Long Filename Browser for ZX-UNO / esxDOS

[PeterJ]

@akeley,

Agreed. Unfortunately good documentation often seems to fall by the wayside with such projects. It's a fantastic emulator though. I especially like being able to drag and drop files and folders to the virtual SD Card. I'm a fan! I just wish it used the HDF format for virtual hard disks rather than IMG so you could use the same file in other emulators. I'm not aware of a way to convert between the two.

[akeley]

It's a fantastic emulator though. I especially like being able to drag and drop files and folders to the virtual SD Card. I'm a fan!

Glad you've changed your mind

I just wish it used the HDF format for virtual hard disks rather than IMG so you could use the same file in other emulators. I'm not aware of a way to convert between the two.

Did you ever try just changing the file's extension? Eg zzz.img >> zzz.vhd or zzz.hdf. It sometimes works with these kinda images, without any actual converting. I'm 97% sure I've just managed to create an 50MB esxdos image in RVM and then use it in MiSTer's Spectrum core, which only takes .vhd files (not 100% sure because I was juggling many images.)

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@bob_fossil , (or anybody experienced with this fabulous browser) - I'm still curious about whether there is a limit on the amount of directories/subdirectories, but I did managed to create a working directory structure so now it's a secondary issue.

A new question: my collection is a mix of .tap files + some .ay/txt/scr ones (in separate subfolders). Navigting it all is fine, ditto starting games, but when I open a media file, the cursor (all?) keys sometimes stop working. Pressing SPACE restores their functionality. Is this known behaviour?

Also, some .txt files display fine, others show "Out of memory" error. Is it related to the file's size?

Please note I'm using it on MiSTer, which might be a bit different than other platforms (testing the same image in RVM doesn't reproduce this oddness).

[PeterJ]

Yes, @akeley,

I changed my mind here! That SD card functionality changed my view. The UI is still not to my taste, but I can get over that. I use Fuse and increasingly InkSpector if I'm not using esxDOS though.

I seem to remember changing the extension and it not working, but will try again. Good suggestion.

Also noticed the nmi information was given here.

[bob_fossil]

Hi @bob_fossil ,
Just tested spt files support and the playback quality is really good as before, but I was surprised by some graphic artifacts in music folders, when I use the up/down arrows during playback to go to the beginning or end of the file list.
After that, various visual effects occur (blank screen, inverted color lines or randomly drawn garphics garbage on the screen), etc.
Files list can be sometimes restored if I press esc and the left/right arrow, although sometimes this leads to a reset of the Spectrum core and a return to the home screen.
Its very easy to reproduce this (just play first song and press down arrow one or more times), it happens with a few dozen files in the folder, as well as with a few hundred.
I only tried this latest beta revision, I don't know how it behaves with earlier versions.
When music files are selected and played in order one by one up/down with the left/right arrow, then everything is fine.
Here are the examples I tested, so you can have an identical test environment. Cheers.

Thanks for the report and the files. Though I didn't need the files in the end as I already had a folder with more than a screenful of music files. Think I've fixed this now. I've re-uploaded the last test build here.

[bob_fossil]

Hi, I know about the 426 files-in-folder limit, but is there a limit on the number of folders themselves?

I'm currently struggling to put a large number of files on a vhd (~950 files in 275 directories, each of which has one subfolder).

Files and folders are represented by the same structure so you should be able to have up to 426 folders inside a folder. I've only ever got up to 51 folders inside a folder and that seemed to work okay. I am using either real SD cards or a .hdf file though.

[Chris23235]

Files and folders are represented by the same structure so you should be able to have up to 426 folders inside a folder. I've only ever got up to 51 folders inside a folder and that seemed to work okay. I am using either real SD cards or a .hdf file though.

I split an entire TAP collection into subfolders and organised them alphabetically. As the individual letters would break the file limit of the LFN browser I split them up into A1, A2, etc. The whole set is in 137 subfolders that are located in a Folder "TAP" which itself is located in a folder "[Games All]". Works without problem.

[Pegaz]

Thanks for the report and the files. Though I didn't need the files in the end as I already had a folder with more than a screenful of music files. Think I've fixed this now. I've re-uploaded the last test build here.

Yes, the last issue is gone, thanks Bob, for the effort.
I hope that there will be no more of them and that we are getting closer to the first final release.

[bob_fossil]

New version available here.

(deep breath)

v1.00

• 100% assembly rewrite of the browser to further reduce size and improve overall performance.
• NMI handler wasn't copying the 'real' bytes in bank 10 from 65024 - 65535 when it restored that section of memory. If you had POKEd that area of memory, the changes would be undone by the copy back of the memory taken before entering the NMI handler.
• _SNA plugin now lets you overwrite an existing snapshot file.
• Added code for ZX-UNO to optionally load .tap files in real time. This option can be enabled via .plugcfg using the TAP .ini file.
• Ensure the _CLP clipboard plugin deletes /tmp/clip.tmp before starting a new copy / cut operation.
• Added support for Sound Tracker Pro .stp modules with the STP plugin.
• Fixed screen corruption when drawing text strings that exceed 255 pixels.

I realise this may look like a small change log for such a version number jump but a lot has changed behind the scenes since I started the rewrite to assembly back in May this year.

Thanks to the following people for their testing, bug reports and patience during the past few months:

@Chris23235
@desUBIKado
@luzie
@jamesh
@pegaz

I'm also prepared for the inevitable list of bugs now I've officially made this 1.00 and released it.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[Chris23235]

Merry Christmas @bob_fossil thank you for this nice version 1.0 gift. I can report that I have no problems using the 1.0 on the Omni and the eLeMeNt. Very snappy even in 3.5MHz mode on the Omni and once I clock withz 7 MHz everything feels even more responsive. On the eLeMeNt performace of the browser is very good too, as the Uno Browser routines kick in.

[technic]

Hello @bob_fossil I did filename browser installation yesterday on my CF card that I use on "DivIDE 2k20 AY PASSTHROUGH" device (https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=287). It seems to be working for file listing and I can see the contents of .txt files, but I cannot run any of the programs. When I point to .tap file and hit either Enter or joystick fire button I see the attempt to read from CF card (the CF LED is flashing), but no program gets executed. It works perfectly fine with embedded esxDOS browser. Do you know what might be the root cause of this issue?

[bob_fossil]

Hello @bob_fossil I did filename browser installation yesterday on my CF card that I use on "DivIDE 2k20 AY PASSTHROUGH" device (https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=287). It seems to be working for file listing and I can see the contents of .txt files, but I cannot run any of the programs. When I point to .tap file and hit either Enter or joystick fire button I see the attempt to read from CF card (the CF LED is flashing), but no program gets executed. It works perfectly fine with embedded esxDOS browser. Do you know what might be the root cause of this issue?

Have you got the file BIN/BPLUGINS/TAP on your CF card?

Two possibilities:

1. Did you copy the BIN/BPLUGINS folder over to your CF card? In a working installation there should be a BIN/BPLUGINS folder there. These files are needed to launch the various supported file types. These files not being present would explain the behaviour you're describing.

2. You've only copied the contents of the 'No_MMC_Memory' to your card. This folder only contains the plugins that differ from the divMMC version. As the manual says, you should copy the BIN folder over first and then copy the contents of No_MMC_Memory BIN folder over the top to replace the divMMC plugins with the divIDE compatible ones.