cc65/doc/grc.sgml

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<title>grc -- GEOS Resource Compiler
<author><url name="Maciej 'YTM/Elysium' Witkowiak" url="mailto:ytm@elysium.pl">
<and><url name="Greg King" url="mailto:gngking@erols.com">
<date>VII 2000; VI,VII 2002; 2005-8-3
<abstract>
This document describes a compiler that can create GEOS headers and menues for,
and VLIR files from, cc65-compiled programs.
</abstract>

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<sect>Overview
<p><bf/grc/ is a part of cc65's GEOS support.  The tool is necessary to
generate required and optional resources.  A required resource for every GEOS
application is the header, that is:  an icon, some strings, and some addresses.
Optional resources might be menu definitions, other headers (e.g., for data
files of an app.), dialog definitions, etc.  Without an application's header,
GEOS is unable to load and start it.

Currently, <bf/grc/ supports only menues and the required header definition,
along with support for building VLIR-structured files.

<bf/grc/ generates output in three formats:  C header, <bf/ca65/ source (.s),
and, for linking VLIR, <bf/ld65/ configuration script.  That is because
application header data must be in assembly format, while menu definitions can
be translated easily into C.  The purpose of the C file is to include it as a
header in only one project file.  The assembly source should be processed by
<bf/ca65/, and linked as the first object (read about <ref
name="the building process" id="building-seq">).  The VLIR structure currently
is supported for only projects that are written entirely in assembly code.

<bf/grc/ can be used also as a handy VLIR linker -- used to build
VLIR-structured <tt/.cvt/ files out of prepared binary chains.



<sect>Usage
<p>grc accepts the following options:<tscreen><verb>
-f         force the writing of the output files
-o name    name the .c output file
-s name    name the .s output file
-l name    name the ld65 output file
-h         show this help
</verb></tscreen>
When used as a VLIR linker, the correct syntax is:<tscreen><verb>
 grc -vlir output.cvt header.bin vlir0.bin vlir1.bin ...
</verb></tscreen>
Default output names are made from input names with extensions replaced by
<tt/.h/ and <tt/.s/.  <bf/grc/ will not overwrite existing files unless forced
to do so.  That is done to avoid situations where you have <tt/test.c/ and
<tt/test.grc/ files.  Both would put their output into <tt/test.s/.  For that
reason, you should name your resource-files differently than sources, e.g.,
<tt/resource.grc/ or <tt/apphead.grc/.



<sect>Resource file format
<p>A resource file has the name extension <tt/.grc/.  That is not required, but
it will make for an easier recognition of the file's purpose.  Also, <bf/cl65/
recognizes those files.  <bf/grc/'s parser is very weak, at the moment; so,
read the comments carefully, and write resources exactly as they are written
here.  Look out for CAPS. and small letters.  Everything after a '<tt/;/',
until the end of the line, is considered as a comment, and ignored.  See the
included <ref name="commented example .grc file" id="example-grc"> for a
better view of the problem.


<sect1>Menu definition
<p><tscreen><verb>
MENU menuName leftx,topy <ORIENTATION> {
    "item name 1" <MENU_TYPE> pointer
    ...
    "item name x" <MENU_TYPE> pointer
}</verb></tscreen>
The definition starts with the keyword <tt/MENU/, then goes the menu's name,
which will be represented in C as <tt/const void/.  Then are the co-ordinates
of the top left corner of the menu box.  The position of the bottom right
corner is estimated, based on the length of item names and the menu's
orientation.  It means that the menu box always will be as large as it should
be.  Then, there's the orientation keyword; it can be either <tt/HORIZONTAL/ or
<tt/VERTICAL/.  Between <tt/&lcub;/ and <tt/&rcub;/, there's the menu's
content.  It consists of item definitions.  First is an item name -- it has to
be in quotes.  Next is a menu-type bit.  It can be <tt/MENU_ACTION/ or
<tt/SUB_MENU/; either of them can be combined with the <tt/DYN_SUB_MENU/ bit
(see <url name="the GEOSLib documentation" url="geos.html"> for descriptions of
them).  You can use C logical operators in expressions, but you have to do it
without spaces.  So, a dynamically created submenu will be something like:
<tscreen><verb>
"dynamic" SUB_MENU|DYN_SUB_MENU create_dynamic</verb></tscreen>
The last part of the item definition is a pointer which can be any name that is
present in the C source code that includes the generated header.  It can point
to a function or to another menu definition.

