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BEGINNER_README.DOC
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1990-12-13
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beginner/help beginner/help
beginner/beginner beginner/beginner
beginner/beginner_readme beginner/beginner_readme
BEGINNER'S DOCUMENT FOR DICE
(I) The C Language
(II) Your first program, from start to end
(I)
THE C LANGUAGE
It is not possible to describe the entirety of the C language in a
simple document file. If you have no experience with the C language
and are trying to learn it the best thing to do is go to your local
bookstore (that has a computer section hopefully) and buy TWO different
C language books. Really, TWO. Look for a tutorial style book and
for a reference style book. The tutorial style book will have many
self contained source examples that you can simply type in and run...
and figure things out by hacking on the examples and seeing the results.
The reference style book will have a comprehensive description of all
the standard calls available. BE SURE YOU GET BOOKS THAT DESCRIBE ANSI C
rather than the original K&R C. DICE is nearly 100% an ANSI C compiler
including nearly all the standard ANSI C functions.
DME, the editor that comes with DICE, has a quick-reference capability
that allows you to place the cursor over a function name, hit a key, and
have the manual page for that function brought up in a separate window.
As you get familiar with DME please try out this function. The key
sequence is control-right_bracket from DME. If you have your own editor
that is able to generate standard ascii files you may use that in lieu of
DME. However, note that DME was designed with programming in mind and
*does* have that quick-reference capability, and so once learned will
probably be more efficient for your purposes.
(II)
FIRST PROGRAM FROM START TO END
After installing DICE boot your system. If you run from the workbench
you must open a CLI or Shell window to fool around with DICE.
NOTE: From workbench the path might not be properly set up. If
you:
1> DCC
and it comes back command not found, and DCC *does* exist on the floppy
or in-memory, then the path may not be properly set up.
(1) Creating the source code. CD into some scratch directory... I use
T: here.
1> CD T:
(2) Edit a new file. You do not have to RUN the editor, but it is always
nice because you can run the compiler without exiting the editor. This
tutorial expects you to RUN the editor:
1> RUN DME test.c
(3) DME brings up an editor window on the workbench. Pressing the
right mouse button should bring up a menu (assuming you are not
already familiar with DME and installed it from the DICE disks).
IF DME DOES NOT HAVE A MENU then the right mouse button will
probably iconify the window instead. This means you forgot to
copy DCC:S/.EDRC into S: ... again, this file already exists if
you simply booted with a copy of the distribution disk so you should
see a menu.
Um, that was just to make sure DME is configured right... you can let
go of the RMB (right mouse button) now. If you flip through the
menu items available you will note that many options have keyboard
equivalents. For further information on mapping keys to your own
macros read the DCC2:MAN/DME.DOC document. You can read the
document by putting the DCC2: floppy into DF0: and selecting the
Project/Open-NewWin menu option (this brings up a new window so
you now have two, though the first one is covered. To use the
same window use the Project/Open-Replace menu option).
(4) Type in your program. The cursor keys may be used to move
around. control-cursor_key skips multiple lines while
shift-cursor_key skips to the top or bottom of the file.
Typing RETURN on the last line adds a new line to the file.
Typing RETURN in general inserts a new line after the current
line.
BASIC DME KEY COMMANDS, REFER TO DCC2:MAN/DME.DOC FOR MORE
INFORMATION. These comprise only a few of the many commands
available. You can construct your own key macros and menu
options to your whim as you get better.
<cursor-key> move the cursor around.
ctl-<cursor-key> skip around
shift-<cursor-key> move to top of text, bottom of text, first column,
or end-of-line
<del> delete a character. Experiment with <del> and
<backspace> to determine the differences between
the two.
shift-<del> delete a LINE
ctl-i control-i, go into insert mode
ctl-o control-o, go into overwrite mode
alt-i ICONIFY WINDOW. Window becomes iconified (very,
very small)... unclutters the workbench screen.
You may uniconify by selecting the iconified
window and hitting the right mouse button.
help brings up a new window (as in <f3>) with
DCC2:MAN/DME.DOC in it.
