CodeCraft #2

Technical support

There's something here for everybody, or at least there will be as we add more and more things to this page. There's a section that is mainly intended for people who want to run entries and are experiencing problems with them. The other section is intended for programmers.

Aaaargh, it doesn't run

The entry requires 16 bit sound but your computer does not have the required hardware. Normally anything pre-RiscPC only has 8 bit sound as do most of the earlier RiscPC's. Luckily Dennis Ranke has written a 16 bit sound emulator as a CodeCraft #1 entry. It doesn't work for every 16 bit sound program out there, but as far as I know it currently is the only available solution/option.

Programmer's support

Apart from programming tools we also plan on putting up some compatibility lists here. That is, what general things were introduced in which version of RISCOS and/or version of the hardware. Also things like, which standard MODEs run on low-res, etc. This way programmers should be able to easily figure out what configurations their entry is going to run on.

8K Example

Pervect of Topix has written a small example program showing you how to load, use and unload music and players with regards to the 8K category. Most of the documentation is provided by comments in the source and should make it pretty clear how things are done. Download the example from here.

Floating Point Instructions

To use FP instructions in your assembly sources you either need ExtBas (see below) or RISC OS 4. For instructions on using ExtBas read the documentation that comes with the ExtBas module. In RISC OS 4 all you need to do to be able to use FP instructions in the BASIC assembler is to set bit 4 in the OPT flag. So, instead of using [OPT pass% you should use [OPT pass%+16

Pervect of Topix has written a tutorial on using FP instructions. It's a fairly complete starters guide, with some example programs included in the archive and it should get you coding with FP instructions in no time.

Download FPU Tutorial v 1.02 (06-05-2000)

Note: there are bound to be some typo's etc in it as it is a completely new tutorial, so please mail corrections to eli@dnd.utwente.nl.

Tools

ExtBas by Darren Salt, extends the Basic's assembler (FPE instructions, etc)

Bax by Ben Dooks (of DoggySoft), has the same purpose

Squasher by Eli Jean Leyssens (Pervect/Topix), is a CLI tool to pack your 1kb absolute & basic contributions. It uses the squash module.

StrongBS by Mohsen Alshayef, for packing basic programs.

Crunch by Bernard Jungen (of BASS) does the same with absolute files

Last update: 7 May 2000