CoCoSDC Commander

CoCoSDC Commander is Cross-Platform Tool (DECB, OS-9, FLEX, FUZIX) for Commanding your CoCoSDC. The same program runs on all 4 major Operating Systems on the Tandy/TRS-80 Color Computer.

Download the latest version of the program from the Releases page:

Disk Extended Color Basic: sdccmdr-decb.dsk
OS-9/NitrOS-9: sdccmdr-os9.DSK
Color FLEX: FLSDCCMDR.SDF
FUZIX: See instructions below.

One Program? Four Operating Systems?

Isn't that Impossible?

Well, no it is not. Actually it's quite simple and elegant.

1. It's Written in C

CoCoSDC Commander is written in K&R Style C. We have compilers for all four Operating Systems which can compile this "traditional" style of C:

DECB: CMOC
OS-/NitrOS-9: DCC (Deek's C Compiler)
FLEX: McCosh "C" Compiler
FUZIX: gcc6809 cross compiler

2. It's a "terminal" Application

When I say this is a "terminal" application, the base program code does not make any assupmtions about the screen and keybaord. Instead of writing directly into the VDG memory the program simply sends "terminal control codes" such as Clear Screen, Home Cursor, Move Cursor to Y,X. This allows the program to be easily customized for each Operating System. The base program code calls into a "screen" library, which is where this customization is done.

3. Careful use of `#ifdef`

There are some differences in the C compilers between each Operating System. The way to handle that is to use #ifdef in C. There are #defines for each operating asystem: DECB, FLEX and OS9 and code that needs to be different for each OS is contained in an #ifdef block. The main sdccmdr.c file is almost 100% platform independent and has very few #ifdef blocks. Most of the differences are different header files required to compile in the different environments and of course the screen modules are different for each OS as well.

4. Modular Programming Concepts

CoCoSDC Commander was envisoned from the beginning to be multi-platform. So to make that happen the software was designed in a modular fashion. There are three main modules:

Main Program
CoCoSDC Communication
Screen Control

Because I have written CoCoSDC Commander in C the Main Program and the SDC Modules are almost identical for all 4 operating systems. Most of the magic happens in the Screen Control Module. The screen module provides a consistent API for Keyboard Input and Screen Output to the main part of the program. All of the input and output differences between the operating systems is contained in this module. The only thing that needs to be done to build the different versions is to compile in the correct module for the correct operating system.

Building for DECB

make DECB=1

This produces sdccmdr.dsk containing SDCCMDR.BIN

Building for OS9

make sdccmdr-os9.DSK
make update-os9

This copies the source code into a disk image sdccmdr-os9.DSK. Attach this disk to a NitrOS-9 system and type make to build the binary.

Building for FLEX

The SDCFLEX.DSK disk image contains the FLEX source and can be built as follows:

ASN W=<DRIVE>
CC SDCCMDR.C +DFLEX=1 +R
CC LIBSDC.C +DFLEX=1 +R
CC COMMSDC.C +DFLEX=1 +R
CC STRING.C +DFLEX=1 +R
CC SCREEN.C +DFLEX=1 +R
CC SDCCMDR.R LIBSDC.R COMMSDC.R STRING.R SCREEN.R +DFLEX=1 +F=<DRIVE>.SDCCMDR.CMD

Building for FUZIX

Download and Build preparation steps

cd ${FUZIX_ROOT}/Applications
git clone https://github.com/n6il/cocosdc-commander.git sdccmdr
cd sdccmdr/fuzix
./install.sh

Rebuild `fuzixfs.dsk` to include `sdccmdr`

cd ${FUZIX_ROOT}/Kernel/platform-coco3
./rebuild

Standalone build

cd ${FUZIX_ROOT}/Applications/sdccmdr
make FUZIX_ROOT=${FUZIX_ROOT} USERCPU=6809 -f Makefile.6809

n6il/cocosdc-commander