[Coco] OS9 Extensions

Sun Sep 27 01:50:04 EDT 2020

Is this man pager program available anywhere? I have been working, off
and on, to port Unix nroff to OS-9. I currently have it building, but
it's too big to run, so I have to find a way to shrink it some.

As part of my CoCoC project to collect and collate all available C
code for OS9, I have plans to reconstruct the history of "mroff",
which is actually a modification of a nroff-like program called "NRO"
for CP/M. By reconstructing the OS-9 port's history, I hope to be able
to apply those changes atop more recent NRO versions, possibly
including new features and bug fixes from later CP/M releases of the
program.

On Sat, Sep 26, 2020 at 11:20 AM William Carlin <whcarlinjr at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I've hacked together some extra functionality into the aforementioned man
> pager program and there are some extra file extensions that it recognizes.
>
> There is a .mdoc extension that the man program describes as "mroff
> formatted files with a .mdoc extension" (text)
> There is  a .mman extension that is described as "mroff formatted manual
> files with a .mman extension" (text)
> There is mention of a .tdoc extension that a the program tsfmt can
> supposedly turn into a formatted document.  These are described as
> "TEXTFORMATTER files with a .tdoc extension".  Probably works similarly to
> the mroff program.  I have never come across any .tdoc files nor the tsfmt
> program in any archive or repository of OS9 software.  I commented it out
> of my customer version of man to reduce overhead and program size. (format
> unknown)
>
> Here are some others I have also run across:
> .cuts files used by the cuts program to encode binary and text files for
> transmission in emails and over USENET.  These files are then run back
> through cuts to produce the original file. (text)
> .tar OS9 has a unix like tar utility (binary)
> .ipc for OS9 IPatch files (binary)
> .scr for ShellPlus modpatch scripts.  Although I believe there is no
> official extension for modpatch scripts but this is what is used in the
> ShellPlus 2.1 archive (text)
> .bl for NitrOS9 distribution boot list files (text)
> There are also the various NItrOS9 module extensions: (all binary)
>   .mn for device I/O managers
>   .dr for device drivers
>   .dd for device descriptors
>   .io for input output managers
>   .sb for subroutines?  Not really clear about this one.
>   .dt for scf device terminals
>   .dw for device windows
>
>
> William Carlin
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 23, 2020 at 11:15 AM Bill Pierce via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Charlie, first, the "bas" extension for Basic09 "should" be a safe
> > assumption (within OS-9) as you would be in OS-9 and typically would not be
> > reading RSDOS disks to start with (there are special cases).
> > At one time, I found a list of most extensions to use with a utility I was
> > writing and added quite a few more. Here is a list of what I come up with.
> > I know there are more.
> >
> > ***************************
> > TheCOCO Extension List
> > Thefollowing extensions often show up in the CoCo World. Here's whatthey
> > are:
> > A OS-9assembly file. Usually used for files intended for the RMA
> > assembler.(ASCII text)
> > AR OS-9compressed file, using the AR utility by Carl Kreider, (uses
> > LZcompression) (binary)
> > ARC OS-9or RSDOS file compressed with TC.BIN and later versions of
> > "TheCompressor" series(binary)
> > ASC Orchestra90files downloaded from the Orchestra90 SIG on Compu-Serve.
> > ASM OS-9or RSDOS. The assembly language source code from EDTASM or
> > OS-9assembler (ASCII text)
> > BAC/BCKBackup files generated by backup utilities (binary or ASCII text)
> > BIN abinary file, usually a machine language program that needs to
> > beLOADMed (binary)
> > BAS OS-9or RSDOS. A general BASIC file (could be tokenized, or in
> > straightASCII format). In OS-9 this would be a Basic09 source file.
> > (ASCIItext unless tokenized, then binary)
> > C Normallyused for OS-9 “C” compiler sources (ASCII text)
> > CAS Virtualcassette file for use with CoCo Emulators (PC binary)
> > CM3 CoCoMax 3 compressed graphic file. CM3 is a highly efficient
> > horizontaland vertical compressor (or so the literature tells us) (binary)
> > CNFG/CFGUsually a text file containing the default configuration for
> > aprogram. (can be ASCII text or binary)
> > EC# Projector-3command file, the # can be 0-9 or A-Z where the character
> > pressedalong with [ALT] from within Projector-3 will perform the
> > functioncoded in the file. MIRROR.ECM is a command that takes the
> > currentpicture and flips it horizontally (binary)
> > FNT/FONTA file containing font data (binary)
> > DAT Genericextension for data of some sort (ASCII text or binary)
> > DOC/DOCSGeneric extension for files that contain information documents
> > abouthow to use a program. Usually a standard text file but canincorporate
> > control codes for display & print used by variousword processors and text
