[Coco] decode 1.2.10

Mon Jun 5 16:11:13 EDT 2017

That would be awesome. I will have to see if I can make time to be
available in the time slot for whatever show Steve wants to talk about
this. Saturday mornings (west coast, US) I am in Spanish class at my
church.
I may be able to be there, but it depends on what happens after class.
Sometimes I have to do church related things (I am on the church council).
If I can make the time I will be there when/if Steve wants to talk about
this subject.

On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 12:37 PM, Salvador Garcia via Coco <
coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:

> Yes, agreed! It looks like we have yet another fantastic topic to broach
> on Steve's CoCoTalk! Salvador
>
>
>       From: D. Bruce Moore <bruce at gracenote.ca>
>  To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>  Sent: Sunday, June 4, 2017 10:33 PM
>  Subject: Re: [Coco] decode 1.2.10
>
> Wonderful summary! Cool project, Wayne!
>
>
> D. Bruce Moore, BA, BGS, Dipl
> www.AlternativeVocalTraining.com
> Distinguished Voice Professional – New York  Singing Teachers Association
>
> > On Jun 4, 2017, at 4:26 PM, Wayne Campbell <asa.rand at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Bruce,
> >
> > As I read your response it dawned on me that there is an entire group on
> > this list who wasn't here before, and that know nothing of DCom or
> decode.
> > I will create a background/history page to explain it in detail, and for
> > now I will do a brief history here.
> >
> > As most all programmers can attest to, when you first begin writing code,
> > you tend to not make backups of your source, and you also tend to lose
> the
> > only copy you have for a variety of reasons, the predominant reason being
> > that you simply deleted the file by accident.
> >
> > My language of choice, since I began programming, has been BASIC. When I
> > discovered OS-9 and Basic09, I knew that I had found the language I
> wanted
> > to program in. Like other programmers, I was not very good at remembering
> > to make backups of my source until I lost them enough times to learn a
> > lesson.
> >
> > For me it took a few years to learn it. If you are programming in
> assembly,
> > and you lose your source but still have a compiled executable, a
> > disassembly will give you a good approximation of your source and you can
> > use that as the starting point to rebuild your source. All you have to do
> > is remember your variable and label names, and where your code may have
> > differed from the disassembly output. In Basic09 (or any BASIC that
> doesn't
> > compile to object code for that matter), you were not given that option.
> > Even if you had the I-Code module, you could not easily recover your
> source
> > code from it. For the most part you were relegated to starting all over
> > from scratch and rewriting your code from the beginning. I noticed that I
> > never was able to duplicate my code exactly, as the new modules differed
> > from the original.
> >
> > In early 1991 I decided that someone needed to write a program to recover
> > source code from a Basic09 I-Code module, and since no one else was doing
> > it, I would. I named the program DCom - Basic09 I-Code De-Compiler. I
> > worked on that program from November, 1991 until approximately April,
> 1993.
> > At that time I had to sell my CoCo3 and everything that went with it, and
> > all I had left was a 3-inch binder of the source code and other related
> > Basic09 information. I managed to keep that binder until approximately
> > summer, 2009, when I was now in a position to get back to it.
> >
> > I discovered quickly that DCom was a kludge. It was a miracle that the
> > program worked at all, and in most cases it didn't, or didn't work well.
> I
> > had learned alot more about programming and program structure over the
> > years, and decided that I needed to rethink the program and start over.
> The
> > program became decode, and has progressed to where it is now. I have had
> > some help along the way, notably from Aaron Wolfe who supplied me with a
> > routine to speed up the searches for counter identification and helped me
> > with file search routines.
> >
> > I had to stop working on it again in 2014. For the past three years I
> have
> > left it alone pretty much, though I have kept up with the list and the
> > efforts to make our beloved CoCo more usable in the 21st century. Since I
> > have been able to return to work on decode, I have decided to try and
> take
> > the program the next step by correcting the display issues, adding a new
> > feature for preserving user options, and start thinking about the next
> step
> > in the evolution of the program.
> >
> > One of the things that occurred to me before is that I really needed to
> > come up with a name that better identifies the program with its purpose.
> > Since I-Code is "packed" in Basic09, I reasoned that the opposite is
> > "unpacking". unpack is the name the program will have when it reaches the
> > point in development where it really becomes useful. That point is where
> it
> > is able to deal with merged module files and can identify modules that
> are
> > object code, and files that are not executable.
> >
> > I have already written that code, several times, but decode (in its
> present
> > form) cannot be used with the unpack front-end. I am thinking it will
> > require a rewrite of both decode and unpack to make it work. Those
> details
> > are for another day, and for the history of the program document that
> will
> > be a page on the unpack-decode site.
> >
> > I hope this answers your (and anyone else's) questions regarding what
> > decode is and what purpose it serves. Oh, and it is written in Basic09. I
> > am certain that if I could write it in assembly I could make it run
> faster
> > and be smaller than it is now, but I do not know assembly (or C) well
> > enough to do that, and I prefer writing it in Basic09.
> >
> > Thank you for your interest, and if you or anyone else has questions
> about
> > the remaining issues the decode engine still has regarding I-Code, ask
> and
> > I will write another post detailing those issues.
> >
> >
> >> On Sun, Jun 4, 2017 at 5:42 AM, D. Bruce Moore <bruce at gracenote.ca>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Wayne,
> >>
> >> I took a look at your Decode page and I am not quite sure what’s going
> on.
> >>
> >> An intro, explaining what it is and does, in layman’s terms, might be a
> >> nice addition.
> >>
> >> Cheers!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> On Jun 3, 2017, at 11:08 PM, Wayne Campbell <asa.rand at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> I have been working on decode for the past few days. I have gotten much
> >>> done to correct display issues and add support for preserving user
> >> options.
> >>> The new version is 1.2.10. When I can remember how to connect to
> >> cococoding
> >>> via telnet (unless that has changed) I will upload the updated pages
> and
> >>> new version disk images there.
> >>>
> >>> I had prepared a video to showcase decode, but when I went to upload it
> >> to
> >>> youtube, iSpring Free Cam8 crashed for no apparent reason. Because I
> had
> >>> not saved the project, I lost the video. I am back to square one and
> have
> >>> to make a new video. I will post here when I have the video made and
> >>> uploaded to youtube.
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Wayne
> >>>
> >>> The Structure of I-Code
> >>> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/The_Structure_of_I-Code
> >>>
> >>> decode
> >>> http://cococoding.com/wayne/
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Coco mailing list
> >>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> >>> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Coco mailing list
> >> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> >> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Wayne
> >
> > The Structure of I-Code
> > http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/The_Structure_of_I-Code
> >
> > decode
> > http://cococoding.com/wayne/
> >
> > --
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
>
>
>
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>

-- 
Wayne

The Structure of I-Code
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/The_Structure_of_I-Code

decode
http://cococoding.com/wayne/