File Description : Main Document Author : Stephen McNabb Creation Date : 20th February 1995 Last Updated : 20th Februray 1995 1. Introduction --------------- Welcome to the first, and hopefully not the last, installment in a series of source code collections based on programming the 68000. The aim of this collection is to allow programmers to share their tips and tricks in the hope that more and more Atari users will learn how to code. When I started out, about a year ago, to learn to code I hunted round the bulletin boards and the Internet for tutorials in 68000 on the Atari ST, but in vein. So I purchased a book called 'Introducing ATARI ST machine code', which was written by R.Pearson and S.Hodgson and published by zzSoft. This was the start of a glorious partnership. I would recomend anyone wishing to learn how to write machine code to pick up a copy of this book, as the included disk comes with all the neccessary software to get started. So after a year, and still no sign of any substantial support in the public domain world, I decided to start this collection up. 2. Aim of the Series -------------------- My aim is to collect and distribute essential information about programming the 68000 on the Atari ST. It is not however to teach the basics of machine code. If you want to learn how to write machine code buy a suitable book such as the one mentioned above. I have however included some reference documents which you can use, such as error descriptions and escape sequences. This being the first in the series, all the included code was written by me. As for the information included, this was collected from a number of sources. I found that a lot of the time errors seem to slip into most peoples work so I have done my best to correct these and provided correct information. But I am not perfect and there could well be mistakes or typos. If you do find an error then please contact me. My postal and email address are shown at the bottom of this document. You will find that all the included source code is based on simple text applications and does not deal with windows or graphics. This is because I never really bothered learning much about these topics. I hope to include these topics in a later release. All the source code is fully commented and, apart from the source in '\source\basics\', is also supplied in executable form. Feel free to use any of it in your own work. You will find a file called 'function.s' in the '\source\' directory. This is a file that I include into most of my work which has some general functions in the form of subroutines. These include getting a character from the keyboard and displaying a string on the screen. As I said before this series will not teach you how to program in 68000 but will provide assistance for those just starting of, or even to those who are a bit more experienced. Maybe in the future I will include a tutorial, but that depends on the amount of response I get. All the source code was written and compiled with Hisoft's GenST Macro Assembler, Version 2.08. 3. Contributions ---------------- To make this series work, I would like any machine code programmers out there to contribute some work of their own. It doesn't have to be anything huge or complicated. What I am really looking for is small snippets of code that can be used in a subroutine of another large program to carry out a simple task, for example clearing the screen. You can contribute any information or code that you think would be relevant but please you the templates found in the '\source\contrib\' directory on this disk. And remember that any work you contribute must be your own and free of copyright so that anyone can use the code in their own work. Please include a postal or email address with your work so that I, or others, can contact you. 4. Struture of the Disk ----------------------- You will find this disk sub-divided into directories. Each of the directories may also contain more sub-divisions. I have tried to lay them out in such a way that you can find the information easy to find. The layout is as follows: \ -+ - Root directory | |- MAIN\ - Main directory for this series | |- CONTRIB\ - Information needed for contributing to series | |- DOCS\ - Reference information about programming | +- SOURCE\ -+ - Source code and executables | +- BASICS\ - Basic functions eg. clear the screen | |- FUNCTION\ - Subroutines eg. listing a directory | +- GENERAL\ - General functions eg. deleting a file Each of the directories has a readme file in it which gives details about the directory and about the file in it. 5. Nearly Done -------------- Well I am not going to bore you any longer with details so go ahead and browse through the disk. I would however like to ask a few things from you. First, if you find mistakes or typos then please contact me. Second, distribute it. Third, please contribute to the series so that I have a good enough reason to carry on with it. And last if you find it of some use to you, contact me and let me know what you think. Well thats all for now. Hope to hear from you soon. +===============================+=============================================+ | Stephen 'Hangover' McNabb + email: u9228616@athmail1.causeway.qub.ac.uk + | Wannabe Software Engineer + Post : 30 Sandhurst Drive + | Queens University of Belfast + Stranmillis + | Langauges: 68000, C, Modula-2 + Belfast + | Current Project: This series + BT9 5AY + | #include + N.Ireland + +-------------------------------+---------------------------------------------+ + "We are going to assume a few thing about reality. One, it exists." + + "This is not neccessarily true but it comforts me." + +=============================================================================+ *** End of File ***