Keep Chunks Loaded for Turtles?

Okay, I want to send a turtle mining automatically for me using ender chests and whatnot. This is all fine and dandy except: CC doesn't load chunks. (personally i think turtles should just auto-load chunks but ..) I know MiscPeripherals has the chunk loading module but it isnt 1.6.4… and well, I cant just place a chunkloader because i want the turtle to be digging a tunnel and just keep going and going… Not really sure what I should do :/

Give it some spotloaders to drop/collect?

I used to do this a while back, i just placed a chunk loader and had the turtle mine the area within it. A more self-sufficent option would be having a turtle carry 2 chunk loaders, place one, move to the edge of it, place another, and go back and get the original. but you don't want that, so uh…. you're SOL.

:| this feature is really needed in CC. Maybe if the devs would listen to the users a bit more… anyway… :/

Given that very few other mods offer automatic chunk loading, I wouldn't "expect" it from ComputerCraft. Were it implemented fully into the basic turtle design, we'd probably just see the mod banned from even more servers out there.

Assuming regular turtles don't load chunks (though to my understanding, they do - they just don't necessarily keep them loaded), you can still deal with this matter yourself simply by rigging up a system whereby the turtle zig-zags as it progresses. Drop chunk loader, collect chunk loader, drop chunk loader, collect chunk loader… Sure it'll take longer, but it sounds like this is the sort of job you're not going to sit around and watch anyway.

Another option available to you is to use multiple turtles, like the swarm mining systems. Have a couple of them carry chunk loaders and leap-frog each other while those remaining do the actual digging.

MiscPeripherals is apparently usable under 1.6.4, though I'm not sure to what extant. Takes a little tweaking depending on what other mods you want to use it with.