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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: mahen on December 14, 2011, 10:43:42 PM

Title: BlitzBasic 2 & MIDI interface ?
Post by: mahen on December 14, 2011, 10:43:42 PM

Hi everyone !

I plan to write a piece of software which makes use of a MIDI interface on an A1200.

Is it possible to access such a device (RS232 port then) from a Blitz Basic program in BLITZ mode ?

Cheers !

Title: Re: BlitzBasic 2 & MIDI interface ?
Post by: bloodline on December 15, 2011, 12:08:17 AM

Yeah, a quick look at the Hardware Reference Manual will tell you the address of the Serial Port registers, then hook up some code on the serial interrupts and send your MIDI commands! Simple... There is also probably library that can do all the hard work for you :)

Title: Re: BlitzBasic 2 & MIDI interface ?
Post by: mahen on December 15, 2011, 03:35:14 AM

Cool, thanks for the prompt reply ;) Not installed / used / read the manuals yet, I just had a doubt as I heard the BLITZ mode (and not the AMIGA mode) had restrictions regarding I/Os. But indeed, I guess I can have access to the registers directly !

Title: Re: BlitzBasic 2 & MIDI interface ?
Post by: XDelusion on December 15, 2011, 03:41:40 AM

Whatcha makin?

Title: Re: BlitzBasic 2 & MIDI interface ?
Post by: mahen on December 15, 2011, 07:20:11 AM

I have some crazy ideas, but I'll let you know once I have some kind of "working proof of concept" ;-)

Title: Re: BlitzBasic 2 & MIDI interface ?
Post by: bloodline on December 15, 2011, 08:29:28 AM

Blitz allows full access to the hardware, and once you are in Blitz Mode you have the machine to yourself! You can do anything you like.

Midi is super simple and the Amiga Serial port only needs a simple adaptor to interface with it :)

Title: Re: BlitzBasic 2 & MIDI interface ?
Post by: Daedalus on December 15, 2011, 08:44:34 AM

Do you have to be in Blitz mode? Accessing the serial port in a system-legal way in Amiga mode is very easy, and AFAIR there's even a specific MIDI .include file to take care of the MIDI stuff for you.

But, as bloodline says, in Blitz mode you have full access to all the hardware, simply peek and poke the CIAs to your heart's content :) The Blitz manual even includes a table of all the registers and their functions...

Title: Re: BlitzBasic 2 & MIDI interface ?
Post by: mahen on December 15, 2011, 04:49:54 PM

Thanks again for the answers. Yeah, I would like to make to best possible use of the Amiga hardware, so I'll stick to BLITZ mode if possible ! I wonder how far one can go without switching to ASM...

Is there some kind of website / mailing list / NG still active nowadays about Amiga development or even Blitz in particular ?

Title: Re: BlitzBasic 2 & MIDI interface ?
Post by: mahen on April 08, 2014, 08:41:39 AM

Bump ! :)

Completely put this project aside for a couple of... years apparently :-)

I'll give it another go soon.

Just one question : I have no A1200 anymore but I would like to develop directly from my MiST instead (Minimig core), in order to be fully focus(s)ed on a single task ! ; did any of you guys figure out how to use a MIDI interface on this piece of hardware ?

Meanwhile I wish I could use FS-UAE on my Linux box but apparently it doesn't support MIDI yet... So in the end I might end up using WinUAE through WINE on my Linux box. Sigh ;)