Re: An idea that might go nowhere - ProDOS + CC65 = :>?

[Steve Nickolas <lyricalnanoha@usotsuki.hoshinet.org>]

On Sat, 30 Oct 2010, Oliver Schmidt wrote:

> Hi Steve,
>
> > Dunno if it launch cc65 executables with full
> > argv support though (prolly not), which was what I wanted to do, so that I
> > could run commands like "cal 11 2010" or such which wouldn't really be
> > supported all that well on a shell that didn't understand specifically how
> > cc65 expected its command lines to be created
>
> You are aware that you can already make use of the ProDOS startup file
> protocol for system programs described here:
> http://www.easy68k.com/paulrsm/6502/PDOS8TRM.HTM#5.1.5.1

My version of EHBASIC actually uses it.  That of course gives you a single 
parameter.

> To do so use my LOADER.SYSTEM as described here:
> http://www.cc65.org/doc/apple2-4.html#ss4.4
>
> The startup file given to LOADER.SYSTEM will appear as argv[1] in the
> cc65 main(). This works i.e. nicely with Davex or the GS/OS finder
> using an icon file.
>
> > (apparently it uses the fpbasic parser?)
>
> No.

I am basing on this:

http://www.cc65.org/doc/apple2-9.html#ss9.1

9.1 Passing arguments to the program

Command line arguments can be passed to main() after BLOAD. Since this is 
not supported by BASIC, the following syntax was chosen:

    ]CALL2051:REM ARG1 " ARG2 IS QUOTED" ARG3 "" ARG5

   1. Arguments are separated by spaces.
   2. Arguments may be quoted.
   3. Leading and trailing spaces around an argument are ignored. Spaces 
within a quoted argument are allowed.
   4. The first argument passed to main is the program name.
   5. A maximum number of 10 arguments (including the program name) are 
supported.

(End of quotation)

This is where my "apparently it uses the fpbasic parser?" originates.

> I could imagine that you'd like to see two things:
>
> 1. Not requiring LOADER.SYSTEM but having the same capability with the
> config described here:
> http://www.cc65.org/doc/apple2-4.html#ss4.3
>
> 2. Being able to use argv[2] etc.

Pretty much, both.   (And most likely I'd be using the CMD filetype or 
some other filetype than SYS or BIN.)

> The ProDOS startup file protocol mentioned above could easily be
> "extended" to hand over several parameters to a cc65 program -
> especially as the $2006 buffer size isn't limited to the ProDOS
> pathname size but can be up to 255 bytes (set by $2005). There's just
> no shell so far trying to do so ;-)

Given that MS-DOG places the command line, in the raw, at $0080 terminated 
by a CR... just dumping the whole command line off as a Pascal string at 
$2005 sounds perfectly viable to me, though then the command line parser 
would need to be probably fairly complex.  Naturally this is what Borland 
C etc. have to do.

> So here's the deal: If you come up with a working ProDOS shell with
> reasonable functionality that uses the ProDOS startup file protocol to
> "just" copy arbitrary command line parameters to the $2006 buffer let
> me know and I'll add support for it to the C library thus overcoming
> the current restrictions 1.) and 2.) stated above !
>
> Regards,
> Oliver

I wonder if this is *already* compatible with other shells?

-uso.