SectorZap 1.2

[glurk]

Ok, here's something new.  But old to me.  It's a sector editor (single density) full ASM source code, that I wrote long ago, maybe in '84 or so.  I wrote it because I didn't have a good one I liked, plus I submitted it to either Analog or Antic magazine, maybe both, and they both said they already had something similar in the works.

 

It's almost totally CIO call based.  I cleaned up the original MAC/65 code and it compiles cleanly with ATASM.  Was written before XE/XL existed, but I think it should work on both.  I also prettied up the code and it displays nicely formatted in Notepad++.

 

I don't know if such a thing has a lot of practical use in this day and age, but I still use it sometimes.  So I post it in case someone finds it useful.  It could be expanded to do more, if someone were ambitious enough.  Anyway, I don't know of any other such utility with full source code available, but maybe there is, who knows.  Here it is anyways.

 

SECTZAP.M65

[TGB1718]

Nice little utility, clean assembly in MAC/65 (once I got rid of the tabs  ) copy paste into Altirra got messed up with them in.

 

Only issue I found was if you print a sector, it only works for the first time, after that you get ERROR 81

 

Easy fix, just do a close of the channel before you open it.

 

Would have used this back in the day, easier to load than Disk Wizard and does most of what I would have wanted. ? 

[glurk]

TGB1718-  Thanks.  I never ran into that printer issue myself.  Can you let me know if this one fixes it?  (If you have time to check)

SECTZAP.M65

 

[TGB1718]

25 minutes ago, glurk said:

TGB1718-  Thanks.  I never ran into that printer issue myself.  Can you let me know if this one fixes it?  (If you have time to check)

Yes that fixes it, this is what I did, sort of similar:- not sure if you remembered you don't need to specify a device

to close a channel, so safer way is to just close it, then provide the parameters to open it.

 

8175 POPEN LDX #$70
8176     LDA #CLOSE
8177     STA ICCOM,X
8178     JSR CIOV
8179     LDX #$70
8180     LDA #3
8185     STA ICCOM,X
8190     LDA # <PNAME
8195     STA ICBAL,X
8200     LDA # >PNAME
8205     STA ICBAH,X
8210     LDA #0
8215     STA ICBLL+1,X
8220     STA ICAX1+1,X
8225     LDA #1
8230     STA ICBLL,X
8235     LDA #8
8240     STA ICAX1,X
8245     JMP CIOV

[+bhall408]

On 6/22/2021 at 1:01 AM, glurk said:

Ok, here's something new.  But old to me.  It's a sector editor (single density) full ASM source code, that I wrote long ago, maybe in '84 or so. 

Nice!

 

Can you post some screen shots?

On 6/22/2021 at 1:01 AM, glurk said:

I wrote it because I didn't have a good one I liked, plus I submitted it to either Analog or Antic magazine, maybe both, and they both said they already had something similar in the works

Wouldn't be the first! I have a few of my own that I had submitted and they came back with feature requests/etc, and then I never got around to sending them a v2

 

Since the originals were done with AMAC, I went with ca65 for the modern cross-compiler and have been quite happy with that.

[TGB1718]

Short video of it working, really straightforward, I do like it. You don't need to keep going to the menu

that's just me not remembering , with time, I'm sure you never use the menu option

 

Edited June 23, 2021 by TGB1718

[glurk]

I keep messing around with this old program, I can't help myself, it's fun.  It was the first "major" program I ever wrote in pure 6502 ASM.

 

So here's a 1.3 version!  I didn't actually change much, or add any new features, but it always had some speed issues that bugged me.  So I've optimized the heck out of it, and now it's 2X (maybe 3X) faster than it was.  I have a Percom drive I really like, but it's not real fast, but I bet this program should be super-zippy on a "speedy" drive of some kind...  But I don't have one.  Anyway, newer and faster, and I don't "think" I added any bugs, LOL.

 

SECTZAP.M65

[ascrnet]

First of all thank you very much for sharing the source of your program, secondly thank you for the order and comments on the code. ?

