Utility for converting a binary file to a .CAS file

[zephyr]

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?

[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...

[Rink]

You're a good'un Rob.

[KenH]

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...

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).

[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

[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/

[tormod]

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