Re: Random Sam BASIC question.

Sorry, I was very busy improving my Retro-X in the last time. I found 
more and more messages from Sam-users in my gmail spam directory...

Thomas Harte schrieb:
>> Aha. I never stop learning. That was completly new for me...
>> For Acorn emulation I currently use Beeb. Just requested from the authors to
>> have a binary PC file import and export-function for one of the next
>> versions, like Sim Coupé. I have never heard about your emulator. Is there a
>> Acorn Electron screen interpreter/viewer available? I should test the export
>> of my screen converter, how it works on a emulator, but without binary
>> import it is a bit hard.
>>     
>
> Oh, my emulator is ElectrEm, at http://electrem.acornelectron.co.uk,
> though it doesn't import or export binary files at present. That's
> probably a more startling revelation if I also reveal that it does
> import and export ASCII text format BASIC programs. I've been doing
> some work to it in the last few days anyway, to improve printer
> emulation (I catch and interpret Epson FX80 typographic codes but so
> far haven't been doing graphics) and to fix up some bugs that have
> crept in while I was adding various other improvements, so I'll look
> into that.
>
>   
Even if it does not import binary files, your link helped me to get some 
important documents about Acorn. Now my Retro-X is also able to convert 
images to all Acorn graphical modes (0,1,2,4,5). I requested the binary 
import/export feature for Beeb Emulator and the latest release got these 
features now.
Your Tokeniser is a great idea...
> In the meantime, I can provide a little assembly sourcefile compatible
> with BeebAsm (roughly analogous to JAM or pyz80 in that it assembles
> code directly to an emulator-friendly media image — see
> http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/wiki/index.php/BeebAsm) that will use
> the contents of a binary file to assemble such that when you run the
> resulting DFS it just puts the contents on screen. So you'd just have
> to put the binary output of RetroX with the asm, run the assembler,
> then launch the emulator to test.
>
>   
This would be a nice feature if I can build it into my program, to 
generate fully executable files, eventually wuith compressor. At moment 
I do not know the TAP format of Acorn and also no details about disc 
image formats, but because there is much to do with other stuff, this is 
something for future.
Anyway I'm happy that Beeb's import works fine. I generate my files and 
can import them in debugger with fr xxxx 3000 command (xxx=filename, 
3000 replaced by 5800 in modes with 10240 bytes screen size)
> I'm clueless about the BBC hardware (apart from the CPU, the Electron
> shares nothing with the BBC on a component level), but hopefully
> there's a BBC emulator that does the binary loading/saving you want.
>
>   
Now yes!
>> BTW. Do you use API calls in your emulator? I'm looking for a reference of
>> Linux and Mac API calls online. There are a lot of Windows API calls
>> documented, but no Linux and Mac calls. I looking for example for the
>> eqivalent of GetAsyncKeyState(). There is a demand for Retro-X on Mac and
>> Linux...
>>     
>
>
> I think SDL itself might still be using some of the libraries that OS
> X inherited from all the OSs before it, which are all deprecated now
> and generally not a good idea.
> http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/ is probably the best
> reference resource, but I wouldn't describe myself as an unadulterated
> fan.
>
>   
Cocoa looks like it would be a nice library, but because I do not use C 
or C++ but PureBasic, so I should write a wrapper first. Anyway this is 
a good starting point for the conversion to other OSes.
>> Thats right... I also use ithe Internet to do some research about graphics
>> formats and image preprocessing. Asking people to help, helping other
>> people... In the 80 my programs are just simple and small games, and
>> Utilitys, in the 90 I learned to code better games and used first time my
>> own graphics converter that I wrote on Amiga. And now with PC I'm stick to
>> internet having not much free time to finish coding my projects.
>>     
>
> I don't know if I even had a computer in the 80s... I think probably
> not. I was only born in 1980, so I guess my parents wanted me running
> around outside instead, which I did and seem to remember very much
> enjoying. I had a secondhand Electron for about a year before my Sam,
> then skipped the 16 bits entirely to go PC and then Mac. The internet,
> which I think we first got a link to in 1996 or 1997, was a
> revelation.
>
>   
I was born in 1971, so my Home computer experience begann 1985 with a 
Spectrum 48+, then I moved to Spectrum 128, In late 80's I had a Amiga 
500, then I moved again to Spectrum and 1990 I purchased my SAM Coupé, 
then 1995 my first PC. I do never like to play outside, so I prefered to 
play with my computers. I think, I got Internet in 1998.
> I think the only thing of any length I ever wrote on my real Sam was
> an Outwrite clone in BASIC. It was very slow indeed, and couldn't
> print.
>
>   
That sounds cool! I wrote some SAM games like "Heavier than Metal", 
"Ultra Reflect", "Reverse Side" and made a lot of tools demos and 
Utilitys for SAM (The funny Vector Animations published on FRED 33 and 
34) and Spectrum.

LCD