TRS80_CPM_KEYBFR

French AZERTY keyboard driver for Montezuma Micro CP/M on TRS-80 Model 4/4p

This driver allows the users of a TRS-80 Model 4/4p with an AZERTY keyboard to easily use the MM CP/M operating system without having to remember the QWERTY keyboard layout.

To build the driver (instructions for Windows)

For a Montezuma Micro CP/M v2.2 system with BIOS version 2.22, build kbfr222.

For a Montezuma Micro CP/M v2.2 system with BIOS version 2.30+, build kbfr230.

The source files are located in the folder keybfr.

You'll need to first copy zmac.exe from George Phillips into the subfolder keybfr\zmac.

Then, depending on your CP/M version, run a_kbfr222.bat or a_kbfr230.bat.

This will create the driver binary file KBFR222.COM or KBFR230.COM.

Copy or transfer the binary file to a copy of your CP/M system diskette.

Then insert the CP/M diskette into the TRS-80 drive A: and boot the system.

To install the driver

On CP/M 2.22 type KBFR222 followed by <ENTER>. On CP/M 2.30+ type KBFR230 followed by <ENTER>. This will load and activate the AZERTY keyboard driver. This driver doesn't take additional memory, as it directly patches the BIOS.

It is possible to SYSGEN the driver so it is immediatly loaded at boot time. To do this (replace nnn with either 222 or 230 depending on your CP/M version):

• type KBFRnnn *: this will load the driver and prepare it for a SYSGEN;
• type SYSGEN and follow the instructions to re-write the system to the disk in drive A:.

A>KBFR222
French keyboard driver 1.00
for BIOS rel. 2.22
Ready for "SYSGEN"
A>SYSGEN

In SYSGEN type <ENTER> A <ENTER> <ENTER>.

When the system is rebooted, the welcome message looks shorter (because we needed to borrow some bytes from the welcome message in the BIOS for the AZERTY keyboard translation):

64k CP/M 2.2
BIOS r2.22Fr (c)'84 MM/JBO

To restore the original CP/M BIOS with the QWERTY driver, issue the following commands:

A>MOVCPM 64 *
CONSTRUCTING 64k CP/M vers 2.2
READY FOR "SYSGEN' OR
"SAVE 44 CPM64.COM"
A>SYSGEN

In SYSGEN type <ENTER> A <ENTER> <ENTER>.

Additional notes

1. The AZERTY keyboard layout is somewhat different from the layout in TRSDOS/LS-DOS. CP/M is unable to handle accented characters because it is limited to 7-bit ASCII. So the accented characters é, è, à, ç, § and SHIFT-¨ are replaced respectly with [, ], `, ^, # and ~. Also the keys ^ and ¨ are no 'dead keys'. The CLEAR key generates ESC (0x1B) and SHIFT-CLEAR clears the command line. CTRL-CLEAR generates DEL (0x7F).

2. The AZERTY keyboard driver can be SYSGENed to a bootable CP/M hard disk. Just add it as the first command in the HDBOOT.SUB file:

   KBFR230
   EXBIOS
   CPMFIX
   HDRS15M H0=AB H1=CD F=EFGH