If you are doing sub(sub)menu definitions, remember to place the lowest level
definition first, and the top-level menu as the last one.  That way, the C
compiler won't complain about unknown names.


<sect1>Header definition
<p><tscreen><verb>
HEADER <GEOS_TYPE> "dosname" "classname" "version" {
    author    "Joe Schmoe"
    info      "This is my killer-app!"
    date      yy mm dd hh ss
    dostype   SEQ
    mode      any
    structure SEQ
}</verb></tscreen>
The header definition describes the GEOS header sector which is unique to
each file.  Currently, there's no way to change the default <bf/grc/ icon
(an empty frame).  It will be possible in the next version.  The definition
starts with the keyword <tt/HEADER/, then goes the GEOS file-type.  You can use
only <tt/APPLICATION/ here at the moment.  Then, there are (each one in quotes)
the DOS file-name (up to 16 characters), the GEOS Class name (up to 12
characters), and the version info (up to 4 characters).  The version should be
written as &dquot;<tt/V/x.y&dquot;, where <em/x/ is the major, and <em/y/ is
the minor, version number.  Those fields, along with both braces, are required.
The lines between braces are optional, and will be replaced by default and
current values.  The keyword <tt/author/ and its value in quotes name the
programmer, and can be up to 63 bytes long.  <tt/info/ (in the same format) can
have up to 95 characters.  If the <tt/date/ field is omitted, then the time of
that compilation will be placed into the header.  Note that, if you do specify
the date, you have to write all 5 numbers.  The <tt/dostype/ can be <tt/SEQ/,
<tt/PRG/, or <tt/USR/.  <tt/USR/ is used by default; GEOS usually doesn't care.
The <tt/mode/ can be <tt/any/, <tt/40only/, <tt/80only/, or <tt/c64only/; and,
it describes system requirements.  <tt/any/ will work on both 64-GEOS and
128-GEOS, in 40- and 80-column modes.  <tt/40only/ will work on 128-GEOS in
40-column mode only.  <tt/80only/ will work on only 128-GEOS in 80-column mode,
and <tt/c64only/ will work on only 64-GEOS.  The default value for
<tt/structure/ is <tt/SEQ/ (sequential).  You can put <tt/VLIR/ there, too; but
then, you also have to put in a third type of resource -- a VLIR-table
description.


<sect1>VLIR table description
<p><tscreen><verb>
VLIR headname address {
    vlir0
    blank
    vlir2
    blank
    vlir4
}</verb></tscreen>
The first element is the keyword <tt/VLIR/, then goes the name for the header
binary file (read below), and the base address for all VLIR chains that are
different from 0.  It can be either decimal (e.g., <tt/4096/) or hexadecimal
with a <tt/0x/ prefix (e.g., <tt/0x1000/).  Then, between braces are the names
of VLIR chain binaries or the keyword <tt/blank/ which denotes empty chains.
In the example, chains #1 and #3 are missing.  The names between braces are
the names of binaries that contain code for each VLIR part.  They matter only
for the generated <bf/ld65/ configuration file, and will be the names of the
resulting binary files after linking.  Each one will contain one VLIR chain;
and, they will have to be put together, in the correct order, into a VLIR
<tt/.cvt/ file, by <bf/grc/ in its VLIR linker mode.

The <tt/headname/ will be the name for the binary file which will contain only
a GEOS <tt/.cvt/ header made out of compiling the <tt/.s/ header file that also
was generated by <bf/grc/.  At the end of the resulting <bf/ld65/ config. file
(<tt/.cfg/), in comments, there will be information about what commands are
required for putting the stuff together.  Read <ref name="this description"
id="building-vlir"> for details.



<sect>Building a GEOS sequential application<label id="building-seq">
<p>Before proceeding, please read the <url name="compiler" url="cc65.html">,
<url name="assembler" url="ca65.html">, and <url name="linker" url="ld65.html">
documentation, and find the appropriate sections about building programs, in
general.

GEOS support in cc65 is based on the <em/Convert v2.5/ format, well-known in
the GEOS world.  It means that each file built with the cc65 package has to be
deconverted, in GEOS, before it can be run.  You can read a step-by-step
description of that in the GEOS section of the <url name="cc65 Compiler Intro"
url="intro.html">.

Each project consists of four parts, two are provided by cc65.  Those parts
are:<enum>
<item>application header
<item>start-up object
<item>application objects
<item>system library
</enum>
<bf/2./ and <bf/4./ are with cc65; you have to write the application,
yourself. ;-)

The application header is defined in the <tt/HEADER/ section of the <tt/.grc/
file, and processed into an assembly <tt/.s/ file.  You must assemble it, with
<bf/ca65/, into the object <tt/.o/ format.


