[Coco] 4K CoCo 1 & EDTASM+

[William Astle]

There are *two* formats for tape files:

1. The single blob format which is supported by Color Basic. This format 
*cannot* support multiple origins.

2. The multiple origin format. This is *only* support by Extended Basic 
and above. This format is identical to the disk format as far as the 
file structure goes. This format *cannot* be loaded by plain Color Basic.


If the cartridge EDTASM doesn't support /SR or equivalent, then you're 
sunk as far as getting its output to load under Color Basic.

On 15-01-13 07:01 AM, Rogelio Perea wrote:
> Read about the /SR option but that applies to Disk EDTASM, the PAK
> assembles only to tape so those should be simple one-chunk single origin
> binaries. Maybe this its just stretching the capacity of the 4K RAM
> environment in that CoCo 1, the routine is about 15 or 16 bytes long...
> tried assembling yesterday again to tape using several origin addresses (no
> errors reported on assembly), yet the final binary on tape comes up with
> the ?FM ERROR when attempting to CLOADM it in.
>
> -- RP
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 12:16 PM, William Astle wrote:
>
>> You have to use the "/SR" assembly option I believe. The EDTASM manual
>> should talk about that somewhere.
>>
>> Color Basic doesn't support multi-origin binaries. That support came with
>> Extended Basic which supports a format for CLOADM that is basically the
>> same as Disk Basic uses. That format supports multi-origin.
>>
>> Basically, the /SR assembly option creates a binary that Color Basic can
>> load. Otherwise, the default format is the one supported by Extended Basic
>> I believe.
>>
>> The major caveat is that your program must be in a single chunk that loads
>> at a single address.
>>
>>
>> On 15-01-12 09:52 AM, Rogelio Perea wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone has tried EDTASM on the lowest denominator of the CoCo world?
>>>
>>> The EDTASM Pak loaded properly on my 4k, entered the sample program in the
>>> manual and after adjusting the ORG setting on the assembly source (sample
>>> is set to work with a 16K RAM CoCo) I got the assembler to do its magic in
>>> memory first then into a tape. When trying to load from the tape though I
>>> get a ?FM ERROR when attempting to CLOADM.
>>>
>>> This was late Sunday evening, maybe I missed or messed up something, maybe
>>> it is too much to ask for the constricted environment.
>>>
>>> When assembling the code (IM or tape) I did try two areas, the Hex 11D-151
>>> one denoted by the Memory Map as usable by machine-code programs, it did
>>> assemble with no errors, then I  tried another free area below the top of
>>> RAM and above EDTASM's real estate.
>>>
>>> Just throwing this one out as I am getting ready to commute back home :-)
>>
>>
>