LLX > Neil Parker > Apple II > External Commands for BASIC.SYSTEM

A few external commands for ProDOS/BASIC.SYSTEM

Contents

Here are a few external commands for BASIC.SYSTEM under ProDOS, which I occasionally find useful.

TYPE

BRUN TYPE.CMD: Installs a TYPE command for viewing text files.

Syntax:

 TYPE <pathname> [,S#] [,D#] [,T<type>]
 TYPE ?

The first form displays the text file named by <pathname> (optionally qualfied by a slot and drive number) on the current output device. The file is normally required to be a text file, but any other type of file may be displayed by specifying the T<type> paramater.

The display may be paused by pressing any key on the keyboard (except control-C), and then resumed by pressing any key (except control-C). Pressing control-C cancels the display.

The high bit of each character is forced to "1" for display. Control characters are replaced by ".", except for carriage return (control-M, which performs its normal function).

The second form of the command does nothing, and returns with no error. This is intended for testing whether or not the TYPE command has already been installed: If "TYPE?" produces no error, you don't need to load it again. For example, an Applesoft program might do something like this:

10  ONERR  GOTO 30
20  PRINT  CHR$ (4);"TYPE?": POKE 216, 0: GOTO 40
30  CALL 62248: POKE 216,0: PRINT  CHR$ (4);"BRUN TYPE.CMD"
40  REM Program continues here

The TYPE command uses 256 bytes of memory (located above BASIC.SYSTEM's file buffers).

CHTYPE

BRUN CHTYPE.CMD: Installs a CHTYPE command for changing file types.

Syntax:

 CHTYPE <pathname> [,S#] [,D#] [,T<type>] [,A<auxtype>]
 CHTYPE ?

The first form of the command changes the file type of <pathname> to the type indicated by the T<type> paramater, and/or the auxiliary type as indicated by the A<auxtype> paramater. At least one of T<type> and A<auxtype> must be specified; omitting both of them is a syntax error.

The second form of the command does nothing, and returns with no error. This is intended for testing whether or not the CHTYPE command has already been installed: If "CHTYPE?" produces no error, you don't need to load it again.

The CHTYPE command uses 256 bytes of memory (located above BASIC.SYSTEM's file buffers).

HEXDUMP and HDUMP

BRUN HEXDUMP.CMD: Installs HEXDUMP and HDUMP commands, for displaying the contents of a file in hexadecimal.

Syntax:

 HEXDUMP <pathname> [,S#] [,D#] [,B<offset>]
 HDUMP <pathname> [,S#] [,D#] [,B<offset>]
 HEXDUMP ?
 HDUMP ?

The first and second forms display the contents of <pathname> as hexadecimal bytes, and as ASCII characters. HEXDUMP displays sixteen bytes per line (requiring a display that can handle at least 71 characters per line), and HDUMP displays eight bytes per line (requiring only 39 characters per line on the output device).

The B<offset> paramater can be used to start someplace other than the first byte of the file. The <offset> can be any decimal or hexadecimal number less than the length of the file.

The display may be paused by pressing any key on the keyboard (except control-C), and then resumed by pressing any key (except control-C). Pressing control-C cancels the display.

Each line of output starts with the file position (in hexadecimal), followed by eight or sixteen hexadecimal bytes, followed by eight or sixteen ASCII characters. The ASCII characters all have their high bits forced to "1", and control characters are replaced by ".".

The third and fourth forms of the command do nothing, and return no error. These are intended for testing whether or not HEXUMP is already installed: If "HEXDUMP?" or "HDUMP?" produces no error, you don't need to load it again.

HEXDUMP/HDUMP uses 768 byes of memory (located above BASIC.SYSTEM's file buffers).

Additional Information

License: These commands, and their source code, may be used by anybody for any purpose without restriction. Though I would appreciate an acknowledgement if you include any of them in your own project, it's not required. There is, of course, no warranty.

Source code is for the EDASM assembler. This shouldn't be too hard to translate for other assemblers, but beware that unlike most other assemblers, "#>" means the LOW byte of a constant, and "#<" means the HIGH byte.

I apologize for the lack of comments in the source code.

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LLX > Neil Parker > Apple II > External Commands for BASIC.SYSTEM

Original: June 26, 2016
Modified: April 8, 2018--Added zipped disk image