[Coco] How to determine if an OS-9 or NitrOS-09 program is a 6809 or a 6309 binary program

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 01 November 2015 00:42:03 Kip Koon wrote:

> Hi Guys,
>
> As I'm thinking about what needs to be done to adapt NitrOS-9 6809 L1
> modules to the Multicomp09, I have been wondering if there is a way to
> determine whether a binary program was written for a 6809 cpu or 6309
> cpu. If not, can we update NitrOS-9 to include this ability in the
> module header? There are loads of programs in the VHD files that Bill
> Pierce has shared with us and I can't determine what I can run on the
> 6809 Multicomp and what I can't without blindly running the programs
> in question.  Anyone know the answer to this one?  Thank you all in
> advance.

The module definitions have been expanded to allow the marking of modules 
built with 6309 code.  This was done at least 2 decades ago, but some 
folks never got the memo.  So I get up on my soapbox and try to explain.  
Again...

Unfortunately, the NIH syndrome is alive and well in the 6809 world, and 
this marking convention has for some reason, not been commonly adapted.  
So there there is probably more code out there with 6309 only code in it 
but marked in the header as 6809+Objct than you could shake a stick at.

As you find such code that will not run correctly on a 6809, that is one 
of the things you can fix using vfy.  I wrote it to be the swiss army 
knife of such utilities.

But before dragging out that knife, study the module definitions in 
the /defs tree of any nitros9 distribution newer than about 1.16.  Its 
all there, folks just have to use it. A snip from my os9.d:

*
* Module Language Values
*
Objct          EQU       1                   6809 Object Code Module
ICode          EQU       2                   Basic09 I-code
PCode          EQU       3                   Pascal P-code
CCode          EQU       4                   C I-code
CblCode        EQU       5                   Cobol I-code
FrtnCode       EQU       6                   Fortran I-code
Obj6309        EQU       7                   6309 object code
*
* Module Attributes / Revision byte
*
* Field Masks
*
AttrMask       EQU       %11110000           Attributes Field
RevsMask       EQU       %00001111           Revision Level Field
*
* Attribute Flags
*
ReEnt          EQU       %10000000           Re-Entrant Module
ModProt        EQU       %01000000           Gimix Module protect bit 
(0=protected, 1=write enable)
ModNat         EQU       %00100000           6309 native mode attribute

So your assembly source should set the attr field to ModNat+ReEnt, and 
the language nibble to Obj6309 if you are using ANY 6309 only codes in 
it.

> Kip Koon
>
>  <mailto:computerdoc at sc.rr.com> computerdoc at sc.rr.com
>
>  <http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon>
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Kip_Koon


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>