RE: [cc65] Atari Disk Image Tool ?

Replies in-line...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-cc65@musoftware.de [mailto:owner-cc65@musoftware.de] On Behalf
> Of Oliver Schmidt
> Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2010 7:11 AM

<snip>

> Is "DOS 2" meant to say DOS 2.x including DOS 2.5 mentioned above?

There are three major versions of DOS available for the Atari that are in
widespread use:

AtariDOS: version 2.5 is the "standard" version and supports SD (90k, 720
sector disks) and ED (130k, 1040 sector disks).

MyDOS: version 4.53 is the version I always use, and the latest I believe.
This DOS supports disks up to (16Mb, 65535 sectors).

SpartaDOS: version 3.2g (and some 3.3 versions compiled for certain
hardware) is the latest disk based version.  4.42 is the latest cartridge
based version and still in active development.  This is a very powerful
command-line DOS that supports disks up to 32mb, 65535 512-byte sectors on
some hardware.

All of these DOSes have a MEMLO (the first usable address after DOS is
loaded) under $2000.  $2000 is a safe value to use generally.  It's uncommon
that any drivers are loaded in low memory with modern setups.  If you are
targeting Contiki for custom hardware (the Ethernet card being developed),
than it's almost guaranteed that no drivers will be loaded in low memory.
This mainly affects AtariDOS and MyDOS, since SpartaDOS (4.x) has a
sophisticated relocatable driver system that can load the drivers into
expanded memory, or under the OS.

Mainly the only device that this is required for is the 850 device, which
provides standard serial ports and a printer port on the machine.  It's not
widely used anymore, IMO.

Another thing is that software is typically distributed as executables, and
if there are no support files that need to be loaded from disk than this is
an easier method.  Most Atari users will know what to do with an executable
(the "new" standard filename extension is .xex)  Sounds like you may have
some support files though...

> >> If I have several binaries on a disk the user should be able to easily
> >> choose from do I have to do something special to meet Atari user
> >> expectations?

Loading programs from disk with DOS is well-known... same as the LOAD
"*",8,1 thing the C64 folks do.  You can put all sorts of menu's, etc.. but
there's no need.  The savvy users will build their own, or put your program
on hard drive anyway.

> > Are you by chance trying to port contiki 2 to the Atari?
> 
> Good guess - but actually not *that* hard ;-))
> 
> I found the other day by chance http://www.atari8ethernet.com/ and
> thought that this project justifies an "official" port.

Awesome!



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