Page 1 of 2

Programming for the Dragon

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:11 pm
by robcfg
Hi there!

I was thinking to get into some Dragon programming and I was wondering if anyone ones any nice tutorials and if there is a C cross compiler or similar to compile C code for the Dragon.

I've take a look at the Rainbow IDE, but it seems to be machine code oriented and I find a bit hard to start directly with such low level programming.

Best regards!

Re: Programming for the Dragon

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 11:04 pm
by daftspaniel
Hi Rob,

There's a couple of books in the download section of this site http://archive.worldofdragon.org/archiv ... dir=Books/ which are for 6809 programming. The CoCo Magazine Rainbow is pretty good too http://cocomag.dyndns.org/ (be aware some changes may be required for the Dragon).

It's early days but I am putting together some BASIC resources at http://www.dragon32.com/. Hopefully moving into beginners machine code eventually.

Have fun!

Davy

Re: Programming for the Dragon

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 11:10 pm
by zephyr
GCC6809 is the only C cross compiler that I'm aware of.

http://www.oddchange.com/gcc6809/

Re: Programming for the Dragon

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 11:20 pm
by zephyr
daftspaniel wrote: It's early days but I am putting together some BASIC resources at http://www.dragon32.com/. Hopefully moving into beginners machine code eventually.
Nice! 8-)

BTW, "Mode 24" by Paul Wicks was published in the October 1986 issue of Dragon User, Pages 20 - 24.

Re: Programming for the Dragon

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 11:45 pm
by robcfg
Thank you very much, guys!

I'll be downloading the gcc6809 compiler and I'll give it a try tomorrow.

By the way, is there any resource or example on how to use the D/A to reach the 4 channels of sound in the Dragon?

Re: Programming for the Dragon

Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:17 pm
by zephyr
Not that I'm aware of. The Dragon has only one hardware sound channel (not counting single bit sound) which is accessed via the D/A converter. Music composition programs, and games with multi-channel sound use a software technique involving producing mixed waveforms from the D/A - each 'channel' has a different waveform. The sound still comes from the single hardware channel, but appears to be in more than one voice.

Its not something I've ever experimented with myself, so can't help further with this one.

Regards,
Steve

Re: Programming for the Dragon

Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 7:11 pm
by daftspaniel
zephyr wrote: Nice! 8-)
BTW, "Mode 24" by Paul Wicks was published in the October 1986 issue of Dragon User, Pages 20 - 24.
http://archive.worldofdragon.org/downlo ... r_1086.pdf

Thanks - handy to know where that program. I have the feeling I typed that one in! :D

Davy

Re: Programming for the Dragon

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:06 pm
by robcfg
Hey, Steve!

I have an idea in mind but I'm not sure if it is doable as I'm not that familiar with the Dragon and its machine code, and I'd like to ask you some questions.

Would you be so kind to send an e-mail to my nickname at google's mail service so we can talk about it?

Re: Programming for the Dragon

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 4:04 pm
by zephyr
EDIT: removed

Is this correct?

Re: Programming for the Dragon

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 4:21 pm
by robcfg
That's it! :mrgreen: