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[andrew]

Assuming LOS development ever gets to a place where new features can be added, it would be interesting to think about useful improvements that could be made to the Office System. We have a thread for potential Lisa hardware projects, so this seems logical.

Now if there's actually a way to do this aside from copying the files from the original disks, I suppose I'll look like an idiot for starting the thread this way, but...

One of my biggest gripes is tools ought to have the ability to generate fresh, "default" stationery pads in case you delete all of yours. The desktop manager should likewise have the ability to generate an empty folders pad. The ability to create new directories shouldn't be a deletable feature, and if you want to remove the ability to make a certain type of file, that should be resolved by removing the tool, not the pad.

The simplest way to do this might be from a menu command in each tool file? And one in the desktop manager?

[stepleton]

Just for grins, I'd like a version of LOS 3 that can run on the Lisa 1. There seem to be Twiggy drivers in the source tree, so it might be possible?

[AlexTheCat123]

Just for grins, I'd like a version of LOS 3 that can run on the Lisa 1. There seem to be Twiggy drivers in the source tree, so it might be possible?

I didn't look into this much because I don't have a Lisa 1, but I think we're just one file short. We've got everything to build the Twiggy bootloader (system.bt_Twig) and build the OS itself (SYSTEM.OS) with Twiggy support, but we're missing what I believe is supposed to be an assembly source file for the Twiggy driver (system.cd_Twiggy).

[pl212]

Since there are DB-25 LocalTalk connector kits available (including one from Apple itself for use on the XL), I wonder how hard it would it would be to create a de minimus AppleTalk stack? Just putting out a node name, nothing complicated like printing...

[sigma7]

Seeing no obvious way to terminate a Workshop Exec script via Command-. or mouse down or some such thing, I speculate there would be some utility (also for LOS) to having a privileged driver that can do things like Peek and Poke upon request.

[stepleton]

Somewhere in the Workshop documentation there is advice about what to do if an exec script goes berserk. I don't remember where it is, and I don't remember it being super satisfying either; something along the lines of using Command-. or whatever to cancel the currently-running job and then continuing to mash Command-. while the interpreter is in between running commands.

In re peek and poke, I seem to remember a post years ago by Ray that claimed the discovery of some extremely trivial privilege exploit against the Lisa OS: my recollection is dim, but I seem to think it was as simple as putting the address of some code to call in A1 and then causing a trap, and the code will be called in supervisor mode. This mechanism might save you the trouble of writing a whole driver.

Ah, here it is: https://lisalist2.com/index.php?topic=113.0

[sigma7]

in the Workshop documentation there is advice about what to do if an exec script goes berserk. I don't remember where it is, and I don't remember it being super satisfying either; something along the lines of using Command-. or whatever to cancel the currently-running job and then continuing to mash Command-. while the interpreter is in between running commands.

It reads something like "programs can't be interrupted by Command-. unless they have been written to explicitly check for it" and "most (Apple written) shell programs do check for Command-.". However, it warns that the exec interpreter does not. I think that means that while you might be able to terminate some sub-program your exec calls, you can't terminate the exec itself unless it is checking for an early exit condition (with no obvious means for doing so).

I agree Ray's finding is bound to turn out useful, thanks for recalling it!

[kgraaf]

Obviously this would require hardware work as well, but an SD card driver would be extremely nice to have. I think if you're using the card in SPI mode it actually shouldn't be so difficult.

EDIT:

Also, restoring the buildable LisaWrite's spellcheck functionality with a public domain (and modernized) dictionary!