[Pilot-Unix] prc-tools for FTP

[Donald Jeff Dionne <jeff@RyeHam.ee.ryerson.ca>]

Hi again all.

The beta .prc tools I wrote to the list about yesterday are up for FTP
on ftp://ns1.pfnet.com/pub/PalmOS/prc-tools-0.1.0.tar.gz
Here is the README file from in there.  BTW, as before, this is very alpha.

island:~/prc-tools.0.1.0$ cat README
                        prc-tools Version 0.1.0

This is minimal release notes for the utilities that make up this very
alpha release of prc-tools version 0.1.0.  Also included here is install-prc
so that code can actually be loaded into the device.  Note that there is
no way to generate resources yet, so this is still of limited usefulness.

As version 0.1.0 indicates, this code can actually be used to build a 
working application using GNU binutils.  gcc is not yet supported, but I 
have a test version crt0.S and hello.c that work with gcc.  I decided not 
to release the gcc stuff yet because there are no headers (yet), and because
gcc does not generate proper position independant code (yet).

To use test this stuff out, you need the following...

1. GNU binutils configured --target=m68k-coff --prefix=/usr/local
   installed and working correctly.  The Makefile uses the m68k-coff-gcc
   compiler driver, so unless you want to change it, you will need a
   gcc configured the same.  Installing that stuff should give you a
   libbfd.a and libiberty.a in /usr/local/lib and a bfd.h in 
   /usr/local/include.  If those libs and include file are not installed
   correctly, obj-res will not build.

Do a ...

# make

Iff all goes well, you should get...

obj-res         Takes an m68k-coff executable and produces code and data
                resources to be included in the .prc file.

build-prc       Takes a pile of binary resources and builds a .prc file
                out of them.

install-prc     In the install-prc directory.  Takes a tty port that the
                Pilot is connected to and one or more .prc files and
                installs them into the device.

gnuhello.prc    In the example directory.  This is the .prc file that gets
                built from the code in crt0.S, hello.S and resources.

Do a ...

# install-prc/install-prc /dev/<yourPilotTtyHere> example/gnuhello.prc

And hit the HotSync button.  This will send over gnuhello.prc and the
Pilot will eventually (it takes about 30 secs) ask you to reset as is
normal for HotSync.  In your Applications menu you should see the icon for
"GNU Rules!" (the icon is stolen from Invaders :-) and launching it
will bring up a "Red Alert" "Hello world!" dialog box.

To develop with this stuff is a little harder.  In the other directory is a 
file pilot.inc that contains the constants and structures for PalmOS.  This
came out of Darrin Massena's pila assembler, and can't be used with
gas as such.  However, just about any constants or structs you need can
be found in there.  That stuff is  documented in guide[12].pdf from USR's 
FTP site ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/pa/palm/os_sdk

Other resources.

I hear you say "But wait! where did that "Red Alert" and stuff come from?"
That stuff in what USR calls UI resources.  I borrowed these from the
Hello world program from Darrin's pila assembler.  Until we can build
resources ourselves, this "kit" is of limited usefulness.  I will be
working on this, most of them are simple.  Resources are really just Mac 
resources, so if anyone knows where I can snarf some info on the more 
complex Mac resources (like menus and forms) please send me some mail.

Until next time :-) Happy Hacking.

Jeff Dionne

Jeff@RyeHam.EE.Ryerson.Ca
jeff@maribor.pfnet.com