[Coco] Portal09 help, new project...

[Roger Taylor]

At 01:24 PM 1/23/2006, you wrote:

>If you don't mind my asking: Roger, what version of M.E.S.S. are you 
>running? That might give me a heads-up on which version to download & test...
>Also, it looks like the current sequence of events with multiple assembly 
>programs in a project is:
>         1) assemble
>         2) copy .bin to virtual disk
>         3) assemble next program
>         4) copy next .bin to virual disk

Yep, each source code file in the project gets assembled as the object and 
filename you choose, then imgtool.exe is called on to copy that file from 
the Files directory onto your virtual floppy disk the way you like (if you 
added one).  If not, the PC files are still there to do what you want to with.

If you assemble to a .rom image using one of the ROM object types and also 
add a virtual disk to the project, the ROM doesn't get mounted and run in 
M.E.S.S. but instead gets copied to your .dsk image which is mounted in 
M.E.S.S..  This should help you move ROMs over to your CoCo so you can use 
your CoCo EPROM burner instead of a PC EPROM burner.

If you want to copy a source code file as-is (actually, with LF/CR 
filtering) onto your CoCo .dsk, choose nothing for the output object type, 
and choose an output filename or a filename called "same", and the file 
will get copied over to your disk without being assembled.  This works for 
any file whether it be text, binary, pictures, sound, etc.  Examine the 
Projector-3 project to see what I mean.  P3.HLP is a copy-over file that 
ends up on the virtual disk as-is.

Knowing this, you can set up Portal-9 projects that include games or 
utilities that you want to have made into a CoCo disk.  Reload the project, 
add or remove files at your leisure, and rebuild!  PORT.EXE has nothing on 
this.



>I've found that if imgtool barfs, only the first program in a project gets 
>built. Would it not be more logical to assemble all the projects first, 
>than imgtool 'em over - that way, if imgtool barfs, then one can still put 
>all the .bin files in the virtual disk by hand (which is what I was doing 
>to test my code)?

I think the glitch might be that you are choosing "coco_rsdos_jvc" which is 
an older switch.  Try the default "coco_jvc_rsdos" switch instead and let 
me know if that works.  I use M.E.S.S .102 and I just tried the imgtool 
that comes with it and the one I have in my Portal-9 Tools folder and both 
worked.


>Just a few random thoughts... Altho despite the minor glitches I'm having 
>with it so far, I *really* like it. ;-) Thank goodness my wife doesn't 
>know about the PayPal account... ;^>

You sneaky programmer, you.  :)


Cheers,



-- 
Roger Taylor