newbie seeks assistance!

[+batari]

'dasm' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

 

This means you're not in the right directory when trying to run dasm. Based on your screenshot, to get into the right directory, run the command prompt, then type:

 

E:

 

cddodgeba~1dasmdasm22010dasmbindos

 

then you can try your dasm commands.

[MayDay]

The error message (for all input) is: 'dasm' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

[MayDay]

sorry, I didn't see batari's message before my last post- I am out of town for the weekend, will try it when I get back. I thought that too, and put another copy directly on the C drive as well, but still get the same message. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[MayDay]

I have it all working now... thanks to vdub bobby and nukey shay for their patient help!

[trigun]

wait, im confused, is dasm a emulator/rom, or a programming program?

[kisrael]

wait, im confused, is dasm a emulator/rom, or a programming program?

846753[/snapback]

dasm is a "programming program". More specifically, it is an "assembler", which is kind of like a compiler, taking in source code (a program in text form) and making it into a ROM of 1s and 0s.

 

You got a long way to go, guy....people ain't going to take you seriously 'til you show you've done the legwork. Check out the atari age 2600 programming page, at least read through most of the stuff there...even if you hope to get someone else to do your programming you should have some better idea of what you're up against.

[RedBeard]

Hi, y'all. First things first (oh, thats why they go there...), let me say that you all are great! This is the most fun I've had on the web since, uh, e-bay at 56k speed!

 

I, like MayDay Jason, am a newbie. I've read the 2600 101 over at alienbill_dot_com and have started reading Atari Roots at atariarchives_dot_org. So I'm raring to go. Lets just say that many of us have had a dream for 20-some years; making our own video game. Any of y'all still have graph paper of sprites and backgrounds for your imaginary game? (Oh, er, me neither, no geek am I...)

 

Alas, I have problems. (Hey, lots of them, but I'll limit them to the topic at hand :^) ...) I, too am having difficulties with DASM etc. I may be at an additional disadvantage also, as I run OSX on a mac laptop, so I must be careful about d/l'ing tools (non Win / non Lin etc.)

 

I found mactari, but I need the kind of handholding that alienbill wrote, so mactari just confuses me. I downloaded tools, put them into certain folders etc., but still just see a bunch of text files. At this point, I'd settle for fiddling with the tools, but I can't even do that.

 

I think I'll keep a log of these, like alienbill. I can't be the only OSX using Atarian around...

 

Ideas? Thanks!

 

-C.F.

[+batari]

Alas, I have problems.  (Hey, lots of them, but I'll limit them to the topic at hand :^) ...)  I, too am having difficulties with DASM etc.  I may be at an additional disadvantage also, as I run OSX on a mac laptop, so I must be careful about d/l'ing tools (non Win / non Lin etc.)

 

I found mactari, but I need the kind of handholding that alienbill wrote, so mactari just confuses me.  I downloaded tools, put them into certain folders etc., but still just see a bunch of text files.  At this point, I'd settle for fiddling with the tools, but I can't even do that.

861216[/snapback]

I use OSX as well and I know several others here do too. Note that all of the tools are command-line only, so you must run the Terminal program to use them. What is the nature of the problem, if not this?

 

Note that you can use all of the DOS-based tools on your Mac as well, via DOSBox (which is a free DOS emulator.) I use DOSBox just about every day.

[RedBeard]

Wow! Thanks already, batari!

 

I assume you mean the regular old terminal of OSX? BTW, why aren't these tools GUI yet? Is there something technical? Or just that nobody has put a nice front end on it yet? I will try using the terminal and see what I can make of it...looks like Jason-MayDay had a few problems, too.

 

I also thought that I might add these, just so we're a bit clearer.

~My Prog. Exp: some BASIC, PASCAL, FORTRAN, C++. I never got too far into these, just far enough to see how much more there is to see

~My Computer: OSX mac, mostly using my iBook so I can sit my big butt on the couch and computrify at leisure...still own several ATARI products, most of them are buried hither and yon around the house/garage...I do have working versions of STella and Atari800macX to try out my code and such. I just can't wait to make a 'Hello, World' program for the VCS!

 

Gotta go and try out the info, now. Catcha' later, y'all.

-C.F.

[+batari]

Wow!  Thanks already, batari!

