how can we cross-compile to .cas and .dsk instead of .rom?

Z88dk supports rom, cas, bin (bloadable), msxdos com and dsk, right from the box. It does that via a tool called appmake. It might be possible to use that tool with other compilers' binaries as well.

But I don't use that dsk much, beacuse that dir as disk feature does very good.

thanks, and i'm now seeing https://github.com/dex4er/deb-z88dk/blob/master/src/appmake/... - isn’t that appmake only for converting a binary file into a “bloadable” one? embedding a bloadable into a .cas or .dsk i think is a quite more complex process (and .com is another thing i might be going to try later, not for this case yet)

yes it is quite often useful on lots of other situations, but not exactly for what i’m needing there

Latest version of Disk Manager has a very welcome feature that you can insert files from commandline... It is easy to include it now to your make-script.

For CAS-files I don't know if there is such a handy tool since I don't use those... How ever it is not hard to include CAS-file header to your project... Practically you need to know that in CAS-file the header is replaced with:#1F, #A6, #DE, #BA, #CC, #13, #7D, #74 and this is always stored in address that can be divided by 8.

Now just replace the BIN-file first header-byte (#FE) with: "cassette header", #D0 * 10, "program name" (6 characters), "cassette header"

You can use ie. this template:

	output "EXMPLE.CAS"
macro header
     db #1F, #A6, #DE, #BA, #CC, #13, #7D, #74
endmacro

	header
	db #D0,#D0,#D0,#D0,#D0,#D0,#D0,#D0,#D0,#D0
	db "EXMPLE"
	header
	dw begin,end,start
	
	org #c000
begin:
start:
	ret
end:

But beware: if you're making a bloadable, currently the starting address for that is fixed to 40000 (= &H9C40). You can change the starting org by #pragma output myzorg in C, and it works, but you have to handle the bloading address in BASIC.

For example: i have
#pragma output myzorg=34816 // = 8800
in my main C program, then I use
BLOAD"mybin.msx",-&H1440
to load the binary in &H8800.

In z80asm that would be defc myzorg = 34816

But if you're not using the C runtime, just simply ORG or whatever your compiler uses.

Appmake's msx target could probably use a little love. I think cas format is purely an emulator format and the tape format for a real machine is supposed to go via audio recording of the wav output.

"appmake +msx" shows what you can do for the msx target:

appmake +msx (bin2msx)

(C) 2001 Stefano Bodrato

Adds a file header to enable the program to be loaded using 'bload "file.bin",r

Options:

-h   --help            (bool)    Display this help
-b   --binfile         (string)  Linked binary file
-c   --crt0file        (string)  crt0 file used in linking
-o   --output          (string)  Name of output file
     --fmsx            (bool)    fMSX CAS format
     --audio           (bool)    Create also a WAV file
     --fast            (bool)    Tweak the audio tones to run a bit faster
     --dumb            (bool)    Just convert to WAV a tape file
     --loud            (bool)    Louder audio volume

There's no way to set an org there.

In contrast the spectrum as target can do:

appmake +zx

appmake +zx (bin2tap)

(C) 2000,2003 Dominic Morris & Stefano Bodrato

Generates a .TAP file complete with BASIC header, optional WAV file

Options:

-h   --help            (bool)    Display this help
-b   --binfile         (string)  Linked binary file
-c   --crt0file        (string)  crt0 file used in linking
-o   --output          (string)  Name of output file
     --audio           (bool)    Create also a WAV file
     --ts2068          (bool)    TS2068 BASIC relocation (if possible)
     --turbo           (bool)    Turbo tape loader
     --extreme         (bool)    Extremely fast save (RLE)
     --patchpos        (integer) Turbo tape patch position
     --patchdata       (string)  Turbo tape patch (i.e. cd7fff..)
     --screen          (string)  Title screen file name
     --fast            (bool)    Create a fast loading WAV
     --dumb            (bool)    Just convert to WAV a tape file
     --noloader        (bool)    Don't create the loader block
     --merge           (string)  Merge a custom loader from external TAP file
     --org             (integer) Origin of the binary
     --blockname       (string)  Name of the code block in tap file

where it's possible to set an org.

The reason why this is important is because spectrum tap files include a short basic loader that loads the binary to the right address and executes it.

If the msx version doesn't generate any auto loader then maybe org doesn't apply.

Anyway, the msx appmake target probably needs some attention to produce convenient output formats for current emulators and the real machine. The msx doesn't get as much attention as it should in z88dk because there aren't any msx experts in the z88dk project.

In the classic library, the myzorg thing is only supported by a few target crts. It's really an adhoc thing that was added to some targets as it was seen necessary.

The new library does things much better I think with lots of pragmas to control execution environment at compile time:

http://www.z88dk.org/wiki/doku.php?id=temp:front#crt_configu...

So you would use "#pragma output CRT_ORG_CODE = 30000" to set org address if the default for the target is not what is wanted.

There is quite a bit going on in the classic library now to make it compatible with sdcc but once that's done, I think adopting the crts from the new c lib into the classic c lib as targets are added is probably the way to go. Hopefully the other devs see it the same way :)