Magellan + TIPI (file formats!?)

[ClankyDRobot]

Having finally completed my TI-99/4a + Tipi+FinalGrom setup, I'm attempting to recreate a game I made on the TI back when I was 12 or 13, using Magellan to create the graphics. I'm having trouble, however, transferring the XB files, which appear to be in the wrong format. Can someone help me understand how to translate the Basic or XB files from the magellan into a format an actual TI can read after transferred? They are being seen as dis/var as opposed to program. 

 

 

[+arcadeshopper]

https://github.com/jedimatt42/tipi/wiki/Native-Files

 

let me know if you have any questions about naming files on TIPI after reading that..

Edited May 7, 2022 by arcadeshopper

[+jedimatt42]

I don't have Magellan, so I have questions... 

 

Is the screen.xb file that it saves text? or a binary XB PROGRAM image file? I used it once, I don't believe it produces FIAD PROGRAM image files as output. I've only used it to produce assembly source which was just PC text files. 

 

I think most people load the generated .xb file into their clipboard, and paste into XB via Classic99, and then save that as a PROGRAM image... but as the page Arcadeshopper linked to points out, you can let TIPI convert it to PROGRAM image by just trying to LOAD it with the OLD or RUN command in XB. (dots '.' are slashes '/' on the 4a in filenames, and case matters - https://github.com/jedimatt42/tipi/wiki/File-name-rules)

 

What is the 'screen' file? is that the Magellan project/proprietary data file? 

 

The TI filesystem is complex. So to allow editing source as source in text editors on a 4A, the file type for these special source code extensions is still DISPLAY VARIABLE 80 as that is what our text editors are constrained to. But accessing a PROGRAM image file uses a special operation called LOAD ( as opposed to open/read/write/close ) in the disk controller. Since BASICs cannot load the plain text forms of the code, TIPI tries to encode it into a PROGRAM image temporarily if that LOAD operation is requested. It's a kind of magic, magic, magic... 

 

If you haven't worked with disks on a 4A, you'll learn that it is more complex than any of its contemporaries. 

[+arcadeshopper]

it looks like a dos text file to me when i export XB program to TEST.XB I see it DF80 on the TI and error 20 when I try and OLD it I'll post the error message to the TIPI support topic which is where this should be too

 

Greg

[+jedimatt42]

So the answer was Magellan does not produce a file to be used on the 4A. It produces a proprietary file that includes some xb source code, but the file itself is not xb source code.

 

Maybe this is a Magellan bug, as the difference is just the lack of a line number on the first line. 

[+arcadeshopper]

1 hour ago, jedimatt42 said:

So the answer was Magellan does not produce a file to be used on the 4A. It produces a proprietary file that includes some xb source code, but the file itself is not xb source code.

 

Maybe this is a Magellan bug, as the difference is just the lack of a line number on the first line. 

aaand blank lines

aaand lines out of order

 

[+arcadeshopper]

you could use rxb to type the file in on the TI I'm sure Rich will chime in with the command