 

I assume you mean the regular old terminal of OSX?  BTW, why aren't these tools GUI yet?  Is there something technical?  Or just that nobody has put a nice front end on it yet?  I will try using the terminal and see what I can make of it...looks like Jason-MayDay had a few problems, too.

 

I also thought that I might add these, just so we're a bit clearer.

~My Prog. Exp:  some BASIC, PASCAL, FORTRAN, C++.  I never got too far into these, just far enough to see how much more there is to see

~My Computer:  OSX mac, mostly using my iBook so I can sit my big butt on the couch and computrify at leisure...still own several ATARI products, most of them are buried hither and yon around the house/garage...I do have working versions of STella and Atari800macX to try out my code and such.  I just can't wait to make a 'Hello, World' program for the VCS!

861253[/snapback]

Yep, just the regular terminal. There's no technical reason why the tools aren't GUI. It's probably because the extra work required to wrap a GUI around the tools wouldn't make them work any better, it would just make them easier to use. However, it might be possible to integrate some of the existing tools with Apple's Xcode IDE so they are essentially GUI-based, like Andrew here has done in Windows with Microsoft tools. I've never tried this with Xcode, but I might someday.

 

I'd recommend reading Andrew's tutorials, too, they are great, and include code examples that should get you started. I don't know what a "hello world" for the 2600 would equate to, maybe drawing a static playfield? That was the first program I made, anyway.

[RedBeard]

Hey, yeah, a playfield that compiles (er, assembles?) and shows up properly...sounds good. Then add a smiley or a fuji. Then make it move via joystick. That sort of thing sounds perfect. Come to think of it, I will probably just use the examples straight from 2600 101, just like I used to do with BASIC books. Also, I found another tutorial here at AtariAge, kind of uses the message boards, but tells 'how to' one message at a time.

 

So much to do, so little time. Maybe I'll quit my job and become a full time 2600 programmer! :^)

 

Maybe not, that's probably gone to India anyway. Curses! Foiled Again!

 

BTW, I haven't heard of that DOS emulator. I tried one once, BOCHS or something, but it was pretty slow and I didn't really need one at the time. I'm testing out some Atari ST emu's. also. I think I will try that one out too.

 

-Hey, this computer thing might just catch on,

-C.F.

 

P.S. I got a cool avatar now too. Wow this is fun. (Shouldn't I be mowing the lawn or something?)

[RedBeard]

Okay, y'all, I'm dead in the water again.

What is this mpw worksheet?

 

After puting files into certain folders etc. I tried to continue the tutorial and found this:

"...just open your MPW worksheet and you're ready to go. Make sure your code is in the same directory as your MPW shell. Then, in the worksheet, type: dasm source.s -f3 -osource.bin Where "source.s" is equal to the name of..."

 

I had a file to test, opened up my terminal, cd 'ed to the right area and typed

dasm TESTFILE.s -f3 -TESTFILE.bin

 

I got the error message "dasm: Command not found."

 

So as far as I can tell, *nix (osx, mac) doesn't like dasm as a command. So aftrer rereading, I am left wondering what is this worksheet?

 

-All this and I'm not even programming yet, let alone debugging, oy,

-C.F.

[+batari]

Okay, y'all, I'm dead in the water again.

What is this mpw worksheet?

 

After puting files into certain folders etc. I tried to continue the tutorial and found this:

"...just open your MPW worksheet and you're ready to go.  Make sure your code is in the same directory as your MPW shell.  Then, in the worksheet, type: dasm source.s -f3 -osource.bin Where "source.s" is equal to the name of..."

 

I had a file to test, opened up my terminal, cd 'ed to the right area and typed

dasm TESTFILE.s -f3 -TESTFILE.bin

 

I got the error message "dasm: Command not found."

 

So as far as I can tell, *nix (osx, mac) doesn't like dasm as a command.  So aftrer rereading, I am left wondering what is this worksheet?

 

-All this and I'm not even programming yet, let alone debugging, oy,

-C.F.

861353[/snapback]

I have no idea what MPW is supposed to mean, but I do know why dasm won't run. First, you need the -o at the output file, and in MacOSX, you need a ./ before the command, as:

 

./dasm TESTFILE.s -f3 -oTESTFILE.bin

[RedBeard]

Batari, wow are you good!