<sect1>Building a GEOS application without cl65
<p>Assume that there are three input files:  &dquot;<tt/test.c/&dquot; (a C
source), &dquot;<tt/test.h/&dquot; (a header file), and
&dquot;<tt/resource.grc/&dquot; (with menu and header definitions).  Note the
fact that I <em/don't recommend/ naming that file &dquot;<tt/test.grc/&dquot;,
because you will have to be very careful with names (<bf/grc/ will make
&dquot;<tt/test.s/&dquot; and &dquot;<tt/test.h/&dquot; out of
&dquot;<tt/test.grc/&dquot;, by default; and, you don't want that because
&dquot;<tt/test.s/&dquot; is compiled from &dquot;<tt/test.c/&dquot;, and
&dquot;<tt/test.h/&dquot; is something completely different)!

<bf/One important thing/ -- the top of &dquot;<tt/test.c/&dquot; looks like:
<tscreen><verb>
#include <geos.h>
#include "resource.h"
</verb></tscreen>
There are no other includes.

<sect2>First step -- compiling the resources
<p><verb>
$ grc resource.grc
</verb>
will produce two output files:  &dquot;<tt/resource.h/&dquot; and
&dquot;<tt/resource.s/&dquot;.

Note that &dquot;<tt/resource.h/&dquot; is included at the top of
&dquot;<tt/test.c/&dquot;.  So, resource compiling <em/must be/ the first step.

<sect2>Second step -- assembling the application header
<p><verb>
$ ca65 -t geos resource.s
</verb>
And, voil&aacute; -- &dquot;<tt/resource.o/&dquot; is ready.

<sect2>Third step -- compiling the code
<p><verb>
$ cc65 -t geos -O test.c
$ ca65 -t geos test.s
</verb>
That way, you have a &dquot;<tt/test.o/&dquot; object file which
contains all of the executable code.

<sect2>Fourth and last step -- linking it together
<p><verb>
$ ld65 -t geos -o test.cvt resource.o geos.o test.o geos.lib
</verb>
&dquot;<tt/resource.o/&dquot; comes first because it contains the
header.  The next one is &dquot;<tt/geos.o/&dquot;, a required starter-code
file; then, the actual application code in &dquot;<tt/test.o/&dquot;, and the
last is the GEOS system library.

The resulting file &dquot;<tt/test.cvt/&dquot; is an executable that's
contained in the well-known GEOS <em/Convert/ format.  Note that it's name
(<tt/test/) isn't important; the real name, after deconverting, is the DOS name
that was given in the header definition.

At each step, a <tt/-t geos/ was present on the command-line.  That switch is
required for the correct process of GEOS sequential app. building.



<sect>Building a GEOS VLIR application<label id="building-vlir">
<p>Currently, you can build VLIR applications only if your code is written in
assembly -- no C code allowed.

In your sources, only the command <tt/.segment &dquot;/<em/NAME/<tt/&dquot;/
will decide which code/data goes where.  File-names don't matter.  Segments
<tt/CODE/, <tt/RODATA/, <tt/DATA/, and <tt/BSS/ go into VLIR part #0.  Segment
<tt/VLIR1/ goes into VLIR part #1, <tt/VLIR2/ goes into VLIR part #2, and so
on.

The GEOS resource file's contents are similar to <ref
name="the sequential-file example" id="building-seq">, but there also is a
<tt/VLIR/ section and a <tt/structure VLIR/ tag.  Here is that part:<tscreen>
<verb>
VLIR vlir-head.bin 0x3000 {
  vlir-0.bin    ; CODE, RODATA, DATA, BSS
  vlir-1.bin    ; VLIR1
  vlir-2.bin    ; VLIR2
}</verb></tscreen>
(Source files are only <tt/.s/.)

OK, we have &dquot;<tt/cvthead.grc/&dquot;, so let's allow <bf/grc/ to compile
it:<verb>
$ grc cvthead.grc
</verb>
Now, there are two new files:  &dquot;<tt/cvthead.cfg/&dquot; and
&dquot;<tt/cvthead.s/&dquot; -- the first one is a config. file for <bf/ld65/,
and the second one contains the GEOS <tt/.cvt/ header.  It can be assembled:
<verb>
$ ca65 -t geos cvthead.s
</verb>
Now, we have &dquot;<tt/cvthead.o/&dquot;.  The rest of the assembly
sources can be assembled:<verb>
$ ca65 -t geos vlir0.s
$ ca65 -t geos vlir1.s
$ ca65 -t geos vlir2.s
</verb>
Note that the file-names here, although similar to those from the
<tt/VLIR/ section of the <tt/.grc/ file, are not significant.  The only thing
that matters is which code will go into which segment.