FILE LOAD, SAVE
All of these have equivalent Menu options
<f1> Insert a file. The current filename and file
in the window stays, but some other file is
inserted into the current text... experiment
with this with a few small text files.
<f2> Edit a new file... replaces the current window
with a new file. The old file is gone (not
deleted, just not being edited any more). If
you made modifications to the current file a
requester will pop up asking you if you want
to really throw it away.
<f3> Edit a new file... opens up a new window for the
new file after you type in the file name, the
previous file window is still there though
probably obscured... you can move and resize
the windows however you wish.
<f9> save file
<f10> save file and close window (exits DME if this is
the last window)
c-q Quit - same as the close window gadget.
(4A) PROGRAM? What Program? This program:
-------- top of file (this line not part of file) --------
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
main()
{
puts("Hello World!");
return(0);
}
-------- bottom of file (this line not part of file) -----
(5) COMPILING THE PROGRAM
Write out the file with F9
You can either quit out of the editor or simply bring your CLI
window forward to compile the program. Better, iconify the editor
window to unclutter your workbench screen! To compile the program,
enter this line:
1> dcc test.c -o test
This tells DICE to compile and link test.c into an executable. DICE
should grind on the file and then return another CLI prompt. If any
requester comes up you are missing an assignment or two:
DINCLUDE: you are missing the DINCLUDE: assignment which
should be set to DCC:INCLUDE.
DLIB: you are missing the DLIB: assignment which should
be set to DCC:DLIB.
"Unable to open dlib:Amigas.lib or dlib:dlib:amigas.lib"
Means that you do not have amigas.lib installed in
DLIB: ... Amigas.LIB is Amiga.LIB after being put through
the LIBTOS program and comes with the registered version
of DICE.
(6) RUN THE PROGRAM
1> test
Hello World!
1>
You can make the program residentable by compiling with the -r
option. A -r compiled program's executable will have the PURE bit
set and may optionally be made resident. Programs not compiled
with the -r option may not be made resident.
1> dcc test.c -o test -r
1> test
Hello World!
1> resident test
1> test
Hello World! <- much faster response!
(7) ***** WARNING ***** ABOUT RESIDENTED EXECUTABLES
It is a COMMON mistake when a programmer is making modifications
and recompiling a program to forget to REMOVE the program from
the resident list if it was placed on it. I.E.
1> resident test REMOVE
The reason is simple... you make a change and recompile your
program. However, you have already been the program resident.
If you run the program the 'old' version will be run. Thus, you
want to either remove it from the resident list or re-resident
the executable.
You can also force a program to be loaded from disk by providing a
full path to it. I.E.
1> resident test
1> test
Hello World! <- uses resident version
1> DF0:test (or wherever you compiled test to)
Hello World! <- uses disk version
(8) PROGRAM EXAMPLES
The registered DICE distribution comes with a large number of program
examples that should prove invaluable to a beginner. Additionally,
every manual page includes a self-contained program example for
the particular function the page describes and this also should
prove invaluable when confusion arises.
The second DICE disk, DCC2: contains both the manual pages,
library source, and utility examples. The third DICE disk,
DCC3: contains the full source to the DME editor. To compile
a utility or DME you must provide a semi-permanent place for
the objects ... make some directories and assign DTMP: ... refer
to the DMakefile files in the DCC2:dutil and DCC3:dutil/dme/src
directories. These contain comments on what is necessary and
it can also be determined by scanning the DMakefile itself.
To run a DMakefile type the DMAKE command on the directory
containing the DMakefile. I'm afraid the DMake is a huge
hack and not much good documentation is available for it, but
what documentation there is is in DCC2:MAN/DMAKE.DOC
(9)
That terminates the tutorial. Refer to the DCC:DOC and DCC2:MAN
directories for documents describing other executables (use DME
to bring these files up and browse through them). Note that the
top few lines of each file contain a keyword that gives DME it's
quick-reference capability to the file.