 

Okay, so OSX wants that. It appears to work until:

I don't have permission ... so I do a su /. dasm testfile -f3 -otestfile.bin

then OSX asks for the pasword. I type it and it refuses me every time. I even double checked at the system prefs. department and my password is what I thought.

 

Would it be any easier to try out the DOSBOX you spoke of? Or do you know why 10.28 is behaving so strangely?

 

I feel like I'm way off topic here, folks. Forgive me. I knew OSX would be extra headaches

 

-Chris

 

P.S. Batari, I owe you at least one drink (or something) by now, I sure of it.

[+batari]

Batari, wow are you good!

 

Okay, so OSX wants that.  It appears to work until:

I don't have permission ... so I do a su /. dasm testfile -f3 -otestfile.bin

then OSX asks for the pasword.  I type it and it refuses me every time.  I even double checked at the system prefs. department and my password is what I thought.

 

Would it be any easier to try out the DOSBOX you spoke of?  Or do you know why 10.28 is behaving so strangely?

 

I feel like I'm way off topic here, folks.  Forgive me.  I knew OSX would be extra headaches 

 

-Chris

 

P.S.  Batari, I owe you at least one drink (or something) by now, I sure of it.

861389[/snapback]

You probably just need to change the permissions on dasm to allow execution. type:

 

chmod +x dasm

 

and then try running it again. DOSBox is pretty cool too, but whether it's fast or not depends on your perspective. On my iBook G4 it runs about as fast as an average 486... Fast enough to play Doom!

[RedBeard]

You probably just need to change the permissions on dasm to allow execution. type:

 

chmod +x dasm

 

Darnit! I knew I should have payed attention in Intro To Unix class! :^)

 

-C.F.

 

re: speed of emulation: that would be fast enough. I'm not a snob or purist by any stretch of the imagination. My notebook is only a G3, though. I guess the question is, will it save me any time in programming and/or open up so many more options that I should check it out...

[+batari]

Darnit!  I knew I should have payed attention in Intro To Unix class!  :^)

 

-C.F.

 

re: speed of emulation: that would be fast enough.  I'm not a snob or purist by any stretch of the imagination.  My notebook is only  a G3, though.  I guess the question is, will it save me any time in programming and/or open up so many more options that I should check it out...

861658[/snapback]

Most of the command-line tools do have OSX ports, but I have found that the OSX version of distella often fails so I use the DOS port instead. For programming, I find that distella is useful for counting your cycles for you until you memorize how many each instruction takes.

Edited May 25, 2005 by batari

[Emehr]

What is this mpw worksheet?

If you're running Mac OS Classic, MPW (Macintosh Programmer's Workshop) is the app you'd use to run DASM. The "Worksheet" is just the title of the main window where you type your commands (i.e. 'dasm source.asm -f...').

 

Check out my 2600 Programming with Mac OS Classic site for more info (just updated, actually ).

 

- Jason

[RedBeard]

Batari & Jason, thank you for your help and patience. I really appreciate it.

 

Here's the latest: This thing is killing me.

 

I try not to run OS 9 very much, though I use it at work. If I can't resolve this, then maybe...

 

I've tried the chmod, no error messages, but still shows -rw-r--r- and won't let me run it.

I tried to su /. dasm fred.asm -f3 -oethel.bin, terminal asks me for the password then rejects me every time. I've gone through the system and changed the password then tried it. I've logged in as root (dangerous, I know...) and tried to run the program. REJECTION! EVERY TIME!

 

I'm about to throw this computer at the wall!

 

I think I'm ready to get going, reading the tutorials, looking around the house for old Atari books, printing out the tv scan lines diagram, all that stuph. And I can't even get dasm to work! Aaugh

 

-help, please, *fists clenched, head down*

-C.F.

[+batari]

Batari & Jason, thank you for your help and patience.  I really appreciate it.

 

Here's the latest:  This thing is killing me.

 

I try not to run OS 9 very much, though I use it at work.  If I can't resolve this, then maybe...

 

I've tried the chmod, no error messages, but still shows -rw-r--r- and won't let me run it.

