Bit 6 of $01 to activate the second charset and "0" to deactivate.

This seems like a feature that should have been implimented on ALL C128's...  In my honest opinion, the Caps Lock key is not very useful.  I don't think I've ever used it, except to see what it does... 

-Andrew

[wte]

The "Caps Lock" key on a C128 from English-speaking countries (let's not forget Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.K. by referring to it as a "US C128"...  That's something I'd expect from other Americans...)

Ha, ha, America rules the world! I think Commodore didn't think a second about any other English-speaking countries than USA. They bulid an US C128 and sold it to them (It's Hobson's choice.), 

This seems like a feature that should have been implimented on ALL C128's...  In my honest opinion, the Caps Lock key is not very useful.  I don't think I've ever used it, except to see what it does... 

Yes, I think a second "international" charset would have been better than the caps lock function.

I forgot to tell you that not only the charrom is switched also the key table is changing to a country specific one. There are characters like §äöüÄÖÜßàáé ... and of course some keys (especially in Germany the x/y keys) are interchanged. So there is a second symbol printed on the key caps (mostly in grey, but that differs on the keyboard).

WTE

[BilHerd]

Y'all know that when we tried to upgrade the character ROM and then use that in C64 mode we got knocked on our ass right?  Turns out we couldn't even moved the dot in the letter "i" without creating compatibility problems.

My guess would be that it was an accident when block copying font sources into what would become the project source.  I wouldn't be suprised that someone in development would have looked at the set and thought it was the new one entirely.  We also blew the reverse V in the process which wasn't caught by QA but was caught when they went to put Von Ertwine's name in the easter egg.

Bil

[smf]

This seems like a feature that should have been implimented on ALL C128's...  In my honest opinion, the Caps Lock key is not very useful.  I don't think I've ever used it, except to see what it does... 

It would have been more useful had the c128 booted up in lower case mode.

[airship]

Man, could that soccer ticket spammer have picked a deader thread to hit? Clueless bastard.

[Golan Klinger]

Man, could that soccer ticket spammer have picked a deader thread to hit? Clueless bastard.

Agreed.

(In case anyone is wondering what the heck airship is talking about, a spammer made an innocuous post with the only purpose being to advertise the links in their signature. The post has been deleted and their account is soon to follow.)