I'm now translating the provisional EPNET 1.2 manual to Spanish. I had already read the
1.0 version, freely available on the
Bruce Tanner Github page, but two years ago EPNET was "only" an Ethernet interface....
1.2 is not still the definitive guide version, because some details of the real hardware have been modified, have been added or will change soon, but it explains thoroughly all the juicy details of this superb One For All card.
Some of you could be thinking that it is only one more expansion for the Enterprise, a card accessible to only a few users, but that's not the intention of Bruce. He is offering the code and hardware freely to every one that wants to construct it.
Also, he is offering a finished product, i.e. this is not the typical unfinished project that you can find on Github, he has put a lot of years of work on it, and will continue supporting it in the future, adding features when, hopefully, EPNET will be on every Enterprise owner's desk.
To me, reading the manual, it gives me the same sensation like when you hear wonderful music performed by a good interpreter. It sounds sort of "easy", you can't feel the effort it has taken to reach that perfection.
For example, he has made a hard work on the card to obtain total compatibility with all the Enterprise configurations, implementing a way to "float"(move) the incorporated EPNET RAM and ROM to memory zones not used by ALL the previous card extensions made on the Enterprise history...
Another aspect is how well he has implemented the EPNET commands, totally compatible and transparent. Once connected to a net, you can DIR, COPY, SAVE, LOAD, etc. remotely from it, almost like you can do with a floppy disc or other logical units.
The average user never will notice the effort Bruce has put on implementing actual net technologies on a 32 years old(or more) machine...
Also he has added an 8-bit IDE port intended for Compact Flash adapters, and written a driver for it. What more could we want?. Ok, here I would want a Real Time Clock(RTC), but EPNET has commands to retrieve the exact net time from a NTP server...
Of course, I am only talking about what I read on the manual, I don't have the real hardware, but I KNOW that this device will change the way we enjoy this so loved computer.
Sorry, I can't say more, as I'm still not allowed to release this provisional manual. But soon Bruce himself will present the definitive one.