vbcc crosscompiling not compiling examplesources, but works in SAS/C on real hardware

[Firestone]

Hi everyone....

I have spent some time during my vacation trying to learn a bit about Amiga C-coding.

I have set up vbcc on my mac, and it's able to compile code for the Amiga. I have tried simple intuition-examples, and it works fine (able to create a program a new window and a menu etc...).

But as soon as I turn to some of the reaction-examples, I'm not able to compile anymore on vbcc. Tried the exact same code on SAS/C and it compiles fine and the program runs on my A3000.

Here is the tutorial source code for a simple reaction window:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

#include <exec/types.h>
#include <exec/memory.h>

#include <intuition/intuition.h>
#include <intuition/icclass.h>
#include <intuition/classes.h>

#include <clib/reaction_lib_protos.h>
#include <proto/intuition.h>
#include <workbench/startup.h>
#include <workbench/workbench.h>
#include <utility/tagitem.h>
#include <proto/exec.h>
#include <proto/window.h>
#include <proto/layout.h>

#include <classes/window.h>
#include <gadgets/layout.h>
#include <clib/alib_protos.h>

#include <reaction/reaction.h>
#include <reaction/reaction_macros.h>

enum 
  {
  GID_MAIN=0,
  GID_INTEGER1,
  GID_INTEGER2,
  GID_DOWN,
  GID_UP,
  GID_QUIT,
  GID_LAST
  };
  enum 
  {
  WID_MAIN=0,
  WID_LAST
  };
  enum 
  {
  OID_MAIN=0,
  OID_LAST
  };

int main(void) 
  {
  struct Window *windows[WID_LAST];
  struct Library *WindowBase, *LayoutBase;
  struct MsgPort *AppPort;
  Object *objects[OID_LAST];
  ULONG wait, signal, app, done, result;
  UWORD code;
  
  WindowBase = (struct Library *)OpenLibrary("window.class", 44);
  LayoutBase = (struct Library *)OpenLibrary("gadgets/layout.gadget", 44);
  
  if (!WindowBase || !LayoutBase) {
    printf("A library could not be opened!\n");
    return(30);
  }
  else if (AppPort = CreateMsgPort() )
  {
    objects[OID_MAIN] = WindowObject,
    WA_ScreenTitle, "ReAction",
    WA_Title, "ReAction Window Example",
    WA_Activate, TRUE,
    WA_DepthGadget, TRUE,
    WA_DragBar, TRUE,
    WA_CloseGadget, TRUE,
    WA_SizeGadget, TRUE,
    WA_Width, 200,
    WA_Height, 150,
    WINDOW_IconifyGadget, TRUE,
    WINDOW_IconTitle, "Example",
    WINDOW_AppPort, AppPort,
    WINDOW_Position, WPOS_CENTERMOUSE,
    WINDOW_ParentGroup, VLayoutObject,
      LAYOUT_SpaceOuter, TRUE,
      LAYOUT_DeferLayout, TRUE,
      EndGroup, 
    EndWindow;
  
  if (objects[OID_MAIN]) 
  {
     if (windows[WID_MAIN] = (struct Window *)RA_OpenWindow(objects[OID_MAIN]))
     {
      app = (1L << AppPort->mp_SigBit);
      done = FALSE;
      GetAttr(WINDOW_SigMask, objects[OID_MAIN], &signal);
  
      while (!done)
      {
        wait = Wait( signal | SIGBREAKF_CTRL_C | app);
        if (wait & SIGBREAKF_CTRL_C)
        {
          done = TRUE;
        } else {
        while (( result = RA_HandleInput(objects[OID_MAIN], &code)) != WMHI_LASTMSG)
        {
          switch (result & WMHI_CLASSMASK)
          {
            case WMHI_CLOSEWINDOW:
              windows[WID_MAIN]=NULL;
              done=TRUE;
              break;
          }
        } /* End while */
      } /* End if */
    } /* End while */
    DisposeObject(objects[OID_MAIN]);
   } /* End if */
   DeleteMsgPort(AppPort);
  } /* End if */
  
    if (WindowBase) CloseLibrary(WindowBase);
    if (LayoutBase) CloseLibrary(LayoutBase);
    return(0);
   } /* End if */
  } /* End main */

On vbcc on my Mac, this will give the following errors:

# vc +aos68k -I$NDK_INC -L$NDK_LIB -o reactionwindow reactionwindow.c -lamiga -lauto

amiga.lib(WINDOW_GetClass.asm): In "_WINDOW_GetClass":
Error 21: amiga.lib(WINDOW_GetClass.asm) (window+0x4): Reference to undefined symbol _WindowBase.
amiga.lib(LAYOUT_GetClass.asm): In "_LAYOUT_GetClass":
Error 21: amiga.lib(LAYOUT_GetClass.asm) (layout+0x4): Reference to undefined symbol _LayoutBase.
vlink -bamigahunk -x -Bstatic -Cvbcc -nostdlib -mrel $VBCC/targets/m68k-amigaos/lib/startup.o "/var/tmp/tmp.0.o"   -L/Users/firestone/amigadev/NDK39/Include/linker_libs -lamiga -lauto -s -Rshort -L$VBCC/targets/m68k-amigaos/lib -lvc -o reactionwindow failed

Can anyone please explain to me why this compiler is unable to compile this code and why SAS/C is able to?
I know C has envolved, but I have not payed attention to the C-programming world for many years.

I'm using NDK39.
I read this in the ReadMe in the linker_libs directory however:

Currently the "reaction.lib" support library for Reaction is only usable
with SAS/C.

[bebbo]

use global variables for

  struct Library *WindowBase, *LayoutBase;

[phx]

Right. The reaction headers and inlines are there, but it seems that I forgot to add the auto.lib code for their library bases. This will hopefully be fixed with the next release of vbcc including NDK 3.2 support.

In the meantime you could open the Reaction libraries and define their library bases yourself, as bebbo suggested. But in the end the linking will still fail, because the reaction.lib in the NDK 3.9 depends on SAS/C-specific regargs-function names, like

@NewList

. Unfortunately somebody decided to compile the support code in reaction.lib with register arguments...

The problem is reported to the NDK 3.2 team. Also that reaction.lib is completely missing in their last NDK release.