204 lines
9.1 KiB
Plaintext
204 lines
9.1 KiB
Plaintext
ReadMe for AppleX 2013 Update
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Updated April 2013
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Release Notes and Other Stuff That Should Be In A ReadMe
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--------------------------------------------------------
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Additional Directory Structure - AppleX\PROGRAMS
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------------------------------------------------
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For the AppleX 2013 update, I have separated the directory structure for
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non- trivial Graphics and other non-trivial Demo Programs and placed them
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under AppleX\PROGRAMS. None of these were ever included in AppleX before
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now, and all have been written since late Fall of 2012 with the exception
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of a couple of the utilities and some demos from the Apple33 DOS 3.3
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Aztec C65 cross-compiler distribution. Those have been completely
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rewritten and are much improved.
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Graphics Mode Support Extended
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------------------------------
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AppleX now Supports
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LGR - Lo-Res
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DLGR - Double Lo-Res
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HGR - Hi-Res Color and Monochrome
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DHGR - Double Hi-Res Color and Monochrome
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4 of the subdirectories in the AppleX\PROGRAMS directory are related to
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the 4 main graphics modes of the Apple II (see above), and each contains
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source code, programs, utilities, documentation, and disk images related
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to working with the AppleX Aztec C65 distribution and Graphics on the
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Apple II. All 4 graphics mode are supported at a pretty similar level. Until the
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2013 Apple X update, support for Apple II graphics was limited, with
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a huge focus on HGR color, because that's what I knew best.
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HGR support is still stronger than the rest in specialized areas because
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AppleX provides all the tools I wrote and used many years back in
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conjunction with full-blown projects to do such things as loading
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graphics libraries into Axiliary memory and other related stuff. But each
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of the 4 graphics modes provide image loaders, line drawing routines, and
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font routines and so forth.
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And most importantly (to me), AppleX comes with documented methodology
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and toools to aquire bit-mapped graphics from a variety of sources
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including Windows, Apple II Native Format, and Hybrid Sources like
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AppleWin Screen Captures of running programs that make obtaining graphics
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for use in your own programs easy if not too easy.
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Robust Documentation Much Expanded
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----------------------------------
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Please read the source code and documentation, and run the demos and
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programs you find in each AppleX\PROGRAMS\subdirectory as well as any
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documentation you find laying about for more information.
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The immensely expanded source code in the AppleX\GRAPHICS directory is
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also a good reference for more information. This is the source code for
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the G2 (Graphics) library, which also includes the source code from the
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original Aztec C65 G.lib.
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Comprehensive documentation for Aztec C itself and its original toolchain
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has been available in pdf format user's manuals from the Aztec C website
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at www.aztecmuseum.ca for a number of years now. But with this release of
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AppleX and with many pdf "tutorials" and users manuals being very much
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expanded-on especially for Apple II graphics programming, new life has
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been breathed into this old compiler, taking its capabilities far beyond
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the Apple II Community's "Retro-Compiler" perception... until AppleX, all
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that was available was a previous ProDOS native-mode shell version that
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does not even support creating floating point SYS programs, so if this
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perception is not clearly incorrect, it is somewhat understandabley
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incorrect.
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Aztec C is not as efficient in some areas as other cross-compilers for
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the Apple II, but when it comes to documentation and usability demos it
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holds its own, even today, 25 or so years later, and more than
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compensates for whatever inefficiencies it mat have by providing a stable
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and feature-rich environment which includes the documentation by Manx
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Software (available from the website at www.aztecmuseum.ca) supplemented
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with what AppleX provides.
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The source code for the compiler itself was apparently lost long ago
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according to Aztec C's founder, so we can't make changes that would be
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considered modern to its style, which is transitory K&R and not ANSI or
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ISO, but all the library source is available, and it is the library
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source that I have been modifying and expanding on to provide the AppleX
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improvements to Aztec C, in the same manner and spirit I first expanded
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it over 20 years ago.
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Tools and More Tools
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--------------------
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The AppleX\TOOLS directory also contains many utilities. Some are also
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related to Graphics, but some were written long ago. The utilities in the
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subdirectories under the AppleX\PROGRAMS directory have all been
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recently written, and are more specifically targetted at today's working
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environment. For that reason, they have been placed there instead of in
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the TOOLS directory.
