This release is really awesome! I'm also really looking forward to playing with symstudio. Thanks for keeping development on SymbOS going guys!
I'm also really interested in the
C API for symbos, does anyone know if that will get updated or have any contact with the creator at all? I tried to contact him a while ago to ask if was planning to release the source but I didn't get a response. The source would be handy because it has a large (58k!) static library you have to link to that would make your programs pretty big I imagine (unless the SDCC linker is very clever), and the "symbosmake" application is windows only (though it might work through WINE).
I would have thought that a C api would be fairly simple, just a thin layer declaring the addresses of the ASM functions and the types of the arguments and returns, and addresses of any static data and their types - not that I am belittling the amount of work needed to actually do that because it would be quite a feat, but in this case being such a thin layer I don't see why it would need to be closed source. I could be wrong I guess, because maybe the C API wraps more than that and e.g. does many symbos API calls for a single C function, or handles bank switching and/or memory management for you.
I wanted to do some ASM programming on Symbos but couldn't immediately understand how the memory layout/management worked... some tutorials on writing a simple symbos app in ASM would be really handy. Mind you, I find memory management on 8 bits a little tricky anyway, I work daily with x86 (32/64 bit) ASM and in previous jobs have written device drivers, but I'm used to a completely flat memory layout and bank switching makes my brain hurt
. I think if I could dedicate a few days to it I would manage but time is difficult to come by!Anyway, a C API would be a really great thing to have to cater to all levels of programming - ASM for super low level, C for mid to low level, and SymStudio for high level, but I don't want to be too greedy when I am already spoiled with a choice of ASM and symstudio! Cheers