I tried to su /. dasm fred.asm -f3 -oethel.bin, terminal asks me for the password then rejects me every time.  I've gone through the system and changed the password then tried it.  I've logged in as root (dangerous, I know...) and tried to run the program.  REJECTION!  EVERY TIME!

 

I'm about to throw this computer at the wall!

 

I think I'm ready to get going, reading the tutorials, looking around the house for old Atari books, printing out the tv scan lines diagram, all that stuph.  And I can't even get dasm to work!  Aaugh

 

-help, please, *fists clenched, head down*

-C.F.

861964[/snapback]

The account you are using should be in the Admin group. If not, make it so in System Preferences->Accounts. The checkbox in the security tab (allow users to administer this computer) should be checked, and you should set a master password if you haven't done so already.

 

The su command won't work because you need to do some special steps to enable the superuser. If you still can't get the above to work, this page explains how to enable root logins:

 

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106290

[RedBeard]

Hey, y'all, I think I'm on to something...I am testing that MPW through Classic Interface.

 

I think I actually got something to compile. Or assemble?

 

-I'll keep you posted,

-C.F.

 

WHOOPEEEE!

[carlsson]

If anyone is interested, MagerValp made a dasm-mode for Emacs a couple of years ago, and I added some interesting extentions to launch the assembler, set verbosity etc from inside the editor. Maybe there are other hacks or modes that does this, but I find it very efficient - halfway to an integrated development kit with source code, assembler launch and assembly output in one program. Only need a 6502 simulator and debugging mode too.

[RedBeard]

Well, if it isn't one thing it's another. I think I've got the DASM working,

but the macro.h file isn't working. I have several copies in floating in

various folders just in case. Still everthing that I use from it (CLEAN_

START from the coding examples for 2600 beginners, in particular)

errors out. I've gone to Kisrael's place and d/l'ed a copy (it is just a

text file, right?), but it doesn't work.

 

One thing I was wondering is can I just put all the parts into one giant

folder? Or does each thing specifically look for the folder in which I

d/l'ed it the first time? I'm getting folder / file clutter.

 

-C.F.

 

P.S. If I ;comment it out, sure enough it compiles and runs...

Edited May 28, 2005 by RedBeard

[vdub_bobby]

Well, if it isn't one thing it's another.  I think I've got the DASM working,

but the macro.h file isn't working.  I have several copies in floating in

various folders just in case.  Still everthing that I use from it (CLEAN_

START from the coding examples for 2600 beginners, in particular)

errors out.  I've gone to Kisrael's place and d/l'ed a copy (it is just a

text file, right?), but it doesn't work.

 

One thing I was wondering is can I just put all the parts into one giant

folder?  Or does each thing specifically look for the folder in which I

d/l'ed it the first time?  I'm getting folder / file clutter.

 

-C.F.

 

P.S.  If I ;comment it out, sure enough it compiles and runs...

863180[/snapback]

 

What errors are you getting? Can dasm not find the whole file, or do you get errors when you try to use specific macros from it.

 

And you should be able to put everything in the same folder, I would think. That's how I have things set up (on a Windows box, though).

[mactari]

Alas, I have problems. (Hey, lots of them, but I'll limit them to the topic at hand :^) ...) I, too am having difficulties with DASM etc. I may be at an additional disadvantage also, as I run OSX on a mac laptop, so I must be careful about d/l'ing tools (non Win / non Lin etc.)

 

I found mactari, but I need the kind of handholding that alienbill wrote, so mactari just confuses me. I downloaded tools, put them into certain folders etc., but still just see a bunch of text files. At this point, I'd settle for fiddling with the tools, but I can't even do that.

 

Okay, realizing I'm nearly two years late to this party, the Mactari Tools Page (may it nearly rest in peace), is only for Classic Mac users using OS 9 or below. So yeah, unless you've got Classic installed, downloading MPW and friends is going to do an OS X user diddly squat.

 

Now that said, at least the Classic Mac tools have a GUI for DAsm! (Though I can't take credit for it...)

http://rufwork.com/mactari/dasmtut.html (down near the bottom there's a screenshot; very basic, but fairly useful)

 

At some point I really should fix those pages up. Many of them are unchanged since 1998, just a few months after I was using RAsm and ResEditing the Activision Action Pack for my emulator. (Walking uphill to school in the snow without shoes, too, I'll wager.)