Need for alternate boot-invocation method

[stevech]

The ATN bit (DTR) seems to be a defacto for forcing a reinitialization (reload).

But other products allow for this to be triggered by unique agreed-to characters arriving on a (the) serial port, such as <ESC><something>

I would like to see that for Zbasic. Maybe as a settable option in the control program. Why?

I have Moxa NPort and Lantronix WiPort devices - these provide a serial port via 802.11 (WiFi). The do emulate a windows COM port for the benefit of the IDE. But some or all don't propagate the DTR signal across the wireless link. Perhaps they should, but they don't. RTS/CTS is implemented for flow control. The same may be true for things like the Lantronix Xport (ethernet instead of WiFi).

[stevech]

A bit more info...
With the ZX24 connected to a Moxa NPort W2150, using a DVM, I see that they set DTR to +6V when the pseudo-COM port is opened and return it to -6V when the port is closed. Using Zload -a -c3 I see that the voltage doesn't change after the port is open, i.e., they don't propagate DTR as they should as it changes state. I suspect this is true for Lantronix as well.

If you close and reopen the port, DTR changes and the ZX24 resets. Perhaps the IDE/Zload could do that to accomodate and allow a download via wireless or ethernet.

[dkinzer]

The ZX goes into download mode when it detects a sequence of resets occurring with a specific timing relationship. It wouldn't be a good idea, I think, to go into download mode in response to a single reset.

It might be possible to have the ZX go into download mode upon receipt of a character sequence as you suggest. I'll have to give this some more thought regarding how to do it so that it doesn't interefere with normal operation.