An ASM Environment for ECS/OCS development
 

Hey all,

I never did any coding back in the days of owning an a500 and I haven't really been 'in the scene' since it had to go to a better home, but I'm looking to try and code some demos/effects and am wondering how best to go about doing so.

I don't have any hardware so would have to emulate in winuae but would like it to be as painless as possible so how should I go about doing this? I originally thought I'd use amikit, but since it's booting with a 3.1 kickstart I'm guessing that's not really going to help me much, I guess I can't get my head around how I'm actually going to execute the code since if I'm to be 'banging the hardware' then I won't have a debugger type IDE like I'm used to in visual studio.

Is there anywhere that outlines these basic things about getting started? It doesn't have to be anything fancy, I'd just like to get cracking as soon as possible with some code.

Thanks in advance.

WinUAE works fine for developing code - that's how I do all mine. I only use my real Amigas for testing to make sure that code runs the same on the real thing as in the emulator. Mostly the answer to this is yes although sometimes it's no so it is worth getting a real machine at some point but you don't need to worry about that at the start.

As to how to go about it, well just get yourself booted into Workbench and run either Devpac (the assembler I use myself) or AsmOne or some other that you might prefer and start typing code.

Or, as I do, produce the actual source code using a PC text editor (I use UltraEdit) and then perhaps use a cross assembler like VASM to assemble your code or use the emulated Amiga and native assembler to assemble the code.

Make sure you get yourself a copy of the Hardware Reference Manual and maybe a manual on 68000 assembly language if you need one too.

Thanks, very pleased to see you replying pmc. You're one of the reasons I actually considered this a feasible endeavour.

I think I might go with your route and use a nice friendly editor, I wasn't actually aware of VASM but I guess this is going to be a quicker route to the goodies... or something.

When I get myself something running I'll be sure to get it in here, I'll follow in the footsteps of the giant pmc :)

If I can do it, you can. If you need help or advice or whatever just shout or drop me a PM or email :)

Well I've hit my first stumbling block, trying to assemble helloworld.s from the examples dir (Devpack 3.14) is asking for 'Include3.1' which I can't find anywhere - I have found Include3.0 but it doesn't like it (I guess that's obvious)... I have adf of 3.18 from TOSEC too but that also doesn't include any other disks - and locks up when I try 'Open' from the menu. Any ideas?

edit: Just found an old thread pointing to the zone, anyone else reading this - get it from there :)

That is from DevPac 3.50 French version. However, I don't suppose that will have any influence on the asm code. ;)

Thanks, I already had an english devpac from the TOSEC but lacked the includes.

Aside from this, I'm actually having a nightmare trying to use anything... I managed to compile the examples in devpac but for some reason my environment isn't letting me see my windows drives, or rather, I can see them, but when I try to view the files, nothing appears. It's WB 2.05. Any ideas?

edit: guess I should explain that my intention is to do something like pmc - write code in sexy windows editor, assemble/link in devpac/winuae.

Are you talking about Windows drives you have mounted in WinUAE?

If you double-click on one of the drives' icons, select the Window, then open the Title bar 'Window' menu and select 'Show', then 'Show all'. Then default icons will appear for all the files on that drive.

/facepalm

Thanks prowler, I've just come from amikit which didn't require that... now to make pretty pictures...

Hey guys, would anyone be kind enough to put DevPac 3.14 in the zone for me?
I have DevPac 3.18 and got the same issues under WB2.0: it freezes on "Open".
I tried DevPac 3.50 French from the Zone, same issue :(

I use Devpac 3.18 with Workbench / Kickstart 2.04 and with Workbench / Kickstart 3.1 with no issues at all. In the past I also used Devpac 3.14 with no issues either.

You literally open it and it crashes? That doesn't make sense.

Maybe it's something else causing the crash rather than Devpac...?

Well I'm using DevPac 3.18 from TOSEC with latest WinUAE, WB and KS 2.05 using a HDF file, and actually DevPac itself loads fine, it just hangs when going into Project -> Open or Project -> Load. The clock cursor shows up, then hangs, then I get a SOFTWARE FAILURE after a while.

I don't exclude being stupid at all, wouldn't be the first time :)

I just put it up there for you Nostalgeek.

I'm still getting the same issues you talk about with 3.18, I wanted to get playing asap so didn't really try to look into why

Thanks for that arpz...unfortunately now I have another issue with 3.14, I'm probably being stupid and would enjoy some help :)

I copied the whole 3.14 disk to the hard-drive. When I go in Project -> Open in DevPac, the whole WB just flashes dark and nothing else happens (very much like when you double-click a folder that cannot be opened). Same with "Save As.."

Any explanation for that? :confused

This actually happened to me as well, I restarted emulation and it was fine after that. I haven't had it since and I'm not sure what I did/changed to fix it. Hopefully someone else will come and save the day :)

well I must say that's quite a relief you're having the same problems :) but still...didn't manage to make it work yet even after restarting emulation.

I use WinUAE 2.0.1 and WB2 (Kickstart 37.350 & worbench version 37.71) with Devpac 3.18 and never had any issues that weren't caused by me (or rather, my code!).

Whilst I understand this is about Devpac, I would like to say that I used to have problems opening Octamed5 (on my real A600) under WB2.04 (kickstart 37.299) and never really solved that either. I know it worked on one occasion, because I composed one (very short) piece of music.

Is your start-up script doing something that affects Devpac?


Regards,
Lonewolf10

I tried booting a virtual A600 (kick 37.350, wb 37.71), copied devpac 3.14 and devpac 3.18 onto HD and experienced the same issues (flash window in the first case, machine hanging in the latter).

Tried to boot from WB floppies directly, same results.

Then tried to boot the very same virtual machine using DevPac 3.14 floppy (3.18 is not bootable), the About window shows kick 37.350, wb 37.67, everything works.

No problem whatsoever with my A4000 (kick 3.0).

So I suspect the DevPac floppy upon boot sets something needed (s/startup-sequence). Don't have time to investigate further, though.

This is exactly the same for me so I guess this is how it is. Nice work :)