Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mailrus!iuvax!bsu-cs!cfchiesa From: cfchiesa@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Christopher Chiesa) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit Subject: Re: CROSS-COMPILING WITH AN IBM-PC:HOW TO DO IT? Summary: Code transfer works fine Keywords: CROSS-COMPILING WITH IBM-PC Message-ID: <7605@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> Date: 6 Jun 89 12:14:51 GMT References: <1179@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, IN, USA Lines: 52 In article <1179@cbnewsh.ATT.COM>, rvp@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (rob.v.phillips) writes: > Rather than throw money into 8-bit hardware and software, and time into > learning their details, I believe that my most productive option for > developing 8-bit games would involve cross-compiling code on the IBM-PC, > and downloading it via the PC's serial port to my Atari 800, somehow. > > It seems reasonable that one could download binary code serially to the > ATARI 800 at 9600bps using some dedicated driver for this purpose, Assuming I had the appropriate cross-assembler that wrote its output into the appropriate Atari-required format ($FF,$FF headers, etc.) on the PC, I would proceed to download it from PC to Atari using MS-Kermit on the PC, Kermit65 on the Atari, and a null-modem cable. I've used this technique to transfer Atari executables from my Amiga to the Atari, after downloading them from BBSs onto the Amiga, and it works fine. I wouldn't try just DUMPing the binary data from one computer to the other; I'd prefer to use some Kermit or XMODEM error- correction protocol. On the other hand, that's more of an issue when one is using a telephone line, than when using a direct cable... > Therefore, An 8K program should take only 10 seconds or so to download. I'd say that's about right. I was able to use 9600 baud over the null-modem cable, through the 850 interface. > Does anyone out there work in this type of environment? I haven't tried cross-assembling for the 6502 since I became a CS major; I did try it once on an IBM mainframe around 1982 though. Ack. Have you considered writing your OWN Atari-specific 6502 cross-assembler in, say PC BASIC or whatever language you're familiar with? There's a COMPUTE! book in existence that contains 6502 assemblers and disassemblers, written in BASIC, for the Commodore 64 and the Atari 800; perhaps you could use those as a jumping-off point and "port" the concept or the information from that program over to the PC? I'd do it that way myself if I were going to try it; first off, I'd need the existing program as a crutch to know what I was doing, and second, I'd then have full control over the format of output, addition of features I needed (like, reading the source from a text file that had been previously created under one's favorite text editor), etc. > If you know of source code for a 6502 cross-compiler written in > portable C, please let me know. Hmmm... I think there's something for the Amiga that will cross-assemble 6502 code -- with switches for "machine-specificity" for the Atari 800 among other popular machines... THAT might be written in C, although I don't know how "portable" it would be... -- UUCP: !{iuvax,pur-ee,uunet}!bsu-cs!cfchiesa cfchiesa@bsu-cs.UUCP