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Re: Utility for converting a binary file to a .CAS file
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 1:17 pm
by zephyr
robcfg wrote:
I'll be adding Tormod's patch and endian support to the next version.
Will you also be adding a
cas to bin function, as suggested by KenH and Rink?
Re: Utility for converting a binary file to a .CAS file
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 2:51 pm
by robcfg
Yep, sure.
I have sort of a hack, on a utility I have to check the block's crcs, that extracts the binary files to disk. So I can clean a bit and add it to the program.
I think that, most probably, I'll have it before the end of the week or earlier next week. Quite busy lately...
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif)
Re: Utility for converting a binary file to a .CAS file
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 9:27 pm
by Rink
You're a good'un Rob.
Re: Utility for converting a binary file to a .CAS file
Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 9:02 am
by KenH
robcfg wrote:Yep, sure.
I have sort of a hack, on a utility I have to check the block's crcs, that extracts the binary files to disk. So I can clean a bit and add it to the program.
I think that, most probably, I'll have it before the end of the week or earlier next week. Quite busy lately...
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif)
Great, thanks.
Would be nice to have an option to convert to either a DragonDos binary or a CoCo DECB binary (useful also for the Dragon with HDBDOS / Drivewire).
Re: Utility for converting a binary file to a .CAS file
Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 11:07 am
by robcfg
Could you explain the diferences between the binary formats?
As far as I know, the .cas files are the same for both machines and what changes is the data you insert there. I mean, if you take a coco binary and run my tool on it, you'll get a .cas file for the CoCo, same way for the dragon.
In case you're extracting the file, there wouldn't be also any difference. You run the tool on a CoCo .cas file, and get your CoCo binary, and if you do it on a Dragon .cas file, you'll get a dragon binary file.
If you'd like to convert the binary files from one format to another on the fly, it's doable, yes, but I think it would fall out of the tool's intended scope.
Anyway, I'd like to hear more about it and see if we can find a nice solution.
Regards,
Rob
@Rink: Thanks mate! You people really make worth the time coding this kind of tools
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
Re: Utility for converting a binary file to a .CAS file
Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 2:26 pm
by KenH
The difference between DragonDos and DECB binaries is in the preamble/postamble (which are similar to the namefile block in CAS files)
DragonDos binary files have a 9 byte header of the following format:
Code: Select all
Offset Value
0x00 0x55
0x01 Filetype
0x02:0x03 Load Address
0x04:0x05 Length
0x06:0x07 Exec Address
0x08 $AA
0x09- Data
Filetype is
0x01 BAS
0x02 BIN
CoCo DECB binaries have a 5 byte preamble and a 5 byte postamble.
Code: Select all
Header:
0x00: 0x00
0x01 : 0x02 length in bytes of following data
0x03 : 0x04 load address of data
Tail:
0x00: 0xff
0x01 : 0x02 0x0000
0x03 : 0x04 EXEC address
Non-Segmented files consist of
[header] [data] [tail]
Source:
http://dragon32.info/info/
Re: Utility for converting a binary file to a .CAS file
Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 7:52 pm
by tormod
KenH wrote:Would be nice to have an option to convert to either a DragonDos binary or a CoCo DECB binary
I wrote tools for DragonDos <-> DECB binary files conversion some months ago. Will find them and post in a new thread. Also wrote something that parsed CAS files and made DECB files out of them - for DLOAD of course
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)