 

I took the liberty to move it to MADS since years ago I stopped using the MAC/65 and for me it is more practical to assemble directly from the PC. ?

 

I share the modified source file and the executable created from MADS.?

Sector-Zap 1.3.zip

[glurk]

Thanks.  I actually compile it on the PC also, and it already compiles fine with the ATASM assembler.  I don't really like MADS too much.

 

And actually, I have a newer version / update I'm working on, but it's not done yet.  This one is just a spare time hobby project for me now.  I have so far added a VTOC display, and a boot sector analyzer to the new one.

 

I still use this program (and real disks), just recently I managed to partially read some 5 1/4" TRS-80 disks with this program and my Percom drive.

[TGB1718]

On 7/1/2021 at 10:37 AM, glurk said:

So here's a 1.3 version! 

I only just noticed this, downloaded, but it won't load into MAC65, had a look at the file, unfortunately it has some strange

attributes, line ends $0D,$0A (cr/lf), easy to replace with $9B, but there are many $09 values scattered throughout the file,

I just removed these, then I noticed no line numbers, easy fix, enter with ,A in MAC65.

 

It assembles ok now.

 

Just wondering what you used the edit this file that the $09 values are in there. 

 

I've attached the files, one is the MAC65 format, the other Atari Text Format for the ENTER command

SECTZAP2.M65 SECTZAP2.ASM

[glurk]

Haha, I'm just the world's least organized programmer.  I think I sometimes edited it in Notepad++, sometimes in Windows Wordpad, and sometimes in Windows Notepad.  So it probably has a mishmash of tabs, LF's, CR's and no telling what in there.  As long as ATASM compiles it, I don't even think about it.

 

And now I have a WIP 1.5 version, and I completely re-wrote large sections of it,  and broke it out into multiple source files, because it was getting too big for me to find anything in there.   You don't even want to see that source code, and I doubt that it would compile with MAC/65 anymore, since (i think) I used some features that are specific to ATASM - which is an assembler I do like.

 

Once it get it all put together, I was planning to make it into an 8K cartridge format.  It doesn't need or use DOS at all, anyway, and I think a super fast loading, cart-based disk utility would be handy.  I still like using old floppy drives, I'm just from that era, I guess.  Here's two new screens:

 

 

[TGB1718]

1 hour ago, glurk said:

I think I sometimes edited it in Notepad++, sometimes in Windows Wordpad, and sometimes in Windows Notepad.

I assumed it was something like that, no real problem, "Hex Editor Neo" make short work of fixing it.

 

1 hour ago, glurk said:

I used some features that are specific to ATASM - which is an assembler I do like.

I'm still pretty old school, I never managed to get the PC assemblers to work (other than ca65), most of what I do is with MAC65.

 

Thank you for continuing to update this, I do already use it as it's so simple to use ?

[ascrnet]

8 hours ago, glurk said:

Thanks.  I actually compile it on the PC also, and it already compiles fine with the ATASM assembler.  I don't really like MADS too much.

No problem, I am the other way around, I used ATASM years ago and I ran into some problems, I sent them to the developer and I never got an answer, besides the project is outdated years ago. The same worked in another assembler that was MADS and the good thing that here in atariage is the developer and many people who have more experience that can help to get out of doubts.?

 

We are waiting for the next version of your application, I like that it does not use DOS.?

 

[TGB1718]

I decided to give ATASM another try, it's not quite MAC/65 compatible (but it does say that) surprised it has a

warning on the sample program.

I exported a complex MAC/65 project, created a new project in Sublime Text 3

as you can set it up to do the build, needed a few tweaks in the code, but managed to do a full build.

 

Not as bad as I thought, might use this in future as I really like the option to save the binary to a .ATR image.

[+mytek]

@glurk I'm working on an idea for a programmer's version of the 576NUC+ ROM, where slot 3 will be Assembler/Editor and perhaps slot 4 will be SectorZap (with your permission). How long before you anticipate having a finalized 8K Cart image available for download?