> > editors. (ASCII text)
> > DSK Althoughnot found on a CoCo disk, the DSK files are common with
> > JeffVavasour's CoCo emulator. The DSK file is a Windows/DOS file
> > thatcontains the data from a real CoCo disk. The DSK file can either
> > bechanged back into a real 5.25 CoCo disk, or used with the emulator.(PC
> > binary)
> > DSK **There is also a CoCo utility called DSHRINK that will create
> > DSKfiles from a standard CoCo 35 track disk (under RS-DOS). This DSKfile
> > contains the entire contents of the disk. The two DSK files ARENOT
> > interchangeable. ** (binary)
> > FMT Formatdriver file for the Projector 2 series multiviewer, can be added
> > orremoved from the system disk to customize the program to handlewhatever
> > picture formats you want or have (binary)
> > GIF GraphicInterchange Format, generally the standard graphic format for
> > ALLcomputers, although being replaced by TIFF (Tagged Image FileFormat).
> > GIF was developed by CompuServe.
> > GIF 87a is the basicstandard, but it was extended to 89a to include
> > embedded text- thatis, a message/note of text that could be viewed
> > during/after seeingthe picture. The note might be the title, the creator, a
> > BBS orInternet address, etc. GIF89a also added transparency, animation,
> > andtimed looping. (binary)
> > H Normallyused for OS-9 C compiler header files (ASCCII text)
> > HLP/HELPGeneric extension for help files (ASKII text)
> > LIB Normallyuser for OS-9 C compiler library files. (ASCII text)
> > LZH Identicalto the MS-DOS LZH compression, ported to CoCo (binary)
> > MAN Filescreated for the OS-9 “Man” manual/documentation utility
> > (ASCIItext w/control codes)
> > MAX CoCoMax1 and 2 picture format, is close or identical to the old CoCo 2
> > .BINPMODE format (binary)
> > MGE ColorMax 3 "compressed" graphic file. MGE used some sort ofalternating
> > compressed/uncompressed runs of data. Rumor has it thatsometimes the
> > compressed file was even larger than if the file hadn'tbeen compressed, so
> > it was advised to keep the compression switchedoff (menu option). Standard
> > 320x192 pictures are 14 granules long(about 30k) (binary)
> > NIB agraphic file format developed by Rick Cooper for CFDM. FYI, NIB useda
> > rather complex, but efficient method of using two data buffers,fill ing one
> > with information about changes in the current pixel, andthe second with
> > what the change was. The data was then combined andcom pressed again (I
> > think using some sort of RLE) and saved to disk.NIBwas "extended" by (me)
> > Stuart Wyss to be fully backwardscompatible, but to also support embedded
> > text (like GIF89a), 640x192,forced color sets, and color-cycling (to
> > support CoCo Max animation)(binary)
> > ORC Orchestra90files generated by Model 1, 3, & 4.
> > PAS Pascalsource files (ASCII text??)
> > PAK wasa compression developed by G.B. Jansen (not to be confused
> > withEmulator PAK files) (binary)
> > PAK (notto be confused with G.B. Jansen's PAK) is an MS-DOS extension
> > offiles from Jeff V.s CoCo emulator. A PAK file could either be a"snapshot"
> > of the system, or a program pack. (PC binary)
> > PAT OS-9pattern file (binary)
> > PIX Yep,a graphic file, belonging, I think, to Apple Macintosh (binary)
> > PM4 standard6k/12k PMODE dump, same as the .BIN format but some older
> > versions ofthe Projector series graphics viewers may require this
> > extensioninstead (binary)
> > PNT/PNTROS-9 pointer file (binary)
> > RAT TheRAT Graphics Design Package picture format, viewable by the
> > Projectorseries viewers (binary)
> > REL/ROF OS-9C compiler relocatable object file (binary)
> > RLE agraphic file compressed using Run Length Encoding (binary)
> > SQS agraphic file format developed by (me) Stuart Wyss (SQS is short
> > forSquash) FYI, SQS was a sort of "windowing" compressionformat that
> > compared subsequent lines. It worked pretty well.(binary)
> > SQZ anothergraphic file format developed by Rick Cooper for CFDM (SQZ is
> > shortfor Squeeze) (binary)
> > SYS OS-9system file. (binary or ASCII text)
> > TC3 afile/group of files compressed using the TC3 compressor (binary)
> > TNY graphicfile format for the TINY program (possibly AMIGA format)
> > (binary)
> > TXT genericextension for text files (ASCII text)
> > VEF OS-9graphic format, may be compressed or uncompressed. Compressed
> > VEFsare sometimes called "Squashed VEF". (binary)
> > ZIP Thestandard for file compression in the MS-DOS/Windows world,
> > availablefor CoCo.NOTE: This is a guide only. Programmers often make up
> > their ownextensions, or use one or two regardless of what the file
> > actuallycontains. For example, BIN is a very common extension. It can be
> > aprogram that needs to be run, a low-res picture file, data for aprogram,
> > music, etc. (binary)********************************
> >
> > Bill
> >
> >
> > --
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> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> >
>
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