Now, we can generate binaries.  This time, the order of the arguments on the
command-line is not important.<verb>
$ ld65 -C cvthead.cfg vlir1.o cvthead.o vlir0.o vlir2.o
</verb>
As defined in the <tt/.grc/ file, we now have the binary parts of the
VLIR file:  &dquot;<tt/vlir-head.bin/&dquot;, &dquot;<tt/vlir-0.bin/&dquot;,
&dquot;<tt/vlir-1.bin/&dquot;, and &dquot;<tt/vlir-2.bin/&dquot;.

The last step is to put them together in the right order -- the order of the
arguments <em/is important/ this time!  As suggested in the comments at the end
of &dquot;<tt/cvthead.cfg/&dquot;, we do:<verb>
$ grc -vlir output.cvt vlir-head.bin vlir-0.bin vlir-1.bin vlir-2.bin
</verb>
That is the end.  The file &dquot;<tt/output.cvt/&dquot; can be
deconverted under GEOS.  Note that <tt/-C cvthead.cfg/ was used on the
<bf/ld65/ command-line instead of the switch <tt/-t geos/.



<sect>Bugs and feedback
<p>This is the first release of <bf/grc/, and it contains bugs, for sure!  I am
aware of them; I know that the parser is weak, and if you don't follow the
grammar rules strictly, then everything will crash.  However, if you find an
interesting bug, mail me. :-)  Mail me also for help with writing your
<tt/.grc/ file correctly if you have problems with it.  I would appreciate
comments also, and help on this file because I am sure that it can be written
better.



<sect>Legal stuff
<p><bf/grc/ is covered by the same license as the whole cc65 package, so you
should see its documentation for more info.  Anyway, if you like it, and want
to encourage me to work more on it, send me a postcard with a sight of your
neighbourhood, city, region, etc.  Or, just e-mail me with info that you
actually used it.  See <url name="the GEOSLib documentation" url="geos.html">
for addresses.



<appendix>
<sect>Appendix A -- example.grc<label id="example-grc">
<p><tscreen><verb>
; Note that MENU can define both menues and submenues.
; If you want to use any C operators (such as "|", "&", etc.), do it WITHOUT
; any spaces between the arguments (the parser is simple and weak).

MENU subMenu1 15,0 VERTICAL
; This is a vertical menu, placed at (15,0).
{
; There are three items, all of them will call functions.
; The first and third ones are normal functions, see GEOSLib documentation for
; information about what the second function should return (it's a dynamic one).
    "subitem1" MENU_ACTION smenu1
    "subitem2" MENU_ACTION|DYN_SUB_MENU smenu2
    "subitem3" MENU_ACTION smenu3
}

;; Format:  MENU "name" left,top ALIGN { "itemname" TYPE pointer ... }

MENU mainMenu 0,0 HORIZONTAL
; Here, we have our main menu, placed at (0,0), and it is a horizontal menu.
; Because it is a top-level menu, you would register it in your C source by
; using:  DoMenu(&ero;mainMenu);
{
; There are two items -- a submenu and an action.
; This calls a submenu named subMenu1 (see previous definition).
    "first sub-menu" SUB_MENU subMenu1
; This will work the same as an EnterDeskTop() call in C source code.
    "quit" MENU_ACTION EnterDeskTop
}

;; Format:  HEADER <GEOS_TYPE> "dosname" "classname" "version"

HEADER APPLICATION "MyFirstApp" "Class Name" "V1.0"
; This is a header for an APPLICATION which will be seen in the directory as a
; file named MyFirstApp with the Class-string "Class Name V1.0"
{
; Not all fields are required, default and current values will be used.
    author "Maciej Witkowiak"	; always in quotes!
    info "Information text"	; always in quotes!
;    date yy mm dd hh ss	; always 5 fields!
;    dostype seq		; can be:  PRG, SEQ, USR (only all UPPER- or lower-case)
;    structure seq		; can be:  SEQ, VLIR (only UPPER- or lower-case)
    mode c64only		; can be:  any, 40only, 80only, c64only
}</verb></tscreen>
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