 

I still have some tweaking of the 576NUC+ firmware to allow full FujiNet compatibility with using what is normally the two built-in game slots for language slots. But when I get that done I'll be ready to test out SectorZap as the 4th slot possibility. It's looking very nice so far ?

[glurk]

Well, I <AM> still actively working on it, and it's really meant to BE a programmer's tool.  And I use it myself, which is why I wrote it to begin with, LOL.  I could make it into a cart at any time, but I have been putting that off so far, because I'm still adding stuff!!

 

So far it now also reads/displays the VTOC, does a short Boot Sector analysis that I was planning to expand, and I just added a feature that reads/displays the Percom block.  I could make it write one also, it wouldn't be hard.  And it's all in fairly tight, optimized assembly.  It's just over 5K, so I still have 3K more left in which to add even more.

 

I recently re-wrote large parts of it, and have been breaking it out into sections to be more manageable, it was getting to be too big for me to keep track of everything.  It's not the world's cleanest-written code, but I think it's mostly bug-free.  I don't like to ever release anything that I know has bugs in it.

 

With that all said, it's just my hobby project, and it's based on the original code from like 1983 or something.  I know a lot more now than I did then, so I'm trying to modernize it too.  If someone wanted to help, with coding, or new ideas/features to add, whatever, that would be welcome as well.  It's free for anyone to use, that was always my plan, I'm a supporter of open source.

 

I have no deadline, and was not planning to set one, I just add stuff as I think of it.  I'm willing to share the code at any time, but it's a bit of a mess right now!!  I code stuff fast and then clean up later, I've always coded like that.  I was honestly thinking of calling it "done" when I managed to put as much in the 8K as I can get in there, haha!!

 

If you want the current code, just ask.  I'm really very easy-going on this stuff, it's just a fun hobby for me.  Let me know!

 

Here's a working XEX of 1.5, incomplete and may still have bugs:

SECTZAP.xex

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by glurk
add xex

[TGB1718]

I think one enhancement that's needed is support for DD disks, would obviously need to display 1/2 of the sector

then an option to display the other 1/2.

 

Would like a copy of the current source code please

[glurk]

I'll just post it, but pretty sure it will compile only with ATASM now, and it's unfinished.  But it does assemble and work.

SECTZAP.zip

 

I think I'm not going to do DD (or enhanced), it would require starting all over, too much hard-coded stuff in there.  Plus I don't see a clean way to do it, because a whole sector should be on-screen at one time, IMO.  This was written way back when SD was basically it, and almost all commercial software ever released was SD anyways...

 

This is for fun, anyways.  My fun.  The moment it turns into a "job" or work, I'll do something else.  I'm still open to ideas, but it's going to be single density only... 

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by glurk

[ivop]

Thanks for sharing the source!

 

[+mytek]

22 hours ago, glurk said:

I have no deadline, and was not planning to set one, I just add stuff as I think of it. 

That's not a problem for me, since I'm in no rush. Do whatever you feel you need to do, and when it's complete, I would love to get an 8K cart image.

 

9 hours ago, glurk said:

This is for fun, anyways.  My fun.  The moment it turns into a "job" or work, I'll do something else.  I'm still open to ideas, but it's going to be single density only... 

This is how I feel about my projects as well.

 

[+Nezgar]

On 7/21/2021 at 10:48 PM, glurk said:

I still use this program (and real disks), just recently I managed to partially read some 5 1/4" TRS-80 disks with this program and my Percom drive.

I tried reading some TRS-80 disks a year or so ago and I recall the disks would read in DD - but of course the first 3 sectors would be truncated to 128 bytes, and all data was inverted. The EDDY sector editor had an invert option, which revealed readable text / filenames in some cases.

 

In the early days of Atari, many developers/distributors used TRS-80's for disk duplication, and creating non-standard formats as copy protection, since stock Atari drives couldn't reproduce them.