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BBC Schedula: Difference between revisions
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(Pop in some detail on Owain's version, screenshot to follow when I can be bothered.) |
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{{Equipment}} | |||
BBC as in BBC Microcomputer, not BBC as in BBC broadcasts, although for much of it's history most of the content controlled was rebroadcasts of mainstream TV. | BBC as in BBC Microcomputer, not BBC as in BBC broadcasts, although for much of it's history most of the content controlled was rebroadcasts of mainstream TV. | ||
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==BBC Micro and Owain's DOS front end== | ==BBC Micro and Owain's DOS front end== | ||
Owain set about writing a user interface based in C on a DOS platform. He thought he would try and use pointers to store all of the scheduling information. This version soon found itself in the bin after many crashes and he reverted to a static array, there's even a quote to that effect at the start of the source code: | In 1995-96 Owain set about writing a user interface based in C on a DOS platform. He thought he would try and use pointers to store all of the scheduling information. This version soon found itself in the bin after many crashes and he reverted to a static array, there's even a quote to that effect at the start of the source code: | ||
/* Owain experiments with arrays, structures and Alan's Scheduling System */ | /* Owain experiments with arrays, structures and Alan's Scheduling System */ | ||
True to his word, Alan, produced the ammended program for the BBC. First trial, did not go successful at first, until Alan advised to lift the front edge up of the BBC up a couple of centimetres and then drop it. After which, much to Owain's delight - it worked | True to his word, Alan, produced the ammended program for the BBC. First trial, did not go successful at first, until Alan advised to lift the front edge up of the BBC up a couple of centimetres and then drop it. After which, much to Owain's delight - it worked. The new system met with much enthusiasm. At first it ran an Owain's 386SX20, since this also had the compiler on it (Borland Turbo C). After a week or so to bed in, the executable was transferred to a boot floppy and run on a hard diskless 286. Owain spent some time trying to find a bit of code to translate between the Videoplus number system and programme start and finish times and channels. However none could be found, so he stuck with manual time and channel entry. The user interface was designed around the use of the 4 arrow keys, with as much help on the screen as possible. A number of short cuts were added to allow a schedule to be built up quickly. By pressing a key, a program could be repeated the next day or a different key for next week. Subsequent modifications were compiled using Borland C++ for Windows to generate a DOS executable using the recently installed PC's up {unsure|G/145}. | ||
In a split role, the DOS code also included a simple driver for [[Tank | In a split role, the DOS code also included a simple driver for [[Tank Umatic]] which had been modified to include a set of wires in parallel with the front panel play/rewind/stop buttons, in principle allowing tapes to be scheduled out of hours. However, this was never seen to be working and support was later removed, leaving all hardware in control of the BBC Micro. | ||
At the start of 1996-97, Owain attempted a further feat with the PC user interface. He had experimented with an extremely crude VGA to composite converter from Bull Electrical, that somehow seemed to work. His aim was to get the scheduler to announce the start of a program and show schedules by putting it's VGA output to network and showing some graphics. It was trialed before it was ready, and the system would get itself into a very confused state. | At the start of 1996-97, Owain attempted a further feat with the PC user interface. He had experimented with an extremely crude VGA to composite converter from Bull Electrical, that somehow seemed to work. His aim was to get the scheduler to announce the start of a program and show schedules by putting it's VGA output to network and showing some graphics. It was trialed before it was ready, and the system would get itself into a very confused state. | ||
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==BBC Micro and Rob's DOS front end== | ==BBC Micro and Rob's DOS front end== | ||
[[Rob Sprowson]] | The first 3 versions of the BBC Micro software by [[Rob Sprowson]] actually used Alan's binary which was patched to produce a new binary, this was made easy by the use of a 16 entry device table in the ROM so new devices could easily be swapped just by fiddling the table. These first 3 versions added: | ||
[[Image:AutoSchedule.png|right|thumb|160px|Hourly schedule update]] | |||
* New satellite decoder support. This also added a small delay of 8 seconds where [[Grapevine]] would be shown while the satellite decoder unscrambled the chosen channel. | |||
* A new teletext device. This allowed teletext magazines for the five UK terrestrial channels to be rebroadcast, primarily being used for sports results during the mute lecture hours. The channel/page/time stripe normally shown on the top line of the page was replaced by "York Student Television", and subpages were visited by the page finding logic. | |||
* Automatic schedules. In conjunction with a change to the DOS front end, hourly schedules (assuming nothing else was being shown) would display what was scheduled for that day. This just redisplayed a teletext image held on the floppy disc on the DOS front end. | |||
By 1999 maintaining the various patches became too difficult and a whole new system ROM was produced, using communications code kindly supplied by Alan. A new 'test card' device was also added - not normally requested by most students - but allowed for easier network testing with a choice of colour bars; 2T pulse; and crosshatch. | |||
The remaining changes to the BBC Micro versions were primarily incremental changes, such as renaming the startup commands, and timestamping the cryptic columns of numbers which scrolled past when the video was not otherwise being used for teletext or automatic schedules. From version 2.86 the [[Station Video Mux]] was used for video output instead, and the test cards gained a 1kHz audio tone. | |||
In parallel with the BBC Micro changes the DOS front end was also adjusted, partly to track new functionality and partly to enhance it in itself. A total of 27 versions were produced from 1998 to 2004. | |||
A handful of new keyboard shortcuts were added, notably using INSERT and DELETE on the keyboard for inserting and deleting programmes (rather than the obtuse I and D in Owain's version), and shortcuts to bring forward a programme ahead of schedule if required. | |||
[[Image:ConsoleDayView.png|left|thumb|160px|Page per day listings]] | |||
From January 2000, after a suggestion by [[Alex Hudson]], a new 'page per day' interface was added rather than the schedule being one continuous listing. A priority column was also introduced so that the origin of the schedule could be recorded, whether it was a telephone request, template entry, manually entered, etc... | |||
The ever increasing number of satellite channels, in addition to the 40 teletext magazines available, made searching the channel selection somewhat tedious. The channel selector was therefore changed to allow just the first few letters to be typed to narrow down the listing. | |||
To save time for the [[Scheduling Manager]] the concept of schedule templates was introduced, infact this was just a CSV file saved from Excel with recurring programmes. With careful design a quite respectable number of programmes could fill the schedule with little or no human intervention. | |||
The code by this point could also be compiled to generate a version to run on an Acorn Archimedes, indeed this is where the development was done, and the DOS version which was actually used by the station only produced as a byproduct. | |||
==BBC Micro and PHP system== | ==BBC Micro and PHP system== | ||