WP-2 ROM Routines - Part 1
 
   Thus far, I have used about 20 of the ROM routines listed in
the WP-2 Service Manual, most having to do with input/output. 
They are all described well enough to work with in the manual,
but most of them have a few quirks.  So that you won't have to
rediscover the wheel, here are some brief remarks on each
routine I have used.
   CLS, SETLOC, SETCURSORONOFF, and SETCURSORTYPE are all pretty
straightforward as described, so I won't detail them further. 
For the other routines, I have listed below the name, entry
address (in hex), and page it can be found on in the Service
Manual, followed by the necessary comments.
 
SETCOLOR (0115) p. D-2
  This one is pretty straightforward too, but if you use        
  reverse-video in your program, remember to reset to normal    
  when you exit the program.  Otherwise, the file menu will get 
  a little messed up.
 
CHARSENSE (0100) p. D-1 and
CHARGET (0103) p. D-1
  Use CHARSENSE if you want to get a character from the         
  keyboard (or keyboard buffer), but don't want to wait if no   
  key was pushed.  It will return the character if a key was    
  pushed, but it will NOT delete it from the buffer.  To delete 
  it from the buffer, call CHARGET.  Using CHARGET by itself    
  will wait for a key to be pushed if the buffer is empty.
 
CHAROUT (0118) p. D-2
  This routine does not support ESC-sequences.  It also does not
  support LF, CR, or BS, and I assume it doesn't support TAB.   
  Instead, it displays the corresponding special character code 
  (e.g. a musical note for CR).
 
PUTCHAR (01A3) p. D-2
  This one does support ESC-sequesces, but there seems to be a  
  bug with ESC J.  As far as I can tell, the rest work fine.
 
STROUT (011B) p. D-3
  Also does not support CR/LF, which diminishes it usefulness   
  somewhat.
 
CHECKCNCL (0124) p. D-3
  Checks whether ESC/CNCL is being held down at the time the    
  routine is called, but will not delete the ESC/CNCL key from  
  the keyboard buffer if it does find it being pushed.
 
PRNOUT (0130) p. D-3 and
PRNSTATUS (0133) p. D-3
  PRNOUT cannot be used by itself.  First you must check if the 
  printer is ready for data by calling PRSTATUS and wait if it  
  is not.  This is a pain, but allows for better flexibility    
  than if PROUT had the busy-check built in.
 
CHGSLOT (0166) p. D-4
  What is a slot?  Good question.  The manual uses the term many
  times without a definition.  I assume it to mean a ROM bank,  
  and changing slots means bank-selecting the 2nd 16K of memory 
  (addressed 4000-7FFF).  Whatever you call it, if you do change
  the slot, you must change it back to slot 0 before exiting the
  program, or you will endure a cold reset.
 
RSINIT (0140) p. D-4
  The problem with RSINIT is that it doesn't use the settings in
  the telecom setup menu.  Those setting are stored in memory,  
  though.  I don't recall the exact location off the top of my  
  head (somewhere in the BIOS work area).
 
SENDDATA (0146) p. D-5
  The problem with SENDDATA is that you have to call RSINIT     
  first, and to do so you have to set the baud rate, etc.  Also,
  I believe this routine will return an error if it doesn't get 
  a RTS signal on the RS232C line (and won't send the character,
  to boot).
 
RSCLOSE (014C) p. D-5
  This routine is a problem in itself, and has caused many a    
  headache.  It is the cause of modems hanging up on exiting    
  telecom.  It is also unnecessary.  I don't use it.  Once the  
  RS232C port has been "closed", it must be initialized again   
  (with RSINIT) before it can be used to send or receive data.
 
LINEIN (01A6) p. D-6
  I like this one.  Note that BC should be length + 1, not      
  length, as specified in the Manual.  Also, either RETURN or   
  ESC will exit the input, and whichever it was, it will be     
  returned in the A register.  And if you set color to reverse  
  before calling this routine, the input field will be          
  highlighted (see HEXDUMP for an example of this).  As for the 
  input itself, all characters are accepted, including the      
  graphics characters and special characters, plus you can get  
  control codes in by hitting ctrl-V then ctrl-whatever.  All   
  the system applications use this input routine, so you can    
  (for example) put a smiley-face in your filenames by hitting  
  ctrl-V ctrl-B while inputing at the filename prompt.
 
WAIT (01A0) p. D-11
  This is a handy routine, but there is a typo in the           
  description in the Manual.  The delay is in units of 1/10     
  second, not 1/100 second.  Too bad - 1/100 second would be    
  more usable.
 
 
   That's it for now.  Next up are the file access routines.
 
 
   Michael F. Klar - 4 Fleetwood Dr. - Somerville, NJ 08876