Command-line tool that builds a GEOS file on a Commodore 64/128 disk image from its constituent parts.
Copyright (C) 2016, Daniel England. All Rights Reserved. Released under the GPL.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
GEOS is an operating system that is run on a C64, C128 or Apple IIe. It is a GUI OS which was quite remarkable at the time given the constraints of its target systems.
GEOS extended the file formats used on these sytems in order to include the equivalent of today's resource forks as well as data forks. This was done to supply additional information for the operating system as well as to break the file into chunks that could be loaded or unloaded as required (called VLIR or variable length, indexed records).
This tool builds these GEOS files from the constituent parts onto a disk image. It can be used to create application files as well as application data files or any other GEOS file type (such as fonts). The underlying structures for these files is the same and you need only supply the binary files for the header/info block/fork as well as the data or record forks. Only C64 and C128 disk images are supported, however.
GEOSBuild is a command-line tool and has the following option format:
GEOSBuild [-h | --help] | [[-s | --silent] | [-v | --verbose]] <build file>
-h | --help
Produce a help message, to remind you of the usage.
-s | --silent
Prevent information messages from being printed.
-v | --verbose
Cause the output to include extended information.
<build file>
The name of the file to use for the build file instructions. Typically,
these files should have the extension ".gbuild".A build instruction file must be supplied for normal usage. It is a simple "ini" type file that can contain three different sections. The "[build]" section is always required, where-as the "[sequential]" and "[VLIR]" sections are required only for the applicable GEOS file structure.
The "[build]" section has the following items:
File Optional. Specifies the name for the file entry created on the
disk. If not supplied, the name is collected from the
info/header data. Should always be supplied for data files and
not used for application files since GEOS on the C64 will not
execute an application if the names do not match.
Disk Required. Specifies the name and type of the disk image onto
which the file will be written. If the disk image file doesn't
exist, it will be created. The type of the disk image is
determined by the file extension.
Header Required. Specifies the file used for the info/header fork. It
must be a file of exactly 256 or 254 bytes in size. The size of
256 is supported for legacy reasons and if used, the first two
bytes will be ignored. This file must contain valid GEOS info
or header data. See the included examples or GEOS programming
documentation for further information.The "[sequential]" section is used when the structure in the info/header data indicates that the file should be a GEOS sequential file. It has the following items:
Data Required. Specifies the file to use for the data fork. If the
file is specified with the extension ".prg", then the first two
bytes of the file will be ignored (they should be set to the
load address for that file type). GEOS files do not use a load
address from the data fork, instead relying on it from the info/
header fork. This has been done to ensure that the widest range
of assemblers/compilers can be supported.The "[VLIR]" section is used when the structure in the info/header data indicates that the file should be a GEOS VLIR file. It has the following items:
<record n> At least one should be specified. The exact name of the item is
the decimal integer representation (with no leading zeros) of
the record to specify. The value should be the file to use for
that reocord's data fork. The same rules apply as per the
"Data" item in the "sequential" section however, if the value is
given as "__VLIR_END" then the record is set as a VLIR End
record and if "__VLIR_EMPTY" is used the record is set as an
Empty VLIR record. The range of records is zero (0) to 126. If
a record value is not specified then the record is set to Empty.
You should see the GEOS programming documentation for further
information.For using GEOSBuild in a chain of programs, the following exit codes can be detected:
0 Success
-1 Help requested
-2 Invalid option specified
-3 Processing error
-4 Unexpected errorYou need FPC and Lazarus to compile GEOSBuild. You can get Lazarus (which includes FPC) for your platform from the following address:
http://www.lazarus-ide.org/At the time of writing, I am using Lazarus version 1.6 but earlier versions should be supported so long as they have FPC version 2.1 or higher.
Several platforms are supported, including Windows, Linux and MacOSX. 32bit or 64bit compilation should be supported, depending upon your requirements.
To compile, open the "GEOSBuild.lpi" file in Lazarus and select Run | Build. You can switch the Build Mode by using the Compiler Project Options under Project | Project Options | Compiler Options and selecting either the Release or Debug Build Mode.
Delphi is presently unsupported due to the extensive use of Lazarus features.
I have included two examples with the GEOSBuild sources. These should help you get started with using GEOSBuild.
I can be contacted for further information regarding this tool at the following address:
mewpokemon {you know what goes here} hotmail {and here} comPlease include the word "GEOSBuild" in the subject line.
Thanks for using GEOSBulid!
Daniel England.