[Coco] Phoenix progress

[Roger Taylor]

Today I decided to try going seamlessly from CoCo ML source code to a 
tape file audio stream and noticed that my cocotape.exe program won't 
output the audio when being called from the Phoenix IDE.  Although 
CoCoTape is still incomplete, I have plans to rewrite it but not in 
the current HLA language.  Instead of getting side-tracked on that 
project right now I chose to just use the -o=output.wav syntax of 
CoCoTape and then tell the IDE to use another tool to play the 
generated wave file.  It worked great.

At this time, Phoenix can have up to 6 chained builders/tools 
operating on a source file and it's subsequent object 
files.  Whatever object is output from the previous file can be fed 
into another builder.

I just opened my main.asm program, set the object file to be 
main.bin, set the 2nd project file as main.bin and the builder as 
cocotape.exe, and the 3rd project file to be main.wav with the 
builder wv_player.exe.  Bing.  Source code to a CLOADM'able file in 
less than a second.  On the CoCo you'd just type CLOADM or CLOAD 
depending on the type of program being written.

This was just a first trial run of that idea.  Why support such an 
unpopular loading method?  Because sometimes it's the only way.  It 
would give yet another quick way of getting software onto a CoCo that 
only has cassette cable.

You could also just do this with existing binary or BASIC programs:

1st project file [mygame.bin]
build process: cocotape.exe mygame.bin -o=mygame.wav

2nd project file [mygame.wav]
build process: wv_player.exe mygame.wav

Type CLOADM on your CoCo and click GO from the IDE and it's 
done.  This is a perfect audio stream that none of my CoCos have 
complained about yet.

-- 
~ Roger Taylor