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ProDOS Directory Services
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-------------------------
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The AppleX\PROGRAMS directory also contains a subdirectory called
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LISTDIR which demonstrates and implements G2 library routines related to
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reading ProDOS disks and finding files on them and so forth.
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Command Line and Unix-Like Programs for ProDOS
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----------------------------------------------
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Another expansion of the AppleX distribution is the production of
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programs that run under the Aztec C Shell for ProDOS 8. Shell Versions of
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SYS programs, which are PCODE mixed with native 6502 code. allow command
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line arguments and wildcard expansion and so forth, while being able to
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run at the same speed of execution as their SYS program counterparts in
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time critical operations like graphics and floating point calculations.
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Previous Updates and Brief History
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----------------------------------
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Since making AppleX available I have kept adding to it, but did not
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update the AppleX readme file.
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Website
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-------
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I also built a website called www.aztecmuseum.ca for AppleX and many other Aztec C compilers for other platforms, and time
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permitting I have done my best to keep the website up to date.
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Full Blown Aztec C Projects with Source Code
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--------------------------------------------
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After building the website, I made selected Full-Blown non-trivial
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"Projects" in Aztec C65 part of the distribution. They are in the
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PROJECTS direcory. Two of these projects (METOO and TIME) use overlays
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and auxiliary memory extensively and should prove informative. I also
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have 3 additional overlay projects that I will someday make available if
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time permits.
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Mixing the Old with the New
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---------------------------
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As I have done in the 2013 update with the PROGRAMS subdirectory,
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I kept these projects in the PROJECTS directory, separate from
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the SAMPLES directory that comprised the first AppleX distribution.
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I also provided DOSBox support for Aztec C65 and included this with
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AppleX, not that it took me much work. With Windows 7 displacing WIndows
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XP, it turns-out this was a good idea. Along the way I also tested in
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Ubuntu in another DOS emulator, without problem. However I did not update
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the ReadMe with any of this, while I just kept adding to AppleX. In fact
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I did not update the ReadMe at all.
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When I first started resurrecting Aztec C compilers I learned quickly
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about emulators, and quickly switched to the AppleWin emulator which I
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would be a fool not to recommend. The Apple II Oasis emulator is getting
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old, and crashes my new computer gloriously, and is pretty sparse
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especially compared to the AppleWin (1.22) we enjoy today.
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Ciderpress is an excellent disk manager. The Disk Manager in Apple II
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Oasis has some quirks... it handles DOS 3.3 disks well except that it
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will use lower-case naming which fouls DOS 3.3, but in either DOS 3.3 or
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ProDOS 8 it beats Ciderpress in one respect... you can fill a disk with
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multiple files then apply file-type sub-type/load attributes using a
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batch select on the fly. Other than for some of my own specialized nits,
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Cider Press is what I use continually these days as a disk manager for
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Apple II disk images or to port programs to my real Apple IIe on a CF
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(compact flash) card. Ciderpress supports this card (which inserts into a
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device called a MicroDrive).
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I have discovered through all this that there are many other options, my point being that the original Aztec C
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ReadMe like much of my old stuff that is still included in AppleX is
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quite dated and limited.
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I am also mindful that there doesn't seem to be anything I can't do with
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this old compiler except co-exist nicely with AppleSOft BASIC for ProDOS.
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Aztec C and AppleX is not targeted at AppleSoft BASIC programming anyway.
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Apple33 Aztec C65 for DOS 3.3
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-----------------------------
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Along the way, I also created a smaller distribution of Aztec C65
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for building Apple II DOS 3.3 programs.
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Then for a couple of years or so, until Fall of 2012, I didn't do much
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with AppleX or Apple33.
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Permission to Distribute Aztec C65
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----------------------------------
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Someone pointed-out to me at some point that I have never indicated in
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this distribution that I have permission to distribute Aztec C65. This
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simply because I never updated the read me.
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Copyright Clarification - Copyright and Conditions of Use
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---------------------------------------------------------
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Harry Suckow (the Copyright holder for Aztec C) has given permission to
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redistribute Manx Software Systems discontinued Aztec C compilers for
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now-obsolete platforms.Your use must be Fair as it applies to Manx's
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Copyright on these compilers. They are not for sale.
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Bill Buckels
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bbuckels@mts.net
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End of ReadMe |