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File extensions on the TI-99/4a


retroclouds

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I’d like to find out what the allowed characters are in filenames on the TI-99/4a, and also which ones are the most commonly use.

In particular I’m thinking mostly of DV80 files like source code in assembly language, C code, etc.

 

I’ve seen following:

  • FILE<0..9, A..Z>
  • FILE<0..9, A..Z>;<extension>

 

Examples:

  • FILE1   FILE2  FILE3  FILE4   ....
  • FILE1;S  FILE2;S  FILE3;S  FILE4;S  ...
  • FILE1;OBJ, FILE2:C

 

 

Reason I’m asking is because of my Stevie editor I’m working on. I have a routine that allows you to increase/decrease file names with a single keypress, e.g. FILE1;C to FILE2;C
That way you can quickly browse through files.
 

What are the most common extensions? Are they supported on all storage devices (TIPI, HDR, nanopeb, ...) ?

Edited by retroclouds
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All characters are allowed except a '.' (dot) and spaces in a TI directory or file name. The '.' character is the device - directory - file name separator.

 

In the beginning ( before 1990 ) I used NAME;SRC NAME;OBJ NAME;LST (sometimes also NAME;TIB and NAME;EXB) but AFAIK there is not really a convention about file extensions.

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Thanks for the replies. So it seems the delimiter character that prefixes a file suffix could be anything (except a “.” dot)

 

For me, the most naturals ones seems to be:

  • ;
  • _
  • /

Actually I like the semicolon as a delimiter (at least for C files and assembly files). 

Also like to keep file extension short. Why waste multiple chars if a single char does nicely, leaves more room for the filename ?

 

 

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I typically forgo the slash, underscore, etc. given the 10 character limit, and pretty much use a single letter to denote the file type.  For example

 

FILES - source files (could be FILE1S FILE2S for multiple in a segment)

FILEO  - object file

FILEL -  link file (for make)

FILE - the program image output

 

There are file 'extensions' such as for TI Artist (_P, _C, _M, _I) and GR graphics (/GR , iirc) etc that are fairly well defined and helpful when browsing.  When Ernie and Marc and I were working on the SID software we chose the dollar sign to filter files. I know there are other types I am forgetting.

 

On the TI,  I periodically 'revert' to using /S and /O, mostly because Funnelweb defaults to it and that's the environment I prefer on the TI system.  That said, the Geneve reserves the slash for parameters which makes command line parsing a miserable affair, so if I think I'll use the files in both systems I stick with my earlier file typing.

 

 

 

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For what it's worth, I use these conventions with my files.

FILE;C    C99 source file.
FILE;H    C99 Header or include file.
FILE;S    Assembly source file.
FILE;I    Included assembly file, using the Ed/Assem COPY directive.
FILE;L    Assembly listing file.
FILE;M    Makefile, loaded with Tom Bentley's CLOAD or my KLOAD programs.
FILE;O    Tagged object file, to be used with CLOAD or KLOAD.
FILE      Text or executable file.

The ten-character limit requires that my file names have max eight characters, which works nicely when I transfer files with Procomm to my Win98 system.

 

Now, trying to fit meaningful labels into six characters in my assembly programs sometimes gets weird...

 

K-